Page 64 of The Circle of Exile
“Where are you going tomorrow first half?”
“Baramulla. For the broad gauge rail project inauguration.”
“Is it safe?”
“Let them come.”
“Atharva.”
“You think Altaf will let me go if it is not?”
“Yes,” she sighed. “Fine. Just keep your mouth shut about your PoK trip. We are trying to play it down, as if it was nothing. No big deal.”
“I know. You finish with Saba and then I will take over.”
“Ok, listen to me. Go home, go to sleep. When you wake up tomorrow, you will understand why I ask you not to do the talking.”
Atharva huffed, nodded at Samar — “How annoyed are you on a scale of 1 to 10 with the sensible talk?”
“7. I don’t listen to half the things.”
“Get out of my house and you get out of my hall.”
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Atharva twisted the handle of Begumjaan’s room quietly and peeped in. They were sound asleep, both her and Yathaarth. He crept in quietly and began to slowly push the cot out.
“Huh!” Begumjaan startled awake.
“It’s me. I am taking him. Sorry, sleep.”
Her half-slits for eyes squinted further — “Atharva?”
“Yes?”
“Where is Iram?”
His heart thudded. He abandoned Yathaarth’s cot and ran — “I left her in our bedroom.”
Had she left?
He pushed his bedroom door open and it was empty. Atharva thudded back into Begumjaan’s room — “She is not there. Did you see her go?”
“Go? No,” she was rubbing her eyes, trying to sit up. “Why would she go?”
“You asked me where is Iram just now.”
“I asked because you brought Arth to me,” she yawned.
“She is not in our room,” he began to pull his phone out, working to dial Altaf when the tracker app caught his eye. He pressed it first. The pin blinked red. She was in the house. His breath stabilised.
But what if she had left her ring again?
“Atharva!”
“Huh?” He snapped out of his phone screen and glanced down at Begumjaan.
“Dilbaro, stop. What is happening to you?”
