Page 180 of No Boss
Water echoed. The ceiling shaped into a dome. Names, prayers and symbols covered the walls in endless layers.
And near the far wall, beside the small flame… Meera.
Everything inside him stopped. He stared at her, breath failing him. Then reality hit him all at once.
He crossed the chamber in seconds and pulled her onto her feet. His arms closed around her hard enough to hurt. He did not loosen them. Could not.
He held her against his chest as if holding her tightly enough could erase the last eight hours. His face pressed into her hair, breath breaking there as he breathed her in.
Alive.
Warm.
Real.
She was alive.
Chapter 33
The underground spring chamber had always carried peace. Tonight, it carried silence.
Meera had not planned to come here. Her feet had brought her on their own through hidden corridors her body remembered better than her mind did.
She sat against the stone wall, knees drawn in, listening to the endless movement of water echo through the chamber. The same spring that had marked the beginning of Anands.
Her eyes rested on the oil lamp beside her. Her thoughts circled the same moment again and again.
Rajveer. Abhinav. The finality in his voice when he agreed.
He was selling her home.
Her throat tightened painfully.
“Maa,” she whispered, her voice hollow, “tell me how one person can hold you as if you are his entire world… and still sign away your home in the same morning.”
The flame burned. The water moved. No answer came.
She had walked out without telling anyone. She did not have the strength to face anyone and pretend she was happy. Everyone looked at her with joy. Everyone spoke about wedding clothes and rituals and beginnings. If one person had asked what was wrong, she would have broken.
And now, cold rose from the stone into her bones.
She welcomed it.
Better the cold of rock than the warmth of his arms still lingering across her skin. Better this ache than the memory of him whispering promises against her skin.
Her vision blurred. The lamp became the only point left in a world that had tilted.
She did not hear him.
One moment she sat there. The next, she was no longer touching the ground.
Abhinav’s arms closed around her with a force that stole her breath. He pulled her into him as if she had been slipping through his hands. His breath broke harshly against her neck, uneven and ragged.
“Meera.”
Her name tore out of him.
“Meera…”
