The Diamond Code

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Rhea locked herself in the room, the door clicking shut behind her with a finality that echoed in the silence of the safehouse. She leaned against it for a moment, her breath uneven, chest tight from the rush of emotions that seemed to be suffocating her. Every part of her screamed to be angry, to lash out, to make him understand the depth of the hurt she was feeling. But the words... they felt hollow now, like they had no weight left to them.

Was it all a lie?

Her mind raced with the question, the only question that seemed to matter in this mess she found herself tangled in. She wanted to hate him. Wanted to believe that every moment they shared—the laughs, the touches, the stolen glances—was just another well-constructed piece of his act. But deep down, that little spark of something she felt for him refused to go out.

What if he did care? What if there was something real between us?

She let out a bitter laugh, pushing herself away from the door. She was losing her grip, spiraling. She needed to think. She needed to sort through all the emotions, to figure out where the truth was buried beneath the lies and half-truths he’d fed her.

She wasn’t just hurt.
She was furious—with herself, with him, with the universe for throwing her into this twisted mess.

Your past is connected to something dangerous. His words played over and over.

What part of her past And how much did he already know?

She’d get answers—if not from Aryan, then from someone else.
But one thing was clear.

She couldn’t afford to trust anyone anymore.

*

Aryan sat in the living room, his head in his hands. Every word Rhea had said echoed in his mind, each one cutting deeper than the last. She was right. She had every right to be angry. To be hurt. To feel betrayed.

But what she didn’t understand—what he hadn’t known how to say—was that he never planned for it to go this far.

When he first met her, he had done so with a single goal in mind: to use her connection to the diamond to crack open a case that had been haunting him for years. But somewhere between their first awkward meeting and the moments they shared on that rooftop, he had started to see her—really see her.

Her strength. Her intelligence. The way she fought for what she believed in, even when she was afraid. The way she made him feel... less like a machine, more like a person.
He dragged a hand down his face.

It was the first time in years that he felt like the mission had slipped out of his control.

He was meant to ease her into it, keep her safe while connecting the dots, figure out how her past wove into the chaos surrounding the stolen diamond, the murders, the encrypted communications, and that damn name that kept surfacing in every lead—Karan Mehta.

Her father.

That was the thread Aryan hadn’t dared pull too hard yet.

Rhea’s fingers trembled as she set the glass of water down on the nightstand. She had spent the last hour pacing, trying to calm her racing thoughts, but it was no use. The anger still burned inside her, and the hurt, the betrayal, it wouldn’t let go.

The room was dim, but the harsh light from the lamp on the desk illuminated her reflection in the mirror across the room. She hadn’t realized how much her face had changed over the past few weeks—the weight of everything pressing down on her. She looked tired. Broken.

I should hate him.

But why did it still hurt? Why did the thought of him lying, of him using her, gnaw at her insides like a festering wound?

Her mind kept wandering back to the moment when he touched her shoulder, when he tried to soothe her in that way that only he could, when his gaze softened, and there was something—something—more than just the mission in his eyes.

She pressed her palms to her face, trying to suppress the tears threatening to spill. She didn’t have the luxury of being weak. Not now, not after everything.

To be continued....