The Royal Nightmare

Out in the cold

Divjyot POV

I sat in the boring meeting as I looked at the graph displayed on the projector. This was a monthly occurrence. They ask the officers from all districts of the state to gather and look at the stats. Then they decided to do something and left with absolutely no plan of what and how to do it.

"And that's all for today, I hope you have a good day." The man said, as he left the meeting and participants started to pour out. I reached for my handbag and felt the emptiness. My wrists.

Raavi had taken off my wedding bangles and replaced them with a pair of thick beautifully carved gold bangles as a gift. I couldn't wear them to work, since it wasn't a compulsion like the ivory wedding bangles. Now, the way my forearm had been filled up to the half of my elbow was missing except my handy old htm wrist watch.

I decided to push this thought away and walked out towards my police jeep. The constable started it as I sat in the back and rested my head on the back. I got a phone call.

"Sir?" I asked professionally as Dhruv answered in the same tone.

"You were late today?" he asked as I rolled my eyes. I sometimes forget I can't just send the leave application, I am supposed to ask him first. A friend is never a good senior.

"Sir, I took the first half off, and for the second half I directly came to the head office for the meeting. It just ended. Do you need me to come in now or should I leave for home?" I asked as he pondered.

"Just go home. It's already 4:30 pm, but be in early, tomorrow. There's a case that needs your attention." He said, as staying in suspense was not my strong suite. I told the driver to take the turn to the way out of the city limits before we could enter our district, to be lead directly to the palace and got back on the call.

"Can you send me the file?" I asked as he chuckled.

"No, I can't. You're married. You have responsibilities. Work-life balance is important Divjyot." said the man with absolutely no work-life balance or actually no life out of work.

"But..."

"Bye." He said disconnecting.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I came home, and opened the door to witness the twins lying near the end of the pool one on his back and the other on his tummy as Tejas chuckled. "So, what lesson did we learn boys?" The chuckle had sent a heartbeat between my legs, and the voice that followed made me wet. Why was he still home? Did he even leave today?

"We won't go into the pool if you stop us." They said half freezing as Tejas handed them towels.

"What in the God's name happened here?" I asked, worried as the boys lips quivered and seemed to be shivering.

"I told them that our pool isn't heated like theirs back in Massachusetts but they wanted to go for a swim so..." he shrugged with an innocent smile as my mouth fell open.

"Tejas, they could have aspirated water in shock of the body entering low temperature." I said, as I took one towel from him and picked up Reuben as he tended to Atharv.

"You okay?" I asked as Reuben seemed to be still shaking. Evening had descended upon us, and the chilly winters were close with Diwali only a few days away. He shivered as I wiped him clean and wrapped him in the towel picking him up towards my bed. I made him sit and tried to take the towel away from him as he held onto it.

"I'll give you the dry blanket. Leave this." I said, as he let the towel go and I wrapped him in the blanket. "Stay here, I'll see to what your maamu is doing to your brother." I say and walk out to see Tejas holding Atharv and sitting on the swing.

The setting sun lend him an almost mystical glow as he looked out at the vast expense of mountains. Atharv was cuddled into him, as the warmth of the sun was slowly fading to be replaced by the cold in the night.

"Is he okay here?" I ask, walking to stand beside the swing as he looked up at me.

"Yeah. I have him. Don't worry." He said, as I nodded and turned to leave him in the moment looking upon his kingdom like the king he was to be some day.

I picked up the outfit Reuben was wearing this morning from the pool side and walked inside. "Let's get you dressed, bubba." I said, as he nods slowly slipping out of the blanket his bottom lip still quivering. I could help him dress and get back into the warm part of the blanket.

A minute later he was dressed as I tried to tame the frizz in his dark brown curly hair as Tejas walks in. Atharv sneezes as Tejas makes him sit on my bed.

"I think this one will be sick." He says, placing him on the bed. "The sun didn't do much." I rolled my eyes at his words as I cover him in the blanket. Tejas almost growled deep from his larynx at the challenge to his authority as I wanted to piss him off more.

"No shit, Sherlock." I murmur, as the kids laugh at my words and Atharv sneezes again. "Did I say that out loud?"

"Yes, you did." Reuben says with a naughty chuckle as I go back to get clothes from the pool chair after Atharv was properly wrapped.

I picked up his clothes, and walked towards the main door that connected us to the huge house. I popped my head out to the guard. "Tell someone to get us a very small piece of ginger roasted to blend and sieve out the liquid, add a pinch of turmeric with two spoonfuls of honey. Not in water or like a tea but as two spoons only paired with whatever flavor of milk they like in a glass."

I walked back inside as the LED screen in my room was on. It displayed my Netflix account where I was watching a rom-com.

"10 things I hate about you?" he says, as I take the clothes to clean up Atharv and help him in those. "I thought you more as a crime documentary type."

"I have a lot of those in real life. Those get boring after a while." I say and look up at him sitting with a smug smile. He was casually leaning back on my pillow as I made the kids take support on the pillows and their fronts covered with the blanket, so they could be warm and surrounded. "Where's Raavi?"

"She's at the... mall." He said, taking a millisecond longer. It was suspicious at one point, but I waved it off. Maybe he just forgot. But he's not a person that forgets things.

"I'll call her and ask for allergies?" I say, as he shook his head.

"No... No, don't disturb her. They don't have any food allergies." He says, as I nod and heard a knock at the door.

I walked back out and took the tray with two spoons of the home concoction in a small bowl with a glass of chocolate milk and the other with strawberry. I went back in, and made sure that the kids after a little insistence from me, and fake anger from Tejas took half the quantity of medicine and drank their glass of warm milk.

Tejas had put an animated Disney show, as they slowly started drifting to sleep.

"Do we need to move them to their room?" I ask, as Tejas was equally immersed in the way Olaf reenacted Disney princes storyline for all the other movies. He looked down at the almost asleep boys.

"It's fine. If it's okay with you." He says, and looks up at the clock. It was almost 7:30. "It's an hour before their usual bed time."

"But they didn't have dinner." I said, as he shook his head.

"They had more pizza than a 5 year old should. Don't worry. They're full. You can sleep in my room." He says, a little like an order and then retrieves from his habit. "I mean or I can get the other bedroom dusted and the sheets changed for you." He says referring to the next room.

"No. No, I'm fine. We... We can be civil even in the same bed." I say as he chuckles.

"If you want that." He says, getting up from my bed and walking to the door that lead outside to the pool. Did he just... What does he mean by that?

He can't just lock me out and suddenly speak something like this.