Ved didn't touch the file immediately.
He just looked at it.
Five years of questions… possibly sitting inside a thin stack of papers.
Across the desk, Kashvi watched him calmly.
"You came looking for truth," she said. "Start there."
Ved finally picked up the file.
The first page held a ballistic report.
His eyes moved quickly across the lines.
Two bullet trajectories.
Two angles.
Two shooters.
He flipped to the next page.
Security camera stills from the wedding night.
Blurry figures near the service entrance of the venue.
Another page.
A financial transaction.
Large transfer.
An offshore account.
Ved's expression slowly changed.
"This isn't from my investigation," he said quietly.
"No," Kashvi replied. "It's from mine."
Ved looked up sharply.
"You've been investigating your own murder?"
Kashvi didn't react to the sarcasm.
"I've been investigating who tried to finish it."
Ved leaned back slightly.
"And you never thought to share this?"
Her eyes met his.
"You were supposed to be dead."
The words sat heavily in the room.
Ved closed the file slowly.
"So you planned the first shot," he said. "And someone else planned the second."
"Yes."
"Do you know who?"
Kashvi didn't answer immediately.
Instead, she turned the last page of the file toward him.
A name.
Ved's eyes stopped there.
For the first time since walking into the house, genuine shock crossed his face.
"That's impossible," he said.
"Is it?" Kashvi replied quietly.
Ved stood up abruptly, pacing once across the room.
"This makes no sense," he muttered. "He wouldn't gain anything from killing me."
"He wouldn't gain from killing you," Kashvi said.
Ved stopped.
Slowly turned back.
"You're saying the target wasn't me."
"No."
Ved felt the pieces shift in his mind.
"The second shooter…" he said slowly.
"Was aiming for you."
Kashvi nodded once.
"Exactly."
Silence filled the study.
Ved looked at the name again.
The man behind the second shooter.
Someone they both knew.
Someone powerful enough to manipulate the entire investigation.
Someone who had allowed Krish Verma to go to prison without interference.
Ved exhaled slowly.
"All this time…"
"Yes," Kashvi said.
"You thought you were the only one playing chess that night."
Ved looked at her.
"And you?"
Her voice was colder now.
"I realized too late… someone else had already started the game."
At that moment—
The study door burst open.
Anvi Malhotra stood there, breathless.
Behind her—
Krish Verma.
Both of them looking directly at Ved.
And the file in his hands.
Krish spoke first.
"So this is the truth you were hiding."