"If you weren't stuck to an oxygen cylinder, I would be choking you" muttered Rajiv angrily at Mahadevan. It was lunch-break and Rajiv had rushed back to meet Mahadevan after taking special permission from his attending physician.

"So you met the stress?" asked Mahadevan with a very tired smile.

"You knew who she is, didn't you?" asked Rajiv.

"Of course, she told me her husband's name when I asked her. I knew right away that you my nephew, is that idiot who abandoned her", he replied.

"I did not abandon her. Wait, didn't she say her name is Miss Leena Mathews, why did you ask her who her husband is?" asked Rajiv in confusion.

"I proposed marriage to her, that's when she told me that her husband had left her...." said Mahadevan.

"YOU DID WHAT!??!" shouted Rajiv garnering angry glares from the nurses around.

"Sh..... I am a widower, I wanted to marry her. And she refused, that's what happened", said Mahadevan.

Anger was boiling Rajiv's blood.

"Now listen, she is in plenty of trouble and you need to protect her now. Be the husband that you should be to her before anything happens" said Mahadevan.

"Why? What trouble is she in?" asked Rajiv.

"Ask her, I am in the ICU and I am not supposed to talk", said Mahadevan.

The nurse who came by motioned that time was up and Rajiv nodded to Mahadevan and went back to office.

It was nearing 2:30 PM and each passing minute was making Rajiv more nervous to meet Leena. At sharp 2:30 she was in his cabin.

"Are those the acquisition documents?" asked Rajiv looking at the folder in her hand.

"Yes, sir" she said with a brief hint of nervousness in her voice, calling him sir sounded weird to her.

"Shall we go?" asked Rajiv. The prospect of being alone in a car was unsettling to both Rajiv and Leena, but it was the moment to be professional. They went downstairs to the parking lot.

When they were together, Rajiv used to always open doors for her, now that she is his subordinate and their staff could see them, he simply got into the driver's seat while she got into the passenger side. As Rajiv put the address in the map application, they both were becoming aware of each other's presence. Leena's scent and heat was wafting in the direction of Rajiv, the way her hand was on the folder in her lap made his want to touch her hand. Leena was avoiding looking at Rajiv, his shirt with two open buttons, that used to drive her crazy was making her nervous. "Control yourself", they each said to themselves.

"Lets go" said Rajiv said finally, breaking the awkward silence.

Leena nodded.

They drove in silence to the brewery, nothing was heard except the directions said by the app. By 3:00 PM, they finally reached the brewery and met the owner Surendra Kumar. He was a tall dark man with a paunch, he was very helpful and showed them around the vats and the distillation facilities. It was around 4:30 PM that the tour and discussions finished and Rajiv and Leena were back in the car. But instead of taking her back to the office, he drove to the sea side which was a few kilometers away. Leena was expecting that they would be going to talk, so she kept quite until they reached. All through the trip, their unfamiliarity and nervousness prevented them from speaking to each other.

Once they reached the seaside, he stopped the car. Leena was about to open the door.

"Don't, lets just talk in the car", said Rajiv.

"Ok", replied Leena.

Rajiv, who was determinedly facing the steering wheel turned towards her and that's when he remembered, it was fifteen years since he was this physically close to Leena. He gazed into her eyes and was met with an equally scared and nervous pair of eyes.

"How have you been?" he asked.

"As fine as I could be, away from you and ....." her eyes filled with tears.

"I missed you so much, it hurt like a knife through my heart", he said, his own eyes misting.

By now tears were flowing down her cheeks, "Then why didn't you find me? I thought you did not want me back. Or have you found someone else?" she asked.

"Why would I find someone else?" he asked.

"I heard from someone in the office today that you were planning to marry", she said.

"Which idiot told you that? I am being forced by my family to file for divorce and marry someone that they selected. But I do not bother about that, they don't decide what I do with my life. ", he said.

"Then why didn't you come looking for me?" she asked.

"I was raising our kids, and you know very well that I could not come back there. My family never bothered to find out why and how I was raising our sons until three years back. They saw our Ravi's photograph in a newspaper, when he came first in engineering entrance exam. That's when they decided to come back into our lives.", he said. "I couldn't let someone else take care of them when I come searching for you. Especially due to Kiran, he had so many health issues. I thought once Ravi graduated, I could leave Abhi and Kiran with him and come looking for you", he said.

