Sia woke up feeling groggy and stiff.

She was on the floor, naked and half-lying on top of an equally naked man.

It was her husband. Rather her soon-to-be ex-husband. And they had spent the night together.

Her body felt sore everywhere. Especially the intimate muscles that she hadn’t been using since they had last been together. Last night... or rather until a few hours ago, those muscles got a good workout, multiple times.

Ajay hadn’t been gentle or slow with her. He had taken her against the wall, on the table, and finally on the sofa again, before they landed on the carpet midway.

It was rough and hard. Even angry at times, but all through it, Ajay had maintained eye contact with her that reached deep into her heart.

She looked at his sleeping face and felt a familiar tug in her heart again.

Ajay didn’t belong to her anymore. In fact, he was engaged to be married to someone else. Then why wasn’t she feeling guilty about last night?

Was it because of what he had told her last night?

 

“No matter what happens, however tough the journey, we will remain together. I promise.”

 

God! How she wanted to believe him. She felt a lump form in her throat as her eyes burned with emotion. She wanted him so badly that it hurt to imagine letting him go.

She didn’t move. She was scared. What if this was another of her dreams where he was with her?

If that was the case, she didn’t want to wake up from that dream. She simply wanted to get lost in the feel of his body against hers.

She had missed him like crazy. His touch. His smell.

And so, she closed her eyes again, to let herself dream a little more.

A loud knock on the door made her jump. She opened her eyes and saw a lot of shadows outside the window shades.

“Police. Open the door!” a loud voice stated.

Her heart began to thump. Rolling away from Ajay, she got up from the carpet and hunted for her clothes. They were long rips everywhere.

“Open! Or we’ll have to break down the door!” a man’s voice shouted.

Hurriedly, she slipped on the torn dress over herself.

“Open!” shouted another voice followed by insistent banging.

She tried to search for her underwear. Finally, she found it where it was flung faraway.

“Shit. Shit. Shit,” she muttered.

“They can’t break that door you know,” said a sleepy deep voice.

Ajay was awake. He slowly sat up, yawning and watching her with a sleepy look on his face.

“What?” she asked, trying to pull her underwear up. But it was impossible, as he had torn it into shreds.

“The metal door you custom ordered. It’s bomb proof, remember,” he said lazily.

“That’s the police out there, Ajay. They must have found the judge’s body and come here,” she said, trying not to let panic overtake her.

Ajay shrugged. “I know.”

“Open the door!” roared a man from outside.

Throwing the ripped clothes towards Ajay, “Dress up, I’m opening the door,” she said, walking towards the main door. She stopped briefly, turning half way, exposing only her profile to him. “If they think you had anything to do with this, I’m going to tell them I did it,” she said softly.

The second the words left from her mouth, there was a growl, and she felt him move quickly behind her. “Like hell you will!” he hissed out.

He looked angry, annoyed and was in a full-blown protective mode. “Don’t talk anything beyond what we discussed last night,” he warned her.

“But you didn’t tell me anyth—”

“Well, keep it that way. I will tell you whatever you need to know once a few things get sorted out.”

His face softened when he saw the uncertain look on her face. “Baby, I promise you we’ll get through this,” he said.

She nodded, not because she believed they could get away with a murder, but because he needed to believe that she trusted him.

Which she began to do in real.

She moved towards the door after a couple more bangs on the door. Then, unlocking the bolts, she opened to see at least a dozen or so uniformed men and women along with sniffer dogs, standing outside the door.

“Miss. Sia Sampath?”

Before she could respond, she felt a warm body behind her. “Mrs. Sia Manthena,” Ajay answered.

“Mr. Ajay. Good morning, sir,” the officer greeted politely.

“Hello Rajesh. How are you?”

“Quite good, sir. I’m here for questioning Miss... Mrs. Manthena.”

“Why?”

The officer looked uncomfortable. “Sir, according to the information we have, Mrs. Manthena and you are separated. May I know what you are doing here at her place at his time in the morning?”

“May I know why? It’s our personal matter.”

“I apologize for intruding, sir. But Judge Sundaram was shot dead last night.”

The officer watched both Ajay’s and Sia’s face closely. Both of them didn’t betray anything on their faces.

“Oh? That’s unfortunate. But why is Sia being questioned?” Ajay asked.

“Mr. Jagadish Naidu’s car was seen driving away from Judge Sundaram’s house. When we went to question Mr. Naidu, he was insisting that Mrs. Manthena must have killed the judge.”

“As you can see, that’s impossible. She was here with me, the entire night.”

“Maybe I ask you why?” the officer asked.

“My soon-to-be ex-wife wanted to reconcile. So I visited her last evening, and as you can see, she managed to convince me successfully that we should get back together.”

To others, it might sound like a slightly crude joke made at her cost. But Sia knew Ajay. It was one of the tactics he had used before with other people, including her. Answering a serious question with a joke, so there wouldn’t be any further digging.

“I see,” the officer smiled awkwardly. “We’ll need to check the house. We... uh... have a search warrant.”

Ajay shrugged nonchalantly. “Be our guests, but you’ll need to hurry. Because our daughter is waiting for us,” he said.

The next couple of hours, there was an intense search, even though the interrogation was light. Most of the conversation was dominated by Ajay, and he managed to convince the police that apart from reigniting their passion last night, they weren’t involved in anything nefarious such as murder.

The search also didn’t turn up with anything suspicious.

“I’m sorry for the trouble Mr. and Mrs. Manthena. It was a required formality from our end. I hope you understand,” the officer told them at the end.

“Not a bother at all Rajesh. I understand that you were doing your duty. Do let me know if you need any kind of help from us.”

“We will, sir,” he said, before thanking them and leaving with his entourage.

Sia sat on the couch, her legs weak with the narrow temporary escape they had.

Ajay looked unperturbed. Yawning and stretching elaborately, “I’m starving. Got anything in the fridge for breakfast or lunch?’ he asked.

Her head whipped up. “How can you be talking about food at this time?” she demanded.

“Why not? And why do you look so worried?” he asked.

She was back to being angry with him again. “This is not a laughing matter, Ajay,” she snapped.

He looked at her visibly upset face and sighed. Moving closer, he pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. “Baby, I know you are worried. But apart from the possibility of getting caught by the police—which I think is quite low—there is nothing to be worried about.”

He rubbed her back slowly. “In fact, we should be celebrating our reconciliation again,” he continued huskily.

Her head jerked up and she stared at him with widened eyes. “Don’t,” she warned even as her voice sounded breathless.

“Ok. I won’t,” he said, sliding his hands to her sides, and slowly moving them up until he reached the back of her head. He tugged her hair gently until she watched him with glazed eyes. “Only because I know we’ll be interrupted soon,” he said.

She clutched his shirt, caught in a limbo of not knowing whether to push him away or pull him closer. “This is crazy and foolish,” she scolded half-heartedly.

He smiled. The smile on his gorgeous face was so easy and carefree—she couldn’t help returning it with her own wobbly one.

“I know,” he said softly. “It’s always been that way with us.” Leaning forward, he kissed her hard on her lips. Once, twice and then, he stepped back. “Let’s freshen up and grab some food.”

When she didn’t move from her spot, he squeezed her arm in reassurance. “Trust me, Sia. We’ll be fine.”

She took a deep calming breath. “Okay. So what’s going to happen next?” she asked him quietly.

His face sobered up immediately. “Next, we begin the main event of the game you started.”