Morning sunrays disturbed Swara's sleep. She opened her eyes.

Last night, it was Granny who had forced her to go back to their room.

Unknowingly her eyes moved towards bed which was empty. She remembered her encounter with Sanskar in kitchen last night.

His voice rang in her ears.

'Thank You' just two words brought small smile on her lips. Her gaze went towards the pic above bed. She stared at his small smile, yet it was not reaching to his eyes. They were still empty and cold.

'He is mysterious... a big jigsaw puzzle! One has to find all pieces and interlock them to get complete picture.' She rolled her eyes while getting up from couch.

She went to dressing room to take out her cloths from bag for freshening up. While taking out her necessities, she realised, today her room was warm enough. It was not icy cold as usual. She was not shivering feeling chillness in her body.

'Did he increase the temperature of this room? Not bad... Olaf would have been melted in this warm room' her thought made her chuckle. She found one more nickname for her contractual husband.

She came out from washroom wiping her hairs when Sanskar entered in the room while typing something on his phone.

Generally, he avoided to come back to their room knowing Swara would be there but today he needed Granny's medical reports which was there in his dressing room.

He entered inside dressing room but halted in his tracks looking at Swara who was wiping her hairs with towel looking at mirror. Melodious humming's earned his attention.

She was wearing simple turquoise coloured kurta with white leggings. Without any make up or any jewellery she was looking as the most pious lady.

Till today, he had seen numerous of girls in his life who were ready to throw themselves on him. They were ready to make every effort to be close with him at his first signal.

But this girl was staying with him under one roof as his on-paper wife was not even bother about his wealth, his status, his charm. She was maintaining her distance with him all the time.

'She is different' thought used to cross his mind with the realisation.

Swara felt someone's presence, she turned to see Sanskar standing at doorstep.

'Beep' sound from his phone broke their eye lock. He moved inside to open the cupboard get the file.

Swara continued her work but frequently looking at his moves. He was least bother about her gaze. He took what he needed and left without saying a single word as if she was not there.

After her daily routine of puja, she was entering in Granny's room when she heard Sanskar convincing Granny to shift her in his penthouse and as usual Granny was declining it.

"Granny why don't you listen to me for once in your life-time?"

"No, I am not going anywhere. This is final."

"Ok if you are not moving to my home then I am shifting here. This is also final." He declared shrugging his shoulders.

"Let's see how much this is final" Granny rolled her eyes.

Swara entered with her morning breakfast supressing her chuckle looking at grandmother and grandson's banter.

"Granny your breakfast" Swara kept tray on table.

Granny turned her face to other side.

Sanskar closed his eyes in frustration.

"Granny this is your favourite" Swara shifted her gaze between plate and Granny being confused.

"I am not hungry" Granny crossed her hands.

"But Granny you have to take your medicines and..."

"She has her own ways to bring me on my knees" Sanskar muttered frustratingly rubbing his forehead.

"You know me better than anyone else so why are you even trying to convince me." Granny gave him sheepish look.

"This is not done Granny" Sanskar warned raising his eyebrows.

Granny took his hand in her's with soft smile.

"Listen, is it possible for you to stay here and work from home every day?" she took a pause with challenging glare towards Sanskar.

Then she continued, "No. It is ok to do work from home for one or two days but for your position. It's not possible. You know it better than anyone else."

"At least I can be with you..." as usual Granny interrupted him.

"Even if you are here, and I need any medical assistance, what will be your first step... You will call doctor. For that we have Julia here. Also, this nurse is here. Doctor visits me every day and evening as I know you would have threatened him. You are just 1 hour drive away from me."

After 2 long hours of convincing and persuasion session, Sanskar finally dropped his weapons in front of his stubborn grandmother and went back to Toronto with Swara in the evening with heavy heart.

While driving back Swara could see remorse on his face. She felt slight pang in her heart seeing his tensed face.

'No, I am feeling bad because of I am worried for Granny. She is going to be alone for next two days. Yes, I am feeling heavy in my heart just for her. Hey Kanhaji, please keep your blessings on Granny.'

Within a blink one more month was passed, Granny was recovering which brought momentarily satisfaction on Sanskar's and Swara's face. But there were no changes between their routine as well as their behaviour.

Sanskar finished his meeting with board of directors and came out. He was moving towards his cabin while giving instructions to his PA Mike, when his eyes went towards corner where he could see Swara with Ryan.

Ryan was trying to convince Swara but looking at her expressions Sanskar guessed that she was least interested in their talks and was trying to escape.

Sanskar clutched his fist passing death glare to them. Mike's voice broke his trance, he just shook his head and left from there.

It was not for the first time he was seeing her with Ryan.

In last one month, Sanskar had observed them. Ryan was trying his best to allure Swara and she was avoiding him with her best efforts. Every time when he had seen her with Ryan, unaware of himself, he was becoming protective for her.

On Friday evening, as usual Swara was waiting for Sanskar at their decided stop to go to Granny's home after office hours.

She saw the car stopping in front of her. She opened back seat door to slip inside but today there was no one.

