“Sir, I can‟t...” She could not speak further as he stopped, turned and asked her,
“You know very well, that what‟s mine I never let go, don't you?”
She flinched and tried again, “I ...don‟t want to go!”

He asked her coldly, “Did I ask you for your opinion?”
“But it‟s my life!” There she said it.
He looked at her and smiled sadly and said, “So you think! What about me? Is my life not involved in it too?”
“You? You never had anything to do with me!” She exclaimed gulping back a big lump in her throat that threatened to clog her throat completely, as she thought, you should never be associated with me for you to be safe!
“No?” He asked her looking at her oddly. She looked away in response.
“Only you can say like that Khushi” he said sadly, and she sighed and said, “Please let go off me. I beg of you!” He kept walking.
“Ok! Even if you take me with you I won‟t...” she started but stopped.
“You won‟t what?” He asked her, daring her to finish what she wanted to say... Khushi froze in her tracks, and looked at his drawn face and again gulped hard and said, “I need to go home!”
“No!” He said dragging her across the lush fields.
“But I need some stuff of mine at least.” She tried to reason it out with him.
“Do you? Since when? I don‟t remember you carrying anything with you the last time. You always leave everything behind, don‟t you? You don‟t carry any luggage with you!” And after a pregnant pause he said, “Not even my feelings!” He sneered at her.
“Maan please!” She said unable to bear the torture.
“Ok! Where is the place?” He asked her, and she showed him the opposite direction. He started walking towards her house and said, “Ten minutes! Leave everything! You will just come as you are with me...to me!”
They reached a small thatched hut, and he glared at her looking at the way she lived there. As they entered it, he saw that inside, it was very neatly kept, and she immediately went to the kitchen as he caught her hand by her wrist, and warned her, “Don‟t try to run away! If you do,” he suddenly extricated a gun from his shoulder holster, which was hidden under the jacket he wore and said, “I will shoot myself!” She stared at him stricken, as he said, “Yeah! Coz, you don‟t fear your life!” Then he got restless and said, “I say let‟s go! You don‟t need anything from here. Just come with me!” He said, and turned and froze, as he saw something in the small shelf by the door. Everything else was empty. Nothing was there in the shelves apart from a plate two glasses and two stainless steel vessels. There was only one packet that was packed in transparent plastic. He went and touched it. It was his white shirt. It was the shirt he wore on that day! That day when she...he jerked back to the present, and caught her by her upper arms and shook her asking, “Why?”
She kept quiet. She could not tell him and for all that she understood, he already knew why! It was the toughest thing she did ever. Walking away from him!
Her life was such! Not his fault.

She looked at him then! He was very perturbed. She felt her heart melt for causing pain to him. But pain was sometimes better than certain things in life. She closed her eyes and said, “Let‟s go!”
He looked at her for a long moment and said, “I am warning you Khushi! If you do anything hanky-panky this time, I swear upon my honour, I will kill myself! And take it as a promise from a Mehraana Rathore!”

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

Khushi settled in the business class seat and looked at the man sitting beside her, and sighed. He wouldn‟t let her go! Once she could manage somehow and that too coz it was in a different context. Now he made it very clear to her that she belonged to him. She tried her best, and now it was out of her power to stop the man. He had hardened in the last year, and he now was not the same. So was she in a different way! For once, she wanted to give up on herself and taste the sweetness of togetherness with him-with her love. But every single thing in her life came for a price and this one? She knew not!

She looked at the clouds that slowly bowed down to the speeding plane and as she looked into nothingness, her life unfolded before her...