"What is wrong with Kiran?" asked Leena.

"He was diagnosed with a hole in the heart when he was two. He went through four surgeries, the last one three years back was successful" said Rajiv.

Leena dropped her head in anguish on her lap and said, "Its all my fault, I wasn't there". She started sobbing uncontrollably.

"How is that your fault? Don't be ridiculous", said Rajiv laying his arm around her shoulders.

Fifteen years back, they could barely keep their arms away from each other. But now years of being apart had made it awkward and they both gingerly moved away from each other.

"What do they look like now?" she asked him.

Rajiv took out his cellphone and opened the photo gallery. There was a picture of him with the kids.

Leena wiped the tears from her eyes and took the phone.

"Ravi and Kiran, both look a lot like you", she said laughing.

"Yeah, Abhi looks a lot like you. He reminds me of you every single day", said Rajiv.

"What do they do?" she asked.

"Ravi is an engineering student, just like you, he loves bikes and football and has a girlfriend", said Rajiv with a disapproving shake of his head. "Abhi is studying commerce, he wants to do MBA and be like me! He also plays a lot of football. He is pretty popular with the girls, my parents think that's because of his smile, he smiles just like you. Kiran is still in school and loves science, he wants to be a doctor. He couldn't do sports, so he plays guitar", said Rajiv.

"I want to meet them" she said.

"I will arrange that", Rajiv replied.

"How? They will hate me for abandoning them, and it won't be safe for you and the kids", she said.

Rajiv took the phone and kept it back in his pocket and then took her hand in both his and said, "I am sorry, but I had to erase your face from their memory. They won't recognize you".

Leena gave a start, "What?"

"When Ravi was seven years old, they was a mothers' day celebration in his school which he did not tell me about. Something happened on that day and he came back upset and went on a rampage at home. He threw all your photographs on the floor and then became very sick. I could not convince him that you loved him, and he was too young to be told why we had to separate. Your image triggered him a lot and I had to remove them from our home. Since the last two years, my family is coming regularly and staying with us. I don't know what they speak of you when I am not around. Since then, they do not listen to me when I talk about you", he said.

"So my sons, for whom I gave up everything, even my husband, hates me", she sobbed.

"When they know the truth, they will worship you", said Rajiv earnestly.

"You think so?" she asked.

"Of course, we spent our youth away from each other to protect them. They will understand this soon enough. I will make sure that they understand. I want you back in our life, as my wife and their mother", he said hugging her close.

He then took her face in his hands and said, "I will ask them to come tomorrow to the office. You could see them".

Leena smiled in happiness and they hugged again. But then, the awkwardness settled in once again and they separated.

"I heard that you were in some kind of trouble? What happened?" he asked.

"The old trouble, my uncle Stephen. I came back to Kerala and he got to know about it. In order to protect me, his daughter Sophie made me stay with her and her husband. Her father won't do anything to me if I stay with them, but now her husband Roshan got a transfer to Kozhikode, and they will be leaving by the end of this month. I told Mahadevan sir about it and he suggested that I shift to your branch and it will sort out by itself. I did not understand it then, now I do as to why he asked me to shift. Is he a friend of yours", she said.

"Yeah, kind of. He happens to be my uncle as well, my father's youngest brother", said Rajiv. He remembered the proposal and was getting mad at him again.

"Really? I told him your name almost a month back, didn't he even once mention about me to you?" she asked curiously.

"No. By the way, didn't he propose to you?" asked Rajiv.

"Yeah, that's when your name cropped up", she said resignedly.

"I don't know whether I should be mad or thankful to him", he said grinding his teeth.

"I think we have much more serious issues at hand", said Leena, looking warily at him.

"I know", said Rajiv.

"Look, its almost 5:30, people will be wondering where we are. I have to get back home as well", said Leena.

Rajiv look stung.

"What happened?" asked Leena.

"You just mentioned your home. Its not ours" he said sadly.

Leena lowered her eyes and said, "That's the card we were dealt with. You promise to bring the kids to office tomorrow?"

"Yes, I will bring them to office. It just their luck as well, mother being chased to be murdered for property and father being accused of murder for stealing property" Rajiv observed.

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