A bend in the road - Vol 1

22. Back to the ashes

She didn’t wait for him of course.

She had in fact excused herself pleading a headache and went to outhouse.

Ever since she was home, all she did was stand in the balcony and stare at the stars in the silent night.

She hadn’t changed out of the Saree and she was acutely aware of the Kohl dot that was resting on the side of her waist.

She looked down at her waist, touching the dot which was now peeking out of the thin silver waist chain she had worn in impulse.

She heard a knock and turned around to see Maan Sir standing by the threshold at the door, of the terrace.

“I asked you to wait for me, didn’t I?”

There was no malice in his voice. Not even the usual scathing that sounded otherwise.

As he walked closer to her until he stood before her, realization drawn on her, how handsome he was.

She wasn’t blind to her boss’s handsomeness earlier. After all, she was subjected to female employees gushing over him. However this night, he looked different.

He looked breathtaking and unattainable. Everything that he was.

“Geet?” He said, his voice lowering to a tingling whisper.

She had her hands strictly behind her, clutching the railing tight.

“I wanted to talk to you”

“Y-yes?” She said, her voice not betraying her emotions.

There was a smile that crossed his lips as he walked further closer to her, towering her.

His hands reached out to the either side of her waist and for any onlooker it would look like he was to take her on his arms. Geet’s breathing hitched but as she felt his arms go around her to catch hold of her hands that formed a steely grip around the railing, she felt the breath she was holding release slowly.

“Let go” he said in the same velvety whisper and she let him take her hands off the metal.

They stood like that for a while, she, listening to her pounding heartbeat, and him looking at their entwined hands that are now held between them.

“I want to talk to you about Hoshiyarpur land”

Again, she felt a slow ache in her heart and she was grateful that he was holding her in some way.

“What about it?” She said in a low voice. There was a time she fought tooth and nail for it but now, knowing Maan sir wasn’t to be blamed since he bought in a land by paying someone, even though that someone wasn’t her, she made peace with it.

At that time, she fought for the land that was her family’s property. Now though, she had neither a family nor a property. The only thing that she held closer to her heart were values. Maan Sir had taught her to always take a right decision, which should go beyond one’s emotional feelings.

It is that act of righteousness that had made her file a complaint on Brij and send him to jail. It was the same values that made her what she is today.

So, she thought she would do what is right.

“The land is in the middle of a legal dispute, raised by your family” he had said and she swallowed the bile rising in her throat and nodded.

“There is a court trail and I am going to Hoshiyarpur for the same”

“Okay”

“I want you to come with me”

No.

That word was rippling through her chest, giving an acute pain.

She gripped his hands tighter.

It was the right thing to do, she knew but going back to the place which once was home, only made her shudder.

That place held too many memories and she wasn’t sure she could quite handle it.

“Don’t worry about your safety. There would be security there”

“I’m not worried about my safety” she said quietly. “I had someone take a stab for me once, I don’t want that to repeat”.

There was such tenderness in his eyes that almost undone her.

He released his hands from her only to tip her chin up.

“I’ll be fine.” He said then.

“Good” she had said. “Otherwise I would miss someone finding faults in me always”

He had smiled then, the rarity and beauty of it always making her heart melt.

“Rest assured, you always will have me to find faults in you” he said, making her heart skip a beat.

“And that is a promise”

“So you’re coming?” He asked.

“That’s the right thing to do” she had said and thought she saw a tinge of pride in his eyes, for her.