Everything but her

Caught

The matter of discussion at the dinner table seemed to be about Jadeja who had his eyes set on another girl in the lobby. While the teasing continued, Raina came in and greeted Virat,
'Thank you for coming down captain.'
'I am telling you, you need to stop this drama', Virat told him silently.
'I am worried about my place. I need to make a good impression.', Raina said innocently.
'That ain't gonna work.'
'Then what will? Tell me I can do anything for you.'
Virat couldn't control his laughter and motioned Raina to sit down and eat.
'So what is the conversation about guys?', Virat asked excitedly.
'Nothing much, Jaddu seems to have found another woman of his dreams', Rohit said controlling his laughter.
'Oh, I see. Someone was keeping count I suppose?'
'8th in the last 2 months', Bhuvneshvar told accurately.
'But this one is it. Something within me tells me that she is the one', Jadeja announced proudly.
'Ok, ok enough about all this. Virat when are you planning to address the team?', the team director Ravi Shastri asked.
'Today itself, sir. After the dinner, we will meet in the discussion room. Fine with everyone?'
'Yes', everyone echoed in a chorus.

The team gathered in the discussion room and Virat began summoning the team. When he had finished the other his words of motivation, he called out anyone of them to bring their laptop to show some videos of the opponent batsmen and bowlers.
'But we have this laptop of Raju sir. We can use this', Ajinkya pointed out.
Raju Khanna was the manager of the team.
'Yes, I had asked him to collect some videos as well', Ravi Shastri added.
Virat picked up the laptop and switched it on. He began searching the videos when one of the videos caught his eye. It was the same video which had been doing rounds. It was the video of Aarushi and Virat. And it had been saved in the laptop around three years back.
Virat clenched his fist and looked around shouting,
'Where is this Raju?'
'Virat, have you forgotten all your manners. Don't forget he is your father's age', Ravi Shastri pointed out.
'Don't ridicule my father by comparing him to this dirty man.'
'What happened?'
'Watch it for yourself.'
He shifted the laptop's screen towards him. Everyone understood the entire matter. Ajinkya was red with anger. Raju was called inside. He stood there without any shame and just said,
'How dare you touch my laptop?'
'Well, how dare you invade my privacy? Who gave you the right to do what you did? How dare you put all the reputations at a side and do such a horrendous act? How dare you play with my feelings? How dare you bring a girl to such humiliation? How dare you act so inhuman?', Virat said his eyes almost filled with tears and entire body filled with rage.
'He deserves to be behind bars and if the police leaves him, I will find him and kill him', Ajinkya added.
'I did not do any such thing.'
Virat pulled his collar and shouted, 'You think we are fools over here. I'll not leave you. You will not be spared. Just remember this for your own good.'
The other members of the team separated Virat from him and asked for an explanation.
'So what if I did it? This video has got millions of likes, shares and views. You must thank me.'
Virat got up once again with an intention of punching him right in his face. Rohit, however, pulled him back.
'Just get out of here and I am going to report this right now to the police department and they can very well decide if what you did was good or bad.', Ravi Shastri said.
The manager was handed over to the police and looking at the moods of the players, everyone decided it was best to take on from there in the morning.
Rohit decided to sleep with Ajinkya and Raina joined Virat. Virat was uncontrollably emotional.
'It is all my fault', he said in his voice heavy because of continuous tears.
'No, are you mad. That man deserves to be punished and he will be. Don't you worry at all', Raina said putting a hand around him.
'I love her and I promised her to protect her. I could not do so. You don't know how that feels.'
Raina noticed the absence of a 'd' in the word love. He got answers to all his questions right there.
'You will never let her down and believe me it is not your fault and even if it is, the people whom we love never get tired of forgiving us. And that is because love triumphs all else. If you loved her, she loved you with an equal intensity as well. And even you know that she does not hold you responsible for all this.'
'Yeah, but..'
'No, buts just look at me and have this water. Do not think too much about this matter. And do not listen to what people gossip. Okay?'
'Hmm', Virat nodded his head.
Raina watched him pretending as though he was asleep just to be alone but he knew better. He stayed back and literally kept awake making sure he was sleeping. And after some time sleep caught up on him as well.