Summary: Kissi ko mukkammal jahaan nahi milta."
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It's annoying how she isn't happy when the plan works to its last T. When it is she who becomes the bait that draws her unworthy son out.
Rathod's men are unsavory. Holding her harder and handling her rougher, as if she truly was a hostage. She would give the men a piece of her mind later.
It is unsettling how Veer meets her eye, doesn't look away at all, as he walks closer. It's annoying how she is suddenly seeing the resemblance to her own eyes in them.
He is unarmed. He doesn't seem to have a plan.
It is infuriating how that makes her disturbed.
His eyes shift from hers to the man holding her.
"Let her go."
Nalini starts to struggle, hoping the man would take the hint and shift his attention where he was supposed to. He doesn't budge.
"Leave me!"
There is a dark amusement in Veer’s eyes when they snap back to hers. That expression is nothing of hers, but all his father's. For a moment he reminds her of the perpetually amused look Mahendra had whenever he looked at her.
"You can stop the act Ma sahab. There is no need to fool anyone." He cuts the words without an emotion.
"I - I didn't-" the discomfort makes her throat clog up. Veer doesn't even spare a glance at the three men coming up behind him. Doesn't even break his stride when one of them takes a hit at him.
"You should know I won't die a fool believing there is a shred of good in you like baba sahab did. You were the reason I lost my father and you will be the reason my son loses his -"
He falls to his knees at her feet, hit on the back of his head by one of those rifles. The blood splattering from his mouth sprays on her feet and somewhere in the distance Amrit screams.
There is the sound of gunfire and Nalini cannot help the scream that is torn from her.
It was not from the gun that she had anticipated. Instead the bullet takes one of the men surrounding Veer and in quick succession two more cuts down the other two men.
Anwar has overpowered the man in the gallery above.
Seeing that all his companions had fallen, the man holding Nalini places a knife against her throat, watching with wary eyes as Veer rises to his feet.
"Don't you dare! I'll kill her - I will - don't you -"
"You wouldn't!" She spits in fury, turning to glare at the man and nicking the skin of her throat on the blade he brandished.
Veer has no eyes for him, it's his mother's gaze that he holds.
"He will," he tells her. "Rathod would not want to spare you."
"That's a lie…" her voice shakes. "That's a lie!"
"Stay still!" The man growls at her. "Oh god willing I'll cut you up. What makes you think you can order me around - lady?"
Veer shrugs, his mouth twitches into a bloodied smile.
"Do you want me to walk away so that you can check it out?" He takes a step back and Nalini shakes her head furiously. "He believes in a clean kill. With you and I both gone, everything is his for talking. All this while you have played just the way he wants."
Nalini draws in a breath her head reeling. "You've always fallen into his traps ma sahab. When he made you believe Prem was in danger by sending men himself. Or when he attempted to murder me and Prem ended up lost - all those times, you've trusted him pointlessly. Now, when his man is holding you at knife point, telling you clearly enough that he has no instructions to save you, would you still trust him? Would you - ma sahab?"
"You -"
"I came for you knowing you wanted me dead. Knowing you thought you were only helping in a plot to kill me where nothing would put you in danger. And he knowingly, let you walk up to your own death. Still, are you going to twist it up in someway that makes me the bad guy?"
The man holding Nalini gives a frustrated scream, tries to attack her for real when Veer twists his arm, snatches his knife and pulls Nalini away, just as a bullet from above finds the man.
Nalini is shaking, pressed up against the son she despised. Veer leaves her as soon as the man collapses. His jaw clenched.
"I believe you can find your own way out, Ma sahab," he turns away from her without another feeling wasted on her. There's a gash on his shoulder, blood gripping along his arm to the floor as he walks. There's a muted call stuck on Nalini’s throat, as she watches Veer, again wounded in his misplaced attempt to save her, walk away without another look at her.
"Veer -" when she finally manages he is at the foot of the stairs. "You are bleeding."
It's a pointless thing to say, specially after her own attempt to have him murdered has failed. When she has finally started to see how annoyingly stupid she has been with regard to Chandra, allowing him to use her as a pawn in his schemes, his schemes to always snatch what wasn't his.
Veer gives her a look over his shoulder that is full of detachment.
"Aap ka khoon hai, behene dijiye, ma sahab."
*
He comes back to her bloodied, broken more than he was willing to show but alive. Amrit would take him into her embrace, clasp him there and be glad of it. Glad for Anwar who refused to leave his friend and returned to have his back and oddly glad for Nalini’s blackened heart for remaining as evil as she was for the end that it had made it easier for Veer to find that final detachment which snapped all ties of longing and hope between them.
It takes a moment or an age, between his return and the world from outside pouring in for them to truly, freely breathe.
There is help everywhere, attending to the wounded, carrying away people - there is police, medical attention, more reporters than one would be willing to count and then there is family.
Anwar is the first to find them, clap them both into a tight hug, Amrit suspects the big man sobs into Veer’s shoulder. But before she could verify there is Farida and Rukzaar, then countless others, all wanting to embrace them - ascertain for themselves that they are alright.
It takes longer than anticipated to wade through all that well meaning attention into the streaming sunlight outside, to have Nayantara barrel right into Veer’s chest.
"You are alive! God, praise the Lord, you are alive!" She pulls back, smiles waterlily. "It's over. Easier than you'd have thought."
"Did Preet-?"
"Preet did wonderfully, but Randheer pulled the plug on their ambitions. Without him, Preet’s claims would have just been claims. But with him being a voice they couldn't cast off - coming up with everything they did - all their dirty details -"
"But why?"
"He said it will give him peace."
"Where is he?"
Nayantara squeezed his shoulder and looked away.
"He is in custody, Veer," her eyes flickered back to his. "He said it was the only way to make them stop. Take away their pawn to put on your place. His confession brought the authorities here. I was only afraid that we were perhaps too late."
She gives him enough time and space to make peace with those words and moves to talk with others.
Veer’s arm tightens around Amrit’s shoulders. The look they share is too heavy to be interpreted with words.
"She wouldn't be able to bear this loss."
Amrit says nothing as she lifts a hand to cradle his face. No matter how much he attempts, Veer would always care, always worry.
"That's her burden to bear." There is not a shred of pity in her voice.
"She has lost him because of me, again."
"No Veer. She lost Prem as a consequence of her own evil, because of the people she associated with in the first instance. She lost him again, because of the evil she dragged him into. You were neither at fault then, nor at fault now." There is a determined tilt to her chin as she meets his eye.  "As for Prem, he is at least not a lost cause as his mother. Let him do what he considers is necessary for his redemption and let him find his peace. It's not your business."
He draws a heavy breath and nods nevertheless, drawing her deeper into his embrace, closer to his heart.
"I'm not okay with it," he mutters against her hair, buries his face in the crook of her neck and shudders.
"But you will be," she replies against his heart, melting into that embrace willingly.
Nobody would be perfectly happy to prove that their mother has plotted and committed murder, attempted and failed at another. To have a brother who admitted and got arrested for those crimes, to have witnessed the destruction in there and to survive through it - only to dissolve the last ties that bound them to a woman whose approval had once meant the world.
"Kissi ko mukkammal jahaan nahi milta."
Amrit tells herself and him, her eyes brimming again. "But you have me. I have you. Aur phir poori zindagi padi hai jeene ko, apni jahaan basane ko."
There were no more regrets of lost opportunities, lives that had slipped from their hands. For the chaar kadam had been crossed and hands held forever, their lives fitting together like two imperfectly perfect pieces of a puzzle, making sense when they came together.
Veer doesn't look back at his mother to watch her being escorted by the police, in the coming days the newly crowned Rana Veer Pratap Singh would send a lawyer to represent his mother and brother, but he would not dwell upon it, would not insist on his help when his mother refuses the well intended aid.
He would attend the trials with detachment of a bystander and deal with all the sympathy that is belated and genuinely unwanted with an impassive politeness.
He would remove all his mother's supporters from Shrighar with cold hearted efficiency and make certain, Manorama joins her Rani Sahiba's charges sheet, and sentence. He would be meticulous in removing all traces of his childhood horrors from their main residence but would still not believe it capable of being anything but a symbol of suffering.
But for now, back under the pleasantly warm sun, locked in an embrace with the love of his life, he is simply happy to be alive.