"Roger has emergency" Sanskar's voice from driver seat gained her attention, "And I am not your driver."

It took few seconds for Swara to understand hidden meaning of his sentence. She rolled her eyes and closed backseat door to slip in passenger seat.

Sanskar was driving towards Granny's home in silence whereas Swara was looking outside.

"What do you think about the workplace harassment forum, which was announced on quarterly townhall, today?" Sanskar asked out of nowhere. He purposefully had sidelined Roger today; he had decided to talk to her about the issue.

For a moment Swara felt he was talking over Bluetooth over his meeting.

She stared at him in puzzlement for few seconds.

He just shook his head.

"It's ok. It's good. It has its own benefits." Swara could barely reply in daze.

"Benefits?" he asked again.

"Yes"

"Do you think people will come forward to raise their voices?" he questioned again.

"Yes, I guess so" she stammered remembering her own discomfort with Ryan.

"Really?" he scrunched his eyebrows. "Office staff needs to raise their voices. If they don't; then how come, they expect management to help them to tackle such situations."

"Sometimes one can handle such situations with ignorance." Swara stared at far.

"May be" he shrugged his shoulders.

'Why can't she voices out her fears?' He clutched steering wheel turning his knuckles into white.

Swara turned her eyes to other side remembering similar incident she faced while working in her earlier company.

'Nikhil I cannot bear it. I mean, I don't like the way he looks at me. I feel disgusted of myself. I am thinking to make HR complaint against him.' She was on terrace with Nikhil.

'Come on Swara have you lost your brain? He is your manager for your current project. Your yearly appraisal, increment, bonus everything is in his hands. Why do you want to get into trouble?' Nikhil replied looking at baffled Swara.

'If he is my manager, that does not mean he can physically harass me or mentally torture me. He discusses all his personal issues with me, how his and his wife's relations is broken, he had asked me to accompany him to clubs, every time he purposefully asked me to work late night, unnecessarily he calls for meeting just to keep on staring at me and you want me to keep my mouth shut?'

'Arre yaar Swara, you are taking this too far just ignore. Did he ever misbehave with you? Did he ever touch you? Did he ever used any kinky word for you? No... then why are you becoming so hyper. Just few more months and then you will be shifted to other project.' Nikhil replied casually.

One tear dropped from her eyes which she wiped immediately, but Sanskar had already noticed it.

'Hey Kahnaji please clear this mess of my life. I want to go back to my normal, beautiful life with my family. Please give me strength to face this. You know... I must do this. This job is very important for me. Please keep your blessings.'

When they reached to Granny's home, Swara forgot recent happenings under the love showered over her by Granny. Weekend passed with in blink with her.

It was weekday and Sanskar was as usual working late in his cabin. At 11 he finished his work and started packing up to go back to his home. He came out and automatically his eyes went towards another meeting room where lights were on. He became curious to know about insider. He moved head and opened the door and scene in front halted him at the spot.

Ryan and Swara were alone in the room. Swara was making some changes on her laptop whereas Ryan was sitting beside her.

"Yes, this needs to change" Ryan held Swara's palm.

"Sir, I will do the changes." Swara took out her hand from his grip. She was sweating badly even when AC was cooling the room.

"It's late night I can drop you. Or better idea let's go to some club and have some drinks." Ryan again came near her.

Swara felt disgusted and moved back to make safe distance.

Today, Ryan tricked Brittany and asked her to order Swara to finish complete designs as he needed them for his upcoming presentation.

Ryan being superior to Brittany, she had to take his orders. She stayed with Swara all time being concerned. But when she left 15 mins back Ryan found perfect opportunity to play his cheap game.

"What is happening over here? Why are you here at this time?" Sanskar scrunched his eyebrows. His question was directed towards Swara.

His heated gaze passed thunders through Swara's body for a moment. But her heart was filed with unknown peace. She closed her eyes feeling relived and one tear rolled over her cheeks.

"What are you doing here?" he asked again throwing daggers at Swara.

"Sir, she asked me to come here. She wanted me to go over the latest changes which we needed to add on final marketing presentation for Amanera."

Swara looked at him in bewilderment.

"Is it done now?" Sanskar tunred his eyes to Ryan.

"Yes almost. We were leaving only. Come Swara I will drop you to your home."

His one statement took away floor from Swara's feet.

"Ryan, I think you should leave. I need to go over on proposed changes. I am not going to finalise them on presentation unless and until I approve. Ms. Mehra, in my cabin. NOW."

He turned to go out.

Swara started to follow him without a word.

Ryan gritted his teeth cursing Sanskar in his mind for spoiling his perfectly layed out plan.

The moment they entered in his cabin, Sanskar grabbed her hand and pushed her back to the side wall after closing the door.

'Thud' sound of the door flinched Swara at her place.

"What do you think of yourself? Are you a superwoman?" he roared on top of his voice, holding her shoulders staring at her face.

Swara had closed her eyes, but tears were rolling over her cheeks continuously.

It was dark in the room, one glance at her tormented face left a scar on Sanskar's soul.

*********************************************

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