He was clutching my waist with all his might as I rubbed his tousled hair. He was seeking comfort in me and I was giving him. I could feel his shaking fists clenching against my hips, fighting a desperate battle against some unknown grief which I was unable to comprehend.

A lone tear trickled down from his face along my little exposed
cleavage though the stole was
covered halfway above my tank
top. I shifted my mobile torch next to his face and witnessed his sore eyes. Mists of agony was definitely troubling him but I didn't know the cause of his pains.

Tears were dripping his sharp
eyes and I experienced a pang of sympathy cutting across my chest. He laid his head next to my bosom and allowed me to caress his hair. His chest was touching mine laterally and I could feel his heartbeat pounding heavily against my skin. He was running short of breath and needed a little time to compose his nerves.

I waited to shift him to the bed so that he could take rest for his wounds to heal in time. But his hold onto me was too tight to be detached, compelling me to remain fixated in the same position for some time.

As we remained frozen together,
I slightly tilted my head and looked in the direction of the
bedside table. There were some
medicines and a paper adjacent
to it, which I guessed to be the
doctor's prescription. Being a
doctor, I was aware of the right
amount of doses he required for his illness to be cured, but I didn't know the right amount of
comfort he needed for his pain to be mitigated. Thus, I chose to patiently wait for his fear to
subside.

We were sitting in the same position for quite some time,
listening to the sound of the ticking clock ceaselessly. Many
minutes had passed before I felt
his chest relaxing and heartbeat
slackening, the peak of rapid
breathing decreasing and his nerves were sedating back to
normal.

I brought the mobile closer and
stared into his face again. His eyes were tightly shut though he had his arms engulfing me. He was inhaling deeper breaths, his body fast asleep. I eventually moved from our positions and he loosened his grip in sleep.
Wrapping my arms around his
shoulders, I pushed him lightly
to rest his back against the wall
behind us.

I shifted myself to reach for the
medicines on the table. Quickly
glancing through the prescription, I grabbed the tranquillisers at first. The doctor had already prescribed him sedatives but his condition had turned severe only because he wasn't supplied with the night dose in time.

With a glass of water in my hand, I cupped his cheeks softly,
parted his cracked lips and plunged the right sedative into
his mouth. He gobbled it in his
semi-conscious state and fell into
deep slumber again. I smiled for
having performed my duty for
the night, but was infuriated for
the negligence of the doctors-in-
charge.

I glanced at the time in my mobile and it was already half
past one. I was not ready to leave
Mr. Luthra in such a pathetic
condition. Snuggling beside him,
I sat with my knees stretched, my shoulder touching his arm and my back dashing against the wall.

It wouldn't be wrong to admit that I was there as his protector and wouldn't let any harm affect him when I'm around him. Wondering on the miserable case of Mr. Luthra, I didn't realize when I had fallen asleep beside him, my head resting on his firm shoulder and arm snaking around his waist.

________

A light pat on my shoulder broke
my sleep and I snapped open my
eyes. Mr. Karthik was staring down at me, daylight shining
brightly around us. I was taken
aback when I saw Mr. Luthra had already been replaced on the bed and the embarrassment
stung me more than before when I recalled our position in sleep during the previous night.

"Mr. Karthik, I." I stirred my head in confusion when Mr. Karthik passed a light smirk.

"Ms. Arora, don't feel embarrassed at all. He was
sleeping beside you peacefully
when I came into the room. Then I called for the ward boys and they helped me in arranging him on the bed. But what were you doing here last night? Have you both spoken to each other?" He asked me casually but I was embarrassed and equally nervous. I had never expected him to find me in such a state with Mr. Luthra.

"I...I actually had a gut feeling that somebody might attack him again so I rushed here in the middle of the night..I found him confined here in the corner and fetched him his medicines. He slept silently after that and... Wait... Where is his doctor? I need to talk to him." I paused before calling for his doctor.

"Why do you even need a doctor
for him when you are yourself
here?" Mr. Karthik asked in
confusion.

"You will get to know when I speak to the doctor." I yelled the doctor's name on the top of my voice.

The doctor came rushing into the room and I marched towards
him in greater strides. The stout
figured man with whom I had
collided earlier was now standing before me and he was aware of my temper. He had already experienced it before.

"Dr. Sen, do you people tend to
ignore your patients and leave
them to die?" I yelled at him.

