Mr. Karthik involved himself into praising me instead of focusing on the meeting for which he had summoned us. He appreciated joking around even in serious issues. I didn't know how an aged man like him found happiness in everything he witnessed or spoke. He was a carefree human being and I adored him for this particular reason. Mr. Luthra wouldn't also deny it because I knew he loved Mr. Karthik dearly.

I pressed my lips together to speak in an annoyed tone, "Will you stop it, Mr. Karthik? We are here to discuss on an important issue and not praise one another."

"Look Karan, my girl is losing her patience. I am praising only her and she thinks I am praising each one of us. What to do now?" said Mr. Karthik, looking at Mr. Luthra.

"You need to do nothing and must proceed with the meeting. She will calm down by herself," Mr. Luthra spoke in a casual voice as if my annoyance didn't matter him. It seemed he had already understood or read the instincts present in me.

Mr. Karthik smiled again before starting to speak, "Mrs. Luthra told me that she had seen only the eyes of one of the attackers at the hospital. She will help us in sketching the eyes and if possible, the external appearance of the person. Our urgent focus is to get Karan up on his limbs because his involvement is necessary."

"I will be removing the dressing of his wounds after three more days. Then I'll start with his physiotherapy a week after. I'm hoping that he gets completely cured by the end of this month." I tried to assure them.

There were twenty more days left for the month to get over and I was under the impression that he would get cured with the efforts of my professional expertise. His involvement was very important for the case as it was linked to him.

"Preeta will accomplishing it easily because she is a gem." Mr. Karthik told Karan before catching a glimpse of my puckered face.

"I'll put all my efforts to assist Preeta in the medical procedures. I will also try to help you in the case wherever possible." Mr. Luthra joined us in making the promises.

"So we have come to a standpoint for the mysterious case. Anyways Mrs. Luthra, you wanted to converse something personally?" Mr. Karthik turned to me and I sat upright on the creaking chair.

"Can we move aside, please?" I gestured and Mr. Karthik nodded, walking over to a farther corner of the room

We stood watching Mr. Luthra from the corner of the room, who was trailing his index finger on the table, perhaps intensely thinking something. He would always get lost in worries whenever he was left alone and I was the witness to his strange behavior a number of times.

#Mr. Karthik, don't you think he seems to be behaving oddly sometimes," I stated, my eyes still fixated on Mr. Luthra.

"He looks so odd because he is married now." Mr. Karthik winked, a playful smile adorning his thick lips.

I pouted in a fit of annoyance. "It's something serious which we need to discuss. He is surreal sometimes which surprises me."

What makes you think so?"

I narrated the viable incidents to him, from his behavior at the hospital to the restless sleep at night in his own room. He was even behaving weird many a times which were clearly noticeable. These incidents were providing us with evident reasons to doubt on him.

"So this is an important issue which we need to ponder upon. Things have been disturbing him to such a great extent." I concluded sympathetically, getting extremely worried for Mr. Luthra.

"I think you are right. He is in some sort of trouble and we need to help him out. Since you are going to stay with him all day long, it will be easier for you to find out." He directed me in his stringent avatar.

"I was thinking on it and so I shared my concerns with you," I concluded before moving to the table again.

Mr. Karthik gently put his palm over Mr. Luthra's shoulder before bidding. "Karan, I'm leaving for my office and the sketch artist will arrive to get the eyes drawn from her. You both handle things properly here."

_________

The sketch artist visited us later during the day and I narrated him the vague details of the second suspicious man. He possessed blunt eyes with oversized eyelashes and his eyebrows were permanently knitted together in a straight line. His eyeballs were usually larger than normal and he had a mole on his right cheek where his dark spots ended.

The suspicious attacker had worn a navy blue hoodie jacket with a typical dragon tattoo attached or stitched below the collar of his back. I summarised whatever details I could remember and the sketch artist left the bungalow after we had completed working on it.

When Mr. Luthra was already asleep in the evening, I sat at his study table with a notebook, jotting down all the major points of the case. We were clueless and joining the incomplete dots was utmost necessary.

My phone rang all of a sudden and I saw my assistant Anand giving me the call. I was away from my workplace and updates were needed to be collected.

"How is work going on?" I asked Anand, biting the bottom of the pen in my hand.

"It hasn't been great but manageable. A file from the tribal village of Birpur has arrived in your name and that a new medicinal research is being done for them. The reliability of it hasn't been tested so it can't be even applied on the indigenous people. They are demanding a confirmation from you," he informed me in a worried tone.

"Can you do one thing? Meet me outside the Luthra house in an hour. I'll receive the file from him." I instructed him before disconnecting the call.

Mr. Luthra was awakened in half an hour and I fed him the evening dose of medicines. He used to generally stay silent and only conversed with me whenever needed.

I bit my lower lip before asking for his permission. "You need some fresh air, Mr. Luthra. A change in weather is sometimes helpful for health and recovering wounds. Can I take you for a brisk walk around the garden?"

He nodded briskly, looking up at me with a small smile. "If that is what you think fits my condition, you must do it but beware that you hold the entire responsibility of my life."

I assured him before entering the washroom to freshen up. Neatly dressed up in a high neck yellow top and a pair of skinny black trousers, I moved out of the loop only to find him fiddling with his mobile, nervousness sweating his forehead.

Mr. Luthra looked very tensed, immensely worried of something invisible to me. Was it his mobile which was scaring him or anything else?

"Ready to go?" He asked me when he felt my presence near him and I simply nodded my head.

