The door was shut from the outside and Atharva rounded his desk — “Where is she?”
“Home.”
“Is there a good enough reason?”
“Yes. Leave of absence, approved by me.”
“Fine.”
Atharva picked up the mobile he had just set down and began to walk towards the door.
“Sir, stop. Please,” Amaal crossed his path. “Atharva. Please.”
“I asked you to finish with her and bring her to me.”
“And I told you that you are not doing the talking.”
“So you what? Sent her home on a holiday?”
“No, I protected your secrets. Yours and Iram’s. She doesn’t know everything but she has been in and out of your house these last few months. We don’t know what she’s heard yet.”
“I will make sure she is silenced.”
“You are the Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir and not allowed to fall into anything that can implicate you.”
“I have done my fair share of circus in the last two years, so thank you very much. I will manage this one too.”
“Atharva,” she bit out.
“What, Amaal? What?” He lowered his voice. “That woman is the reason my wife didn’t come back to me for four months. She is the reason my son did not have his mother for the first four months of his life. She will pay.”
“Stop thinking from your kneecaps then.”
He stilled.
“Sit down. Let me talk. Then you spew whatever you want at me.”
He exhaled and sat down on his chair. Amaal took her seat in front of him.
“Look, I know you have done your fair share of circus being in power but things today are not as good as they were six months ago. I need you to be a little more self-preserving. As far as Saba is concerned, yes, she saw Iram.”
Atharva sat up.
“Don’t get worked up.”
He kept his mouth tightly shut.
“She saw Iram and let her slip away without stopping her or sounding the alarm because she thought Iram would never come back. I told you she has had a crush on you. That just went into crazy territory. She has been trying ever since to make inroads into your house, deluding herself that she can mother Yathaarth.”
“Am I supposed to feel sorry for her?”
“No, Atharva, no. I am enraged too. What she did keptmy friendin that state for months, away from home, away from all of us. I saw her when she landed. Ok? I saw her. I sat with her on that drive from Kargil to Srinagar. I see you. It is bad. But we don’t have to make it worse. Let me handle this.”
“How?”
“I have given her a leave of absence for now. She is not directly employed by the government so that is one headache less. I will speak to Samar about transferring her to one of Himachal Development Party’s leader’s PR team…”
“And she won’t take this gossip there?”
