Ever since Kanchan had come to Bella Pizza, the business had slowly started turning around.
The taste of the pizza had changed.
Customers were growing in number too.
Supriya tried to learn something new every day, and Kanchan took charge of the kitchen each evening.
A quiet understanding had grown between the two of them.
Kanchan didn't just make pizzas — he thought about the shop's cleanliness, its customer service, and new recipes too.
Supriya, for her part, took his advice seriously.
But their small success wasn't sitting well with everyone.
Sundar was the son of one of the city's wealthiest business families.
Money was never a problem for him.
He carried real weight in his own family's business too. Since childhood, he had grown used to one thing — money could buy almost anything.
That evening, he came to Bella Pizza with a group of friends.
His friends ordered pizza.
As Sundar ate, he glanced around the shop.
Suddenly, his eyes landed on Supriya.
He kept looking at her for a moment. Then he said quietly to his friend—
— "Seen that girl?"
His friend laughed.
— "Why?"
— "I like her."
His friend teased,
— "Go talk to her, then."
Sundar strode over to Supriya, full of confidence.
— "What's your name?"
— "Supriya."
— "This shop's yours?"
— "Yes."
Sundar looked around and smiled faintly.
— "Working so hard to run a little shop like this?"
Supriya answered calmly.
— "Yes. My own business."
— "How much could a business like this even bring in?"
This time Supriya looked straight at him.
— "Whatever it brings in, I'm happy with it."
Sundar smiled and put his phone back in his pocket.
— "This life of yours could get a lot easier, if you wanted."
Supriya, a little surprised, asked—
— "What do you mean?"
Sundar stepped a little closer and lowered his voice.
— "Why work this hard to run a shop like this? You could work with my franchise instead. If you want, I could set up a separate branch just for you. You'd never have to worry about money again."
Supriya understood at once — there was another motive hiding behind his words. She kept her voice calm.
— "Thank you. But I'm content with my own business."
Sundar said,
— "Maybe you don't see it yet. Life with me by your side would change completely."
Supriya's face hardened.
— "How my life goes is for me to decide."
Sundar fell silent for a moment. Then he laughed.
— "You're quite stubborn."
— "And you're quite rude."
The smile vanished from Sundar's face.
Right then, Kanchan stepped out of the kitchen.
He hadn't caught the full exchange, but one look at Supriya's face told him something was wrong.
— "Is there a problem here?"
Sundar turned to look at him.
— "Who are you?"
— "I work here."
Sundar said with contempt,
— "You don't need to say anything here."
Kanchan replied calmly.
— "If someone comes into this shop and disrespects a woman, I have every reason to speak."
Sundar's eyes flashed with anger.
— "You're going to lecture me?"
Kanchan's voice stayed steady.
— "Having money doesn't give anyone the right to insult someone."
In an instant, the situation turned tense.
In a fit of rage, Sundar shoved Kanchan.
Kanchan steadied himself and pushed him back.
His friends rushed to hold Sundar back.
But by then Sundar was blind with anger.
In his rage, he grabbed a nearby chair and hurled it to the floor.
Crash!
The glass top of a table shattered.
Another chair toppled over as well.
Supriya cried out,
— "Stop it!"
A moment later, his friends dragged Sundar out of the shop by force.
As he was pulled out the door, he turned back and looked at them.
His eyes were full of rage.
— "You'll pay for this insult."
Kanchan said nothing.
Supriya just stood there, staring at the door.
She could feel it—
this wasn't the end of it.
Supriya had thought the whole thing would end there.
She was wrong.
A few days later, strange incidents began happening one after another.
One day, a customer opened a pizza box and screamed,
— "What is this! There's hair in the food!"
Supriya was stunned.
— "That's impossible! We always wear hair caps while preparing food."
The customer said angrily,
— "I'm never eating here again!"
Supriya apologized and replaced the pizza.
But the next day, the same complaint came again.
And a third day too.
By now, it no longer looked like an ordinary mistake.
Negative comments about Bella Pizza began spreading on social media.
"There's something filthy in Bella Pizza's food!"
"Don't buy food from this place!"
"Questions are being raised about the food quality!"
Customers walking into the shop started to dwindle.
Kanchan looked over several of the complaints closely.
Then he said,
— "These don't look like accidents."
Supriya looked at him.
— "What are you trying to say?"
Kanchan said,
— "Someone is deliberately trying to ruin our name."
Supriya stayed quiet for a while.
Then she remembered that night.
Sundar.
Kanchan was thinking the exact same thing.
— "Sundar?"
Supriya nodded slowly.
— "Possibly."
Kanchan said,
— "But it wouldn't be right to blame anyone without proof."
Supriya said,
— "You're right. We need to find proof first."
Within a few days, another offer reached Supriya.
One afternoon, an unfamiliar man walked into the shop and stood there.
— "Are you Supriya?"
— "Yes. Go on."
The man pulled out a piece of paper and set it on the counter.
— "You could sell this shop. You'd get a good price for it."
Supriya glanced at the paper. Then she said, calmly—
— "I have no intention of selling my shop."
The man said,
— "Think it over. Your business isn't doing so well right now."
Supriya pushed the paper back toward him.
— "If the business isn't doing well, I'll work to fix it. I won't be selling the shop."
The man smiled faintly.
— "If things carry on this way, you might have to make a different kind of decision."
Supriya's eyes turned hard.
— "You can leave now."
The man said nothing more.
He took the paper and walked out of the shop.
Kanchan stood staring at the door.
Then he said,
— "This doesn't feel like a coincidence anymore."
Supriya nodded slowly.
— "I feel the same way."
That night, Supriya's phone rang.
Her father.
Supriya picked up.
— "Hello, Baba."
Arindam Chowdhury's voice came through.
— "How are you?"
— "I'm fine."
— "How's the work going?"
Supriya hesitated for a moment.
— "It's going fine."
Arindam stayed quiet for a moment. Then he asked—
— "Has something gone wrong?"
Supriya knew — if she wanted, one phone call from her father could fix everything.
But she wanted to stand by her own decision.
— "No, Baba. I'm fine. Don't worry about me."
— "Are you sure?"
— "Yes. I'll handle everything."
— "All right. Let me know if you ever need anything."
— "I will."
The call ended.
Supriya sat quietly for a while.
Then, looking toward her own shop, she said softly—
— "I built this shop with my own two hands. I won't run to Baba the moment I hit a problem. I have to at least try on my own."
Just then, Kanchan came out of the kitchen.
He hadn't heard the whole conversation.
Only the last part.
— "Why didn't you ask your father for help?"
Supriya looked up, startled. Then she smiled faintly.
— "Because this fight is mine to fight."
Kanchan looked at her for a moment. Then he said, calmly—
— "Then in this fight, you're not alone."
Supriya said nothing in reply.
But for the first time, a small flicker of reassurance appeared in her eyes.
— ✦ —
Elsewhere, on the other side of the city, Sundar sat alone in his room.
A photograph of Bella Pizza lay in front of him.
He looked at it and smiled faintly.
— "Let's see how long you can hold onto that stubbornness of yours..."
For him, it was no longer just about winning Supriya over.
This had become a matter of his own pride.
But Sundar didn't know—
that this small conflict he'd started around Bella Pizza would one day open a door onto a mystery he believed, right now, had nothing at all to do with him.
And the roots of that mystery lay buried in a dark past, many years old.