My Billionaire Prince [#Completed]

Part 14

As they were walking towards the building housing the kids, Ana became very conscious of Rahul walking by her side. She felt like she was walking by the side of a huge magnet and had to control her stride to stop her from crashing into him.

As Ana was climbing the stairs, Rahul instinctively put his left arm out and his hand on her lower back. She wasn't expecting it and had to suppress herself from moaning. As soon as he made contact, she turned back and looked at him, widening her eyes with surprise and anger.

"Just making sure you don't crash into me again", he whispered in her ear, coming close to her. She controlled herself from pushing him away to avoid making a scene in front of the office staff.

Once they were inside the facility, her orphan senses kicked in and she felt like child still roaming the corridors aimlessly. Looking around she was able to tell that the facility was fairly new and hardly lived in.

The kids were very polite and watched them from a distance. Though the facility was new, it was built as per the standards for an orphanage and Ana could walk around blindfolded. Having spent almost her entire life in similar buildings, she knew where and what to look for. However she was puzzled by the kids behavior as they were maintaining distance and were very polite.

Seeing Rahul busy talking to some of the caretakers, Ana went amongst the kids and started talking to them. She noticed a young girl looking at her with googly eyes and looking confused. She went upto her and hugged her and soon other kids warmed upto her and started hugging her.

For Ana, it was like visiting her childhood and soon the kids mingled with her and started talking freely. When one of the kids stepped in front of Rahul for a hug, he took a step back and looked hesitantly at Ana for starting a huggathon.

Ana glared at him, forcing him to hug, with her eyes. After the hug, Rahul realized the emotional need of the kids and joined Ana in hugging them and found them coming forward to talk and discuss other issues freely. Ana thanked him with her eyes.

After the visit, both went back to office. As soon as the others went into the office, Rahul stopped Ana, "What's with the whole hugging thing back there? I am not comfortable with hugging strangers. Next time you start something like that please let me know in advance."

"Wow Mr Shah! You need advance notice for hugging orphan kids?" She glared at him angrily and felt stupid for thanking him before.

"Hey, don't you glare at me like that! Looks like you are very fond of hugs ...", he caught her hand and pulled her towards him and held her by her waist.

He tried to pull her into him for a hug, but she resisted by trying to move away from his grasp. She placed her hands on his hard chest and tried to push him away.

The office door opened suddenly, "Oops .... sorry! . . . Once you kids are done, come to the car, we are done here." Mandy spoke, trying to look away, walking past them towards the car.

"Nothing ..." Both of them replied at the same time and then looked at each other. Ana was still glaring at him and he was smirking.

Rahul asked the driver to stop by Le Bernardin, his favorite French restaurant, for lunch. While lunch was being served, Mandy asked them about their thoughts regarding the orphanage.

"Looks pretty standard setup to me and those kids do need help, so we just need to decide on the amount and let them know." Rahul replied.

"I know it is one of Ria's pet projects, do you want us to decide the amount or you would want her to decide? "

"No, you decide. She will get her chance in future." Rahul replied looking at Ana, but she kept her head down, looking at her food, not giving him any chance to know her feelings.

"What about you Ana? What do you think?"

"I am good" she replied still looking at her food.

"Hmm ... I need your honest opinion and you need to tell me looking at me" She was sure Ana had few things to say about the visit.

"I just have a few observations. The facility seems to be very new, so lot of kids have been brought over from other orphanages, so you need to look at how many kids actually are going to stay here."

"Are you accusing them of trying to fool us by showing more numbers?" Rahul asked seriously.

"I am just telling my observations because Mandy asked" She replied.

"Are you sure? You seemed pretty happy hugging all those kids. Why would you want to undercut the donation amount by bringing up an accusation or are you doing this because you dislike Ria and this is her pet project? "

Ana looked at both Mandy and Rahul, who were keenly waiting for her to answer, "I did talk to those kids and looking at everything, I have a feeling that they brought in more kids to get a bigger amount from us. Giving a big cheque does not mean kids are going to get that money, it will just go into someone else's pocket."

"And how do you know these things? Are you an expert in orphanages? What kind of qualifications do you have to make such statements? " Rahul got angry, as he thought, she didn't prove her case yet.

"I don't have any qualifications, but I can understand how those kids feel and how things are run by these charities." She replied angrily.

"Dammit. .. you are talking as if you are an orphan and went through such situations!!" Rahul retorted back.

The statement hit Ana like a grenade. The feelings and memories, she kept inside bottled, exploded within her. She couldn't stop the flood of tears, so she pushed her chair away and walked towards the nearest door.

"OMG !!!!" Mandy whispered.

"Ma, I am sorry, I had no clue. Let me get her." Rahul got up to go behind Ana.

"No, you done enough damage. Get the car, I will bring her around." Mandy hurried to catch up with Ana.