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“I always have everything figured out,” she replied with a soft giggle.

He tickled her playfully before pulling away. “Okay, Miss‘everything-figured-out,’what are you going to tell your grandfather about today’s meeting? Does he even know who the investor was?”

Nandini pulled back slightly and sighed. “No. I haven’t told him. I couldn’t—”

Before she could finish, a deep, familiar voice cut through the room like a whip.

“Couldn’t tell me,” it said sharply, “or neverintendedto?”

They both turned, frozen in place.

Standing at the threshold of the villa’s living room was Grandpa. His eyes swept across the room, narrowing at the sight of their joined hands and at the closeness between them. He stepped inside without a word, his eyes flicking between the two of them.

Shaurya and Nandini were caught completely off guard by his sudden appearance. Of all places, of all moments, why now? They never expected him to show up at Shaurya’s villa, let alone find them together like this. And given his firm disapproval of their relationship, seeing them together, this close, was bound to hit him hard.

***************

A Few Minutes Earlier

Grandpa sat on the wicker sofa beside the mango tree, his fingers loosely wrapped around the curved handle of his wooden cane. His eyes were fixed on the vast expanse of the sky visible through the canopy of leaves above him. He sat still, as if waiting for a response to the conversation only he could hear.

He looked up at the branches swaying ever so gently, and whispered, “Ambika… tonight, I’m leaving for London. With Nandini.”

His voice faltered slightly.

“You know I’ve never left you behind during mango season. Not even once. But this year... I have to. Taking her away from this place feels like the only option I have left.”

He paused, the silence around him long and heavy. There was no rustling of leaves, no breeze whispering through the branches. Even the tree, which he liked to believe held his late wife’s spirit, seemed unwilling to speak to him today.

His eyes dropped to the roots near his feet, and he asked, quietly, almost to himself, “Am I doing the right thing?”

There was still no sign… no answer.

He let out a deep sigh and carried on, as if pouring his heart out might somehow give him the answer he so badly needed. “Shaurya is… a good man. I can see that. I can feel it. And I know he loves Nandini. There’s no doubt about that. But how can I give our granddaughter to him? How can I hand her over to a divorcee who has already failed at love once? How can I allow that, Ambika?”

His voice cracked slightly, but he continued.

“But then… it’s killing me to see our Nandu like this. She’s holding herself together just to keep me from falling apart. She’s agreed to come to London, but her heart is still here. And no matter how far I take her, I know it won’t change the way she feels about him.”

A beat passed. Then another.

“I thought distance would make it all right. That a little time apart would make her forget him. But now… I’m beginning to wonder. Was it ever a solution, or was it just me running away from the truth I don’t want to accept?”

His shoulders sagged in dejection.

“She’s our baby girl. We promised we’d never let her cry, remember? But here she is… hiding her tears just to protect me. And I… I’m the one standing in the way of her happiness.”

He turned back to the tree, his eyes almost pleading.

“If you were here, Ambika, you’d know exactly what to do. You always brought clarity, even when I was too stubborn to see it. Tell me, would you have supported me in this? Or would you have stood by her?”

Still nothing. Only silence.

He closed his eyes and exhaled heavily. “Please. Give me a sign. Something. Anything.”

And then, as if the tree had been listening all along, a small mango leaf broke free from the branch above him. It floated down gently through the air, as if guided by something unseen, and drifted toward the invisible boundary separating the Raichand and Ahuja villas.

Grandpa watched in confusion as the leaf fluttered until it caught the breeze again and landed straight into Shaurya’s pool. He blinked, unsure why something so small struck him so deeply.