First Part: The Little Red Book – I

Continued From: The Little Red Book – VIII

“Sam…Oh, Sam” she cried as she sat holding him.

“Cynthia,” he said “I can’t believe you’re here. I almost got you killed.” And he cried.

“Sam…It’s over now. We can be happy now” she had never seen him so shaken. Her heart broke at seeing him this way. There were scars all over his body, the scary reminiscence of that night. They had shot thrice but Sam dodged one bullet while the other two hit his shoulders. They even set up a blast but pulled Sam out in the nick of time as a leverage in case the damning evidence against them was with someone else. Initially, they thought Cynthia had died in the explosion but when nobody was found they were delirious about letting her slip. And ever since then they had been watching Sam. That night too they would have found Cynthia if it wasn’t for Uncle Banerjee.

Cynthia had driven whole night to reach Coimbatore and taken a flight out to Mumbai. Uncle Banerjee was waiting at the News Now Office as promised. Cynthia was greeted by Mr Swamy and taken straight to the studios for a direct telecast. No one in the staff at News Now knew that she was about to come in as part of their strategy. And finally, after a long, long wait Cynthia was on the air with Triage and Treeazej as her target.

Five weeks later

“You don’t have to leave you know,” said Banerjee Uncle as they waited at the airport entrance, Sam in a wheelchair. He was too weak to walk and sat in it looking cheerful and happy after a long time.

“We do Uncle. We do” said Cynthia “I want to get him proper treatment.”

“But you can get the treatment here too my dear. Mortley is behind bars. Abdul has most probably gone beyond the border. After you expose on live television they cannot touch you both without severe repercussions. The contents of your red book have struck them right in their backbone and they aren’t going to get up anytime soon. They are being investigated, their days are numbered, Cynthia. You should stay.”

Cynthia hugged Banerjee Uncle and said “He has family in Australia Uncle. We’ll be well-taken care of. Don’t worry okay. And we need a change from this place and the constant reminders.”

Banerjee Uncle nodded. He knew she was right. They needed to be in a new place with no attachment to the traumatic past, at least for a few months.

“Okay but promise me you’ll call” and he smiled.

“Of course!” Cynthia kissed Banerjee Uncle on his cheeks and walked towards the door with Sam by her side.

Just before entering though Sam stopped and said “Uncle we’ll see you at the wedding in two weeks” And they walked in, hoping for a future free of fear.

Cynthia sat in her window seat with Sam next to her as they looked at the city below while the flight took off, all the while softly pressing each other’s hands just to believe that they were together again.