The final revelation—the image of Shreya and the cold text detailing her twisted motive—was the ultimate execution. The Game hadn't wanted Rajeev's death; it had wanted his understanding of absolute, intimate betrayal.
Rajeev stood over the catatonic Rohan, the hospital alarm finally silenced. The knowledge that Shreya, his own sister-in-law, had used a corporate rival (Satish Nanda) and his genius friend (Rohan Verma) to build the engine of his misery was a blow that surpassed all physical pain. She hadn't just murdered Anjali and Anaya; she had weaponized Rajeev's grief, turning his entire support system into a series of deadly, personalized traps.
He was the last man standing in a war fought over his own soul.
The Final Link
Rajeev quickly checked Rohan. The brand on his forehead was gone, the fever broken. He was still sedated but breathing steadily. The Agony Inheritance had released its Host, leaving behind only the shell of a brilliant mind. Rajeev knew he had to leave the hospital immediately; the police would soon trace the digital disturbance back to him.
He drove straight to the one place Shreya would eventually be: the Serpent Financial Group headquarters. Nanda was likely in custody, but Shreya, the true architect, would be cleaning up the final digital evidence, believing herself safe.
He arrived at the towering, glass building just as the sun fully crested the skyline. The main entrance was already abuzz with activity—reporters swarming, their cameras flashing, desperate for a story about the Vice President's dramatic arrest and the sudden reopening of the Agnihotri case. Rajeev slipped in through the employee entrance, using his old pass, his face hidden by a baseball cap.
He went directly to the IT Server Room, the brain of the Serpent Group, where Shreya worked as a lead network analyst. He had to assume she had a backdoor into the system to clean up her tracks now that Nanda was exposed.
The Confrontation
The server room was a cold, brightly lit labyrinth of blinking racks. Rajeev found Shreya in a restricted, high-security alcove, hunched over a workstation, typing frantically.
She looked up, her dark eyes widening in a mixture of fear and shock. She wasn't expecting him.
"Rajeev! What are you doing here? You should be at the police station!" she stammered, quickly minimizing the terminal windows on her screen.
Rajeev walked slowly toward her, his movements stiff and deliberate, the emptiness in his voice more terrifying than any rage.
"It was never a game, Shreya. It was a lie. You didn't want me to die; you wanted me to live, suffering, believing I was going mad, watching everyone I loved fall apart," he stated, his eyes locked on hers.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Rajeev. You need help. You look terrible," she said, her voice rising in a high, false pitch of concern.
"The yellow block in the truck cab. The stylized 'S' on the fragment. The sudden phone call to Anjali that put them in the kill zone. The ANI's core code architecture—the one you designed using Rohan's early research access," Rajeev recited, listing the truths that had cost him everything. "You didn't want Anjali. You wanted my life—and you hated that she had it. The agony was yours, Shreya, and you tried to transfer it to me."
Shreya's composure snapped. Her eyes darted around the room, searching for an escape.
"You don't understand what it was like!" she hissed, her voice laced with years of bitter resentment. "She had everything! The looks, the charm, the love! And you chose her! After all I did for you! I built that protocol to make you feel the emptiness I felt when you chose her over me, again and again!"
She was reaching for an emergency button under the desk.
Rajeev was faster. He slammed his hand down on the keyboard, blocking her move. "Nanda confessed. The police have the evidence. The Game is over."
"The Game is never over," Shreya snarled, a final, chilling defiance entering her voice. "The ANI is dormant, but the full transfer protocol is still active. I built a final trap—a dead man's switch you couldn't disarm. If I'm arrested, the final consequence is executed, and you'll lose the one person you truly think you saved."
She pointed to the monitor. On the central, highly encrypted terminal, a countdown had just begun: 10:00.
"If I don't enter the kill code within ten minutes, the ANI will remotely trigger a consequence that will be lethal to Mrs. Sharma. I didn't save her from the truck, Rajeev. I made her the constant, physical target of your failures! Now, only my continued freedom can save her."
Shreya stared at him, her eyes dark and calculating. "You can't arrest me, Rajeev. You have to let me go. Or your last living connection dies because of you."