Page 214 of No Boss
Ancient mantras rose through the courtyard. At first Abhinav heard every word clearly. Then the words dissolved into rhythm, into sounds older than language itself.
The fire grew stronger.
Heat brushed his skin in slow waves while the morning air stayed cool. Behind him, the Haveli moved through its wedding morning. Footsteps. Voices. Utensils clinking together.
One by one, the sounds faded.
They did not vanish.
They drifted away until only the chants remained. Even those no longer felt outside him. They moved through his chest. Through his breath. Through the hollow places grief had carved over the past months.
“The groom will close his eyes and pray for his marriage, his wife, and the generations yet to come.”
Abhinav folded his hands and closed his eyes.
Darkness came first. Then warmth. Sunlight spread across stone floors.
And his father stood before him.
Alive.
That was the first thing that shattered him.
Not sick. Not lying in a hospital bed fighting for breath. Not reduced by pain.
Alive.
Rajendra Kumar Anand stood in a cream kurta, shoulders straight, eyes warm, looking exactly the way Abhinav remembered before illness stole pieces of him month after month.
For a second, Abhinav became a child again. Because fathers do not return after you lose them.
His throat closed.
His father smiled at him with pride. The same look from every milestone. First rank. First trophy. First presentation.
That look.
That unbearable look.
As if his son had always been the easiest person in the world to love.
Abhinav struggled to breathe. This was the grief he had never given words to. His father was not meant to leave so soon. He was not meant to miss this day.
That ache had lived inside him without a name, buried so deep he had stopped touching it.
Rajendra stepped closer. His hand came to Abhinav’s head.
A blessing.
Warmth rushed through him. His chest tightened. Eyes burned. Hands trembled.
It felt as though somebody had reached into his soul and returned a missing piece.
His father touched his hair once, just as he had in childhood.
Abhinav nearly broke under that touch.
No matter how old a man becomes, there remains one part of him that still wants his father’s hand on his head on the biggest day of his life.
