It was a whistle, a tune as chilling as a cold breeze that cut through the air charged electrically with the protestors' shouts. Naina had heard it yesterday too and the sound unnerved her. Because right after the whistle---

"Naina," someone whispered in her ear and the moment she turned around, she found no one.

"Ohas, did you hear that?" Naina asked, pulling Ohas' sleeve worriedly. "Was someone there behind me?"

"Who?" Ohas' eyebrows furrowed, looking here and there before he glanced at his watch. "We have a meeting now."

She let go of his sleeve, nodding and following him into Ahanay's opulent office tower. Naina had never stepped inside and everywhere her ex-husband's wealth flashed in front of her, glittering as scintillating light bounced off glass floors and walls and touching everything into gold. She was half-afraid of walking on the polished floor, checking to see if her dirty shoes left traces of filth and poverty behind her. Taking a deep breath, she said to Ohas, "It's okay, I'll get half of this as alimony."

But her heart wasn't thudding in excitement at the idea of alimony, but rather at seeing Ahanay who sat at his desk, examining some papers gravely. Naina knocked on the door to get his attention and he looked up, his gaze briefly falling on Ohas before he picked it up and kept it fixed on Naina. His face was a blank canvas and that scared her, because whatever she did now, however, she affected him, she would be responsible for the tiniest scrawl on that canvas. She was already miserable from the guilt that choked her, she couldn't afford to hurt him more since that would mean choking herself to death. These days, his pain made her ache more than her own.

"We're here," she said in a weak voice, her voice raw and torn as if someone had scratched it into tiny decibels.

"I asked you to come," he said plainly as if making an observation. "But it's good that you're here. In fact, I would like to talk to only him."

"What? No!" Surprised, Naina quickly grasped Ohas' hand, afraid that he would agree and both would get into another fight. Ahanay's gaze didn't dare to flicker to their hands intertwined together, knowing what she had done, not wanting to witness it. At his stony face, she quickly let go of Ohas' hand, grimacing. "I just don't want you both to fight again. And I'm an important part of this protest. You cannot avoid me."

"How important are you?" Ahanay said, leaning forward and resting his chin on his clasped hands. "You have been living in a mansion for several months. You're part of the upper class now and you have nothing to do with your past. You have cut off your entire family from your life. You were ostracised in that neighborhood so you never had any friends there. You don't own a single property. Now, how important are you? Speak."

Naina was tongue-tied, trying to relay her memory on why exactly she had initiated this protest, settling the reason to be her memory itself. Despite being cast away, she still had grown up watching communities come together. Marrying a rich man like Ahanay and seeing him destroy those communities and deprive them of their homes made her feel guilty. Especially, since her food came from their loss and she had nothing to either gain or question it.

"Fine, I may not be directly related to it. But I do have a say. I grew up in that neighborhood!"

"Every passing person can have a say then," Ahanay remarked coolly, a sharp contrast to her passionate outburst. "This is business and we're discussing legal matters here. Emotions have no place. Besides, you and I have a . . . History."

"I'm not bringing in any emotions or our marriage here. Why do men always dismiss women saying we're bringing in emotions? As if, you men aren't emotional about these things at all. If it weren't for emotions, none of us here would have even thought of the idea of home- but fine, you can talk to Ohas here," Naina said, her chest rising and falling from her another outburst that made her breathless. "I'll shut my mouth."

Ahanay opened his mouth to say something but decided against it and shifted his focus to Ohas whom he had ignored all this while. "I think you're very important." He threw a stack of papers across the table, gesturing with his eyes for Ohas to pick them up. Ohas' chest swelled with anger at his gestures and it was only when Naina pleaded in his ears to take a look, he stepped forward. After a prolonged silence, Ahanay said, "So?"

Naina saw Ohas' knuckles turning white as he nearly crumpled the papers in his hands. Curious, Naina tried to peek over his shoulders, but he quickly slapped them against the desk. "What are those?"

"Well, just that, he owns properties that are worth crores," Ahanay replied on behalf of Ohas, nonchalant as if the money discussed here were not in crores, but mere coins. "Illegally, of course. Most likely through extortion and murder. My theory is that he gives small loans for high-interest rates and a stake in their properties. All these years, he has managed to trap more people- it's a clever strategy. I won't deny him the credit where he deserves. Is it ethical? Since ethics is what you both here are fighting for."

"What?" Naina asked, snatching the papers and scanning them, too many zeroes to count.

"He doesn't want the construction here because he'll lose out his wealth. One lawsuit and he'll be poorer by some crores," Ahanay said, but he looked more tired than satisfied. "He has been extorting money out of your people when he doesn't deserve anything. Still, believe in your idea of home?"

"What-what-is this true?" Naina looked at Ohas, shaken, her built-up truth had collapsed to a rubble of lies. "You didn't want to save our people? You just wanted to save your own money!" At his angry silence, Naina burst out, "You're exploiting them more than anyone else! How the hell can you fool all of us, me? I trusted you! Now, what are we supposed to tell the people out there, who are missing out on their daily wages to protest against an enemy when you're the real culprit?"

"He's not innocent in this," Ohas said through gritted teeth, his cold cat eyes flashing to Ahanay.

"The profit I'll make is marginal. But sure, it's profit nonetheless," he said, looking more exhausted than ever. "If you wish to question my practices, I don't think either of you qualify to do that. Send someone who is impacted by this, who is neither upper class nor a fraud and I'll agree to listen."

"Bastard," Ohas swore, taking long strides to grab Ahanay by the collar.

Ahanay's eyes burned, but he scoffed, extinguishing that burn. "Quit acting like a child. Turning to violence when you can't get what you want."

"Security!" Naina shouted and a stream of guards immediately poured in, grabbing Ohas and restraining him by his arms. She turned to Ahanay and for a moment, caught something, like a longing before he quickly hid it with his business-like persona that he had adopted throughout the meeting. Naina contained her anger, her shame, and her guilt, to match his business-like face and said, "We'll be sending some other people to talk with you tomorrow."

"Send a list of signatures of people who don't want this."

"Consider that done," she said, slamming the door shut and walking out, realizing what a fool she had made out of herself this entire time.

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