Cold Wars - a Lawyer-Cop Romance

I'll Stay With You

‘Bingo! She was indeed sad. And now she has said it out loud.’ Vishwa thought.

“Is this what you do to people, DC. Throw a feast and get them to confess?” she asked.

“You call this a confession? And I really wouldn’t call this a feast.” He said with a slight smile.

“Yeah I exaggerated. On both fronts.” She said, a smile growing on her lips.

“So, tell me, Ms. Lawyer. Why are you feeling down?” he asked and leaned forward a bit.

They were separated by the stand. He was at an arm’s distance from her but she still trembled. She was overwhelmed by all that happened. She looked down at her plate and continued eating. She started speaking without any regard for ‘don’t talk while you eat or chew’ etiquette.

“Just wondering if any of us deserved this.” She said.

He crooked his eyebrows. He wasn’t sure what she meant.

“Any of us? Who all exactly?” he asked with curiosity.

“Everyone. Mithra, DIG, you, me, those police officers.” She had stopped eating. Now she was just staring at the food with a certain sadness. She continued speaking.

“Did Mithra really deserve to be cheated by a middle aged man, did the DIG really deserve to be blackmailed into paying hush money, did those police officers deserve to be involved in this nasty case? Was what I did ethical? Did I deserve to be humiliated like this? Illegally arrested and injured in a hospital bed. Then there’s you DC, who didn’t want to arrest me but did it anyway, who didn’t want to be involved but got caught up in all this. Did you deserve to baby sit a lawyer this late at night?”

She raised her head and Vishwa saw regret in her eyes. He felt the need to touch her cheeks, to tell her it was okay, and that it was all over. There was no point in thinking about the past, didn’t matter if the past was 2 minutes or 2 decades ago.