Page 78 of No Boss
He sat there, sleep gone, because Meera Chauhan had laughed at another man’s words. Because for one sharp second, he had wanted that laugh to belong to him.
His fingers tapped once against the armrest. Then stilled.
The tea sat untouched. He picked it up, drank it anyway, and grimaced as the cold bitterness spread across his tongue. The cup met the table with force.
A bell rang from the temple. The sound moved through the Haveli. It reached him. When it faded, the silence that followed felt deeper.
He sat with it. With the fact that he had lost sleep over a woman who was not his. With the fact that the thought of her becoming someone else’s, did not sit.
At all.
His phone rang. He reached for it, then stopped.
Meera.
He watched the screen light up. Once. Twice. Three times.
“Yes,” he answered, his voice rough, stripped of its usual control.
???
Meera crossed the courtyard on her way back from the temple. The prayers still echoed in her ears, yet none of it had touched the restlessness that had kept her awake through the night. Her eyes burned, her body moved on habit.
She wore a simple cotton salwar kameez. Her hair fell loose down her back. Nothing like yesterday.
Yesterday had been deliberate. Every detail was set before she had stepped out to meet Lakshya and his family. Even then, her focus had slipped. Not because of the man beside her, but because of the one seated across the courtyard.
She cut the thought off.
Because she was not thinking about the way Abhinav had looked at her. Or how his expression had changed when Lakshya’s hand had settled at her elbow. She was not thinking about the scrape of his chair. The way he had left.
A low hum of an engine cut through her thoughts. She turned.
The guard straightened at once and pointed in her direction.
A black car entered through the main gate, plain at first glance until the crest on its number plate caught the light. Dark windows concealed the inside. It rolled in slowly and came to a stop near her.
Meera stood still.
A man stepped out from the passenger side. Grey safari suit. Leather portfolio in hand. He spotted her and approached. “Good morning. I am Amar Singh, advisor to His Highness Rajveer Singh Sisodia. We are here to meet Mr. Abhinav Kumar Anand.”
‘Rajveer Singh Sisodia.’
The name unsettled her. Meera didn’t let it show.
“And His Highness is…?”
Amar turned slightly. The rear window lowered just enough to reveal a figure inside. A man seated with a presence that filled the space without effort.
“One moment, please.”
She turned, already dialing. Her gaze returned to the half-lowered window. The Sisodias needed no introduction. Their arrival to Anand Mahal could mean… No.
She told herself there could be other reasons.
None came to mind.
“Yes.” Abhinav’s voice came through, rough in a way she had not heard before.
