Dawn's light had fully broken by then.
Standing in front of Bella Pizza, Supriya and Kanchan looked at the fire-damaged shop.
The damage wasn't severe, but both of their hearts felt heavy.
Kanchan looked around once and said,
— "Supriya, we need to check the CCTV footage first."
Supriya nodded.
— "Yes. If someone really did set the fire, there must be some evidence of it."
One of the CCTV cameras inside the shop hadn't been completely destroyed in the fire.
Kanchan turned on the computer and tried to pull up the footage.
After a while, the night's scene appeared on the screen.
Both of them watched in silence.
2:12 a.m.
The street was nearly empty.
A man with his face covered slowly walked up and stood in front of Bella Pizza.
He looked around.
Then he did something toward the inside of the shop.
A few minutes later, he hurried away.
Kanchan paused the video.
— "I've seen this man somewhere before."
Supriya looked at him.
— "Where?"
Kanchan played the video again and watched a few seconds of it.
Then he said,
— "He looks like the man who came to the shop with Sundar a few days ago."
Supriya stayed quiet.
— "But we can't be sure just from his clothes."
— "You're right. That's why we need to show this footage to the police."
Supriya nodded.
— "Let's go."
They took the CCTV footage to the police station.
The police examined it closely.
The officer said,
— "Give us the video. We'll try to identify this man."
Within a few hours, the police identified the man.
He was a known employee connected to Sundar's family business.
The police were preparing to go to his house.
But surprisingly —
before the police could even get there, the man showed up at the station himself.
Standing before the officer, he lowered his head and said,
— "Sir, I set the fire."
The officer looked at him, startled.
— "Why?"
The man was silent for a moment, then said,
— "I made a mistake. I shouldn't have done what I was asked to do."
The officer asked, his voice hard,
— "Who asked you to do this?"
The man kept his head down.
— "Whatever I did, the responsibility is mine alone."
— "I want a name."
The man let out a long breath.
— "I don't want to drag anyone else into this."
The police arrested him.
An investigation into the incident began.
Supriya and Kanchan felt some relief, but a question lingered in their minds —
had the man really set the fire of his own will?
Or had he taken the blame on someone else's behalf?
As they walked out of the station, Kanchan said slowly,
— "I have a suspicion."
Supriya looked at him.
— "What?"
Kanchan said in a low voice,
— "I don't think Sundar came forward himself. He probably paid the man off — or pressured him some other way — to take the blame for his crime."
Supriya stayed silent for a while.
— "Are you sure?"
— "No. There's no proof. Just a suspicion."
Supriya said,
— "Then we won't blame anyone until we have proof."
Kanchan nodded.
— "All right. But we need to stay careful."
Both of them knew —
the matter of the fire had settled, for now.
But Sundar's pride was perhaps far from finished.
The fire had destroyed some furniture, packaging material, and a few things in the kitchen.
To make up for the loss, Kanchan threw himself into the work with fresh energy.
He said,
— "If we keep the shop closed and just sit around, the loss will only grow."
Supriya said,
— "But it'll take time to fix everything."
Kanchan smiled and said,
— "Let it take time. We'll get it done."
From the very next day, the two of them got to work.
Kanchan went to the market himself and brought back fresh supplies.
Supriya reorganized the shop's accounts.
Whatever tables could be repaired, were repaired.
Whatever had been ruined beyond saving was replaced with low-cost alternatives.
Kanchan kept working to improve the quality of the pizzas.
He tried out several new recipes.
Supriya tasted every pizza herself before it went out.
One day, Kanchan said,
— "We should bring out a new pizza."
Supriya smiled and said,
— "What name?"
Kanchan thought for a moment and said,
— "Bella Special."
— "Not a bad name."
— "Then it's settled."
A few days later, Bella Pizza opened again as usual.
On the first day, customers were few.
The second day saw a slight rise.
Then, little by little, the old customers began to return.
One customer, after eating the pizza, said,
— "This is even better than before!"
Supriya smiled and said,
— "Thank you."
Hearing this from a distance, Kanchan smiled quietly.
As evening fell, the crowd in the shop began to grow again.
Supriya stood at the counter, taking orders.
Kanchan made pizza after pizza in the kitchen.
Both of them were tired.
But there was joy in their eyes.
At the end of the night, tallying the accounts, Supriya saw —
today's sales were far higher than the day before.
She closed the ledger and said,
— "We're managing it, Kanchan."
Kanchan smiled.
— "We will."
After closing the shop, Kanchan was getting his bicycle ready to head home.
Just then, a message arrived on his phone.
It was from Haripada Kaku, a man he knew from his village.
Kanchan opened it and read.
"Kanchan, your old house has fallen into very bad shape. A big crack has opened up in the back wall. Come and see it sometime in the next few days. It doesn't look like the house will hold up much longer."
The smile faded from Kanchan's face.
Supriya noticed it.
— "What happened?"
Kanchan stayed quiet for a moment, then held out the phone to her.
Supriya read the message.
— "Your ancestral home?"
Kanchan nodded slowly.
— "Yes."
— "When did you last go there?"
— "A long time ago."
Kanchan was quiet for a moment.
Then he said,
— "After my father passed away, the house was never properly looked after. I couldn't afford to repair it either."
Supriya said,
— "Then you should go."
Kanchan looked out the window.
— "Maybe I do need to go this time."
That night, back home, Kanchan opened an old wooden box.
Inside were some of his father's old papers, a few photographs, and a rusted key.
Kanchan held the key in his hand and stared at it for a long while.
His father had once said—
"Our house isn't just a house. It carries a long, old history of our family within it."
At the time, Kanchan hadn't understood the weight of those words.
Today, they suddenly came back to him.
He closed his fist tightly around the key.
— "What's in that house?"
He didn't know —
that buried beneath his ancestral home lay a secret hidden for many years, one that would draw in not only his own family —
but Supriya's family too.
And that mystery had begun, many years ago, at the hands of one man —
Harinarayan Chowdhury.