"What's Wrong, Dr. Arora? Why
do you always try to find reasons
to blame the hospital every now
and then?" He asked me sternly.

"I'm not uselessly blaming the
hospital at all. You should be
ashamed of yourself for leaving
a serious patient all alone in
the roomn and not providing the
required medicine on time." I was validating the reasons to him.

"Didn't Gaurav feed him the
medicine? Gaurav, where are
you?" The doctor was calling
for the caretaker meant for Mr.
Luthra.

Instead, his nurse came rushing
inside and spoke, "Sir, I saw Gaurav leaving the hospital earlier last night."

"He was supposed to fulfill his duty before leaving the hospital.
How can he be so irresponsible?
Let him return tonight and I
will catch hold of his collar." The
doctor continued pondering over the situation.

I looked over to Mr. Karthik who
was standing on my left, and he
nodded at me. He was getting
impressed with the kind of
investigation I had undertaken.
Things were getting clearer now-
Gaurav had left earlier without
feeding Mr. Luthra the medicines. We needed to get hold of Gaurav as soon as possible.

"I'm sure Gaurav won't be
returning tonight. If I hadn't
reached on time, Mr. Luthra could have died out of over-
stimulation of his nerves... He
was struggling to even breathe." I spoke in a doleful voice, and found Mr. Luthra giddily opening his eyes. He silently stared at us, holding on to his blanket in a pensive mood.

"I am sorry Dr. Arora for behaving rudely with you.
Thank you for the concern for
our patient. You really saved the
reputation of our hospital. We will try to be more careful next time." The doctor apologized while I shook my head.

"I can't allow Mr. Luthra here anymore. He is not safe in the hospital at all. Please get his
discharge papers ready. I will be
taking him home and sign him as
my patient." I declared aloud and found Mr. Luthra gazing at me with some unknown expressions written over his face. His eyes neither portrayed anger nor refusal, but something which I couldn't decipher.

Now that I had witnessed the pains he was suffering from, I was determined to cure Mr. Luthra and solve all the mysteries for him at any cost. Even if Mr. Luthra or Mr. Karthik refused now, I wouldn't agree with them at all.

On the contrary, Mr. Karthik was
smiling to himself when he heard the confidence in my voice and gestured me to go ahead with my decisions.

"But.." The doctor tried to deny
but Mr. Karthik came to my
rescue, supporting me in my
decision. The final approval was
provided by Mr. Luthra who
spoke feebly for the first time that morning, surprising everyone in the room.

"Preeta will be fetching me home and take over as my doctor. I don't want any more arguments," Mr. Luthra ordered in his regular hoarse voice like an arrogant billionaire, enthralling all of us for the time being.

Mr. Luthra was the only one who had called me by my first
name and it sounded heavenly
when it escaped his mouth. I didn't know why I felt fascinated
whenever he took my name or
spoke in my favour. He might
have even thought that I was the
one who could protect him against all odds.

Dr. Sen didn't argue anymore and left the room to get ready with the discharge papers. I stared at Mr. Karthik first and then at Mr. Luthra. Mr. Karthik shook his head at Mr. Luthra and the latter reciprocated. It was finally revealed that Mr. Luthra had also approved to our plans and began executing it.

_________

The three of us moved out of the
hospital's exit with Mr. Luthra
seated on a wheelchair. I was
gripping the push handles while
rolling him along the full length
of the corridor and Mr. Karthik
was wallking adjacent to me. As
we neared the lobby, the media
approached Mr. Luthra and
began enquiring from him.

"Sir, Ms. Arora is rumoured to
be your estranged girlfriend. Is
it true?" One of the reporters
enquired, glaring at me and I
didn't know the reason of her
glare.

"Why did you entrust your
responsibility on her all of a
sudden? How can she spend the
night with you at the hospital?" An another reporter asked in disgust and I felt like puking at her.

"She returned to your life because you have money, Sir. Didn't you consider even for once that she wasn't beside you during your hard times before accepting her so easily? Did you forgive her? How can you trust her again?" The dirty questions were travelling faster than light.

I knew I had to face such
consequences because it was only I who had cooked up the false stories. I was capable of throwing my answers at them but I was eagerly waiting for Mr. Luthra's replies.

"Preeta is not only my long term
girlfriend but also a reputed doctor. I've loved her all through
my entire life and I trust her. Stop blaming her for no reasons." Mr. Luthra retorted loudly before gripping my palm, filling the spaces between my fingers with his. The heat from his skin radiated into mine, electrifying my nerves with an unknown gesture.