**

Please await the epilogue.

Author's Note:

I'm crying. Alright. 🥺😭
This has been such a beautiful experience, growth both as a writer and as a human being. I'm grateful for everyone who has been a part of it. And I hope you are taking away as much joy and love as I did, by writing this and interacting with you all.
CK filled up a wound left behind by Veer’s rather unfair departure, I'd like to think I wrote myself back to - if not happiness - to my peace of mind.
For me, at least, Amveer will always be synonymous with Chaar Kadam, where they are happy, together and in love, just as they deserved to be.
A great big hug to everyone who came, read, commented, kept asking for updates across platforms. I hope you found and continue to find solace in CK. And I invite you to join me on all the new amveer journeys I plan to take, including,

Kaanch si Mohabbat (available on wattpad)
Do Pal (coming soon)
Akhiri Mohabbat (coming soon)

I hope you find each of these stories and their versions of amveer as lovable as CK ones had been.

Last and least,
a little thank you to all the anonymous messengers who filled my inbox at the end of busy weeks, your ceaseless harping of R's trumpet lost the man his last appearance in finale. I had a redemption arc planned for the man, he had scenes and more or less sympathy, but a certain person ruined my whatever sympathy towards the man by turning into a spot of bother and I decided against wasting my energy on R at all.
If that person is reading, please do not waste your energy on trying to educate me about R's greatness, I am perfectly happy being sinfully ignorant about it. My writing, my craft, my characters, simply put I don't care two hoots about the Canon.