Rolling his wheelchair once again, I pushed him out of the room and he immediately slipped his mobile into his breast pocket before hugging his own body with his arms, anxiousness getting ruled out with the passage of time.

__________

With Mr. Luthra rolling in his wheelchair, we were taking a brisk walk around the garden and my eyes were constantly rotating in different directions to keep track of any unusual activity. He had his eyes looking at the narrow path before him, pruned garden shrubs covering the ground on either sides.

The aroma of fresh flowers and picturesque of young new leaves were drawing my attention towards them. Mr. Luthra's soft chuckle broke my wondrous trance and I paused for a moment.

"Preeta, do you think I'll get cured anytime soon? Can I revert to my original posture and start walking again?" He was questioning me like any little child would, his expecting eyes full of innocence gazing at me.

His voice was gentle this time and the moment his palm brushed against my wrist, I tensed in my position. I didn't know this Mr Luthra at all, someone who used to be so rude to me a couple of days ago.

With a flick of my tongue inside my mouth, I responded, "Of course you will. Why are you getting nervous? We are there with you."

Before he could ask anything else, I received a call from Anand. He was waiting outside the main entrance for my permission and when I ordered the securities, they allowed Anand inside the gate.

While Anand was walking up to us, I noticed Mr. Luthra staring at my assistant with a dense glare, the skin of his forehead folded in deep grooves. I was unfamiliar of his reaction for my assistant and simply ignored him.

"Ma'am, first of all a very big congratulations for your marriage." Anand wished me as soon as he approached us and waved at Mr. Luthra. The latter chose not to reciprocate and Anand shrugged his shoulders in confusion.

"Tha...thank you. Where's the file?" I embarrassingly asked Anand and he handed me a pink file cover. He also added that the papers were inside it and I nodded agreeing to him.

"Anand, I'll contact you after I finish working on it. I was also working on some patients from the Taipara village but couldn't complete my commitments on time. If you would likely visit the place with our team and update me with the news, I'll be highly grateful." I instructed him.

"Sure Ma'am, we are to abide by your orders. By the way, once you return to work, we will get to dine and party hard for your marriage, won't we?" Anand asked, smiling widely.

I bit my lips in nervousness before mumbling, "Let me return, I'll see to it."

I didn't know what to answer him since they were demanding a marriage treat from me. My marriage was a fake one only to instigate the public so the best option was just to avoid any such question at the moment.

"You are being so practical, ma'am. We are not that stubborn for a treat. You may take your time spending ample of it with your husband and join us later on." Anand shook hands with me before leaving the place.

I checked the file folder once again and found some papers in it. I frowned my forehead thinking of how to work simultaneously with so many cases at once, almost forgetting that Mr. Luthra was waiting for me to talk to him.

He cleared his throat, making a husky sound and I stole a quick glance at him. He raised an eyebrow at me before saying, "If you are free now, can we talk?"

He talked like a little kid wanting to speak to someone he always wished for, his lips parting slightly to allow an entry to the fresh air outdoors. His innocent requests in a soft milder tone was melting my heart, a heavenly urge to listen to him whenever he spoke.

"You can, Mr. Luthra. I didn't prevent you from speaking to me," I replied tenderly, my concentration still hitched to the file.

"If I am permitted, may I ask you something?"

"Yes."

"Who was he and what did he give you?" He asked me, a mild coldness in his husky voice.

"He's my assistant Anand and he gave me a file related to some medical reports on a tribal medicine." I briefly explained him what the file contained and he was attentively listening to me like a baby would listen to his mother.

At the end of my explanation, he muttered, comparatively slower this time. "Oh! He seemed to be so frank with you. You both must be good friends."

"We have been great friends and worked together on many cases. We eventually became frank while working professionally," I plainly responded to all his queries while the expression over his face was lost somewhere.

"You must have been gone out of station for work together?" He was enquiring me like any ideal husband would and as if I was liable to answer him.

"We have but it's our profession, right? Why are you so interested to know it?" I enquired him this time.

"I just wanted to know about my wife and her past life, that's it." He frankly muttered in an unclear voice, passing a brief smirk soon after.

"Are you trying to woo me, Mr. Luthra? I didn't interrogate you about your college friends when they had visited. You were way too frank with them, touching and embracing them merrily. Why are you enquiring me like a cop? Please don't forget that we are into a contract marriage for a case and it holds no reality of any relationship. It'll end with the termination of the case." I was straightforward with my stern replies like always and I could see his face drooping lower, his eyes full of embarrassment and shame.

"I'm sorry for crossing my limits unnecessarily. I should have remembered that I was just your CLIENT," he murmured slowly, stressing on the last word before averting his gaze from me.

Rotating his eyes awkwardly, he stared at the dusky evening sky and the birds flying back to their nests. The warm breeze was consolidating while transitioning to a colder one. The weather of the month of February was comparatively cooler before the advent of spring and I hugged my arms closer to my torso to fight the chilly wind.

He didn't try to look at me for a second time after the heated  conversation with him. He chose to remain quiet throughout the evening before we glided back into the house in prim silence, wondering of the sudden change in his behavior.

I didn't know what wrong I had spoken since it was true that we were under a contractual marriage and supposed to separate as soon as things were solved. Definitely, he had no right to call me his wife even if it was just a silly joke.

All along the way to his room and the duration of dinner, he didn't speak an another word again. He was busy contemplating with his own anticipations while I kept staring at his lustreless face for a long time.

_________

To be continued...