Page 60 of No Boss
She was not offering respect. She was placing him where he had refused to stand.
It unsettled him more than it should have. The instinct to reject it rose at once, sharp, immediate. As if the word was trying to pull him back, trying to claim him, asking something he had no intention of giving.
He looked away.
Her hand rose and caught his wrist, her grip stronger than expected.
“Thakur Sa saved me.” Her voice unsteady yet firm.
And then she tried to bow. Even now. Even barely steady.
“No.” He pulled his hand free at once. “Don’t.”
The doctor and the men near her stopped her before she could bend further.
It should have ended there.
It did not.
It stayed under his skin, raw, with no place to settle.
Meera reached at that moment, her breath uneven from the run. Her eyes moved across the scene. The doctor. The crowd. Lakshmi Devi.
Then him.
Dust on his knees. Sleeves rolled. Sweat along his temples.
She dropped beside Lakshmi Devi at once, her voice soft. “Aunty, are you alright?”
Lakshmi Devi turned her head.
“Thakur Sa helped me.” Her voice was louder this time.
That did it.
The word hit him again, harder this time, and whatever had been tightening inside him… snapped.
He turned to Meera.
She felt it before she looked up. The air changed, sharp enough that her hand stilled on Lakshmi Devi’s shoulder. She rose, instinct taking over.
Abhinav was already looking at her. There was nothing measured about it now.
“One awning,” he said, each word hitting with force. “For a courtyard this size. In this heat. With this many people standing on stone that has been in the sun since morning.”
Meera blinked, caught off guard by the tone as much as the words.
“The budget…” she began.
“Is mine to handle,” he snapped, cutting her off.
People nearby went quiet.
“On a Thursday you have more than five hundred people here,” he continued, his voice rising. “One strip of shade. One water point. Thirty feet away.”
He stepped closer. “She collapsed on my stone.”
The words struck deeper.