"What if she's the one who is your mysterious attacker and returned to kill you?" One of the male reporters spoke this time and I could feel Mr. Luthra tensing beside me, his grip on my palm grew tighter than ever.

"I've just mentioned that I trust
this girl with all my heart. We
both have reconciled last night.
She was always there to protect
me when we used to be together
earlier. I don't find any reason to
either blame or forgive her. We
were having little issues in our
relationship and so she chose to
stay away. But she couldn't control her emotions when she found out I was fighting for my life in this hospital." He explained before glancing over to me with his blue eyes and smiling at me.

"But Sir, didn't you think for once if she was still loyal to you before forgiving her?" They asked again and questions weren't coming to a halt for them.

"Preeta has always been loyal to
me. She didn't commit any mistake so why will she need a pardon?" Mr. Luthra was pretending better than us, but his words seemed to raise a tempest inside my heart for some underlying reasons.

Mr. Luthra wasn't in good health at all but he couldn't bear the media insulting me. I suddenly
remembered Mr. Karthik's words to me. He had told me that Mr. Luthra was a man with a golden heart and he would do
anything to protect me and my
dignity.

My thoughts were interrupted
when I heard Mr. Karthik's
voice. "Didn't you all hear what
Karan said? Now please move
out of our way."

"We understand what he explained to us but it doesn't
mean Mr. Luthra has to fetch
Ms. Arora to his villa. His fans
wouldn't accept it that easily.
He has hidden his relationship
from us for such a long time and
a girl suddenly reappears in his
life, wanting to stay with him in
his bungalow." The media were
reluctant to move aside.

"We are going to get married after we leave from here. My lawyer is waiting at my bungalow for us. I think you won't have any problem ifI stay with my wife. Shall we depart now?" I heard Mr. Luthra's hoarse voice again, his hand gently placed at the side of my hip as if he wanted to protect me from everything.

My inner emotions began to flutter and dance to the tune of
his stern replies to the media. We were happy and contented that he had finally lent his support to us, equally wanting to capture the real culprit behind the attacks. The reporters stared at one another in despair while the police paved our way safely to the car. Everything was arranged by Mr. Karthik and I
knew Mr. Luthra was going to
owe him a lot.

_________

We reached the corner of the
Wellington street where the roads diverged into separate lanes. Our car halted at the second lane and I looked out of the window. The ancient looking but gigantic bungalow of Mr. Luthra was glistening under the valiant rays of the sun. We stepped out of the car while Mr. Luthra was put on the wheelchair by Mr. Karthik.

As we entered through the entrance, the long gravelled path
with well manicured lawns on
either side added more to the
elegant beauty of the bungalow.
The red bricked walls with marbled graffiti on the framed
rims of the windows and doors
dominated it's marvelled structure.

I continued admiring the place
until we reached the enormous
wooden glass door of the entrance. Mr. Karthik tugged at my wrist and replaced the push handles of the wheelchair with my soft palms.

"He is your responsibility now." Mr. Karthik instructed me and I clasped the wheelchair again.

"But Mr. Karthik... how can I stay like this? I mean with him here... You can understand. Even the media was insulting me," I expressed, concerns and worries overtaking me.

"Don't worry, we will later handle everything once our target is achieved. Please try to adjust together and it is a request to both of you." Mr. Karthik tried hard to convince us. I saw Mr. Luthra  immediately nodding his head
while I was the one getting
confused again.

"I need to get my luggage here,"
I told him, deciding not to
exaggerate on the discussions
anymore.

"You can fetch it when I visit in
the evening. Now you both move
inside and take some rest. We'll
discuss on our further plans later."

I simply nodded. "I will try my
best to handle everything."

Mr. Karthik turned to Mr. Luthra this time. "Karan, be a good boy and assist her in whatever she says so that your health can improve under her careful supervision."

I saw Mr. Luthra shaking his
head, a small smile playing on his lips. "I have entrusted my life on your faithful doctor, Sir. I hope she'll keep up to my expectations."

Mr. Karthik smiled at us and left
the mansion in quick succession.
I bit my lower lip as an effect of the brewing rage inside me when I made this shocking discovery...

I found that I was now left alone
with the not-so-stranger again, in his own bungalow!

_________

To be continued...