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Chapter 114  Karen and Daniel, extinguished flames?

As Alex and Daniel walked out of the court, they were surrounded by the media persons, but Daniel conveniently walked away, refusing to comment until the court was done with today\'s hearing. Meanwhile, no one paid attention to Alex, and he sneaked his way out easily, following behind Daniel.

In a cafe near the court,

"So, what do you think?" Daniel asked as the two of them sat beside the glass window in the cafe, enjoying their beverage.

"Well, it\'s plain as paper. We are going to win this," Alex said. He did not even try to hide his amusement.

"Not nervous anymore?" Daniel asked, reminding him of how he was just before the hearing started.

"I won\'t lie. I did almost freaked out when I heard you admit to the charges in the beginning. You surely gave everyone a shock." Alex said, remembering the beginning of Daniel\'s opening statement.

"Hahaha!" Hearing Alex, Daniel broke into a burst of laughter. It took him a while to calm down. After he did, he said, "You need to set the tone during a trial. Set the mood and bring all of them to your side. A good lawyer has to be a good storyteller as well. It does not matter how quickly you persuade them that you are right, but on the fact how deep you instil that feeling that you are right". Daniel tried to make Alex understand. He was trying to give a valuable lesson to Alex.

And Alex also listened to Daniel in all seriousness.

"By the way, are all Judge like the one we had today?" Alex was curious about the Judge, "I thought the Judges are supposed to stay calm and collected all the time. Looking at the case objectively instead of letting their emotions get the better of them." Alex had this classy and poised image of Judges in his mind, but it was burst in today\'s hearing.

"Hehehe… Maybe others, but not that guy," Daniel laughed.

"What do you mean?" Alex asked, confused by his laughter.

"He is an oddball. He is as emotional as it gets. He is righteous, prideful and puts people above the law. He even proposed doing away with all the non-sensical cases piling up in the courts. Like on one instance when someone fought a case over 10 dollars. He felt it was a simple waste of taxpayer\'s money to even entertain in such a case. Well, he couldn\'t do it because of all the self-proclaimed civil rights activists. But he made sure that the one who filed that case spent a month in prison." Daniel told Alex, “But there is one thing he cherishes more. His reputation. And I am sure he wasn’t very happy today.”

"You are joking, right?" Alex asked. He could not believe such a guy would exist.

"Don\'t believe I am," Daniel said, shaking his head, "You know the number of cases pending in our courts?" Daniel asked.

Alex shook his head in denial.

"About a million. Every other person in this country is facing some kind of case against him. And the companies, they are facing multitudes of lawsuits, even we had about a couple of dozen lawsuits against us before this fiasco. And to make it worse, these so-called activists knock on the doorsteps of the courts for every other matter. With all these cases going around, do you think a Judge would want to preside over a case where there is a dispute between parties over just ten dollars?" Daniel asked Alex, "Well, not someone like him. He won\'t."

"But do you think he is right to think so?" Alex asked.

"It\'s not that he is right or wrong," Daniel shook his head, "The problem with us, the people of this country, is that we know all about our Fundamental rights and privileges. But if you ask anyone on the street, they won\'t know a thing about Fundamental duties, much less moral obligations."

Now Alex was starting to understand Daniel\'s point. It was not that he was against people reaching out to courts for justice. But he wanted people to be morally upright and trusting towards each other so that things don\'t ever escalate to that point where it becomes a matter of pride.

When Daniel saw Alex pondering over their chat, he was satisfied. This showed that Alex was always ready to take in inputs from everyone around him, and instead of taking it all at face value, he processes it before coming to any conclusion.

"Well, we already know the outcome of this case. Have you thought about what are we going to do about the other matter?" Daniel asked. From the beginning, this case was not something Daniel and Alex put their primary thoughts into today. They knew from the beginning that there was a high probability that they were going to win. What was important was something that was going to come later.

"I really don\'t know. I conveyed what you wanted me to tell Karen, but I haven\'t received any message from her yet," Alex said, shaking his head.

"Well, knowing her, I would say she will get it done in time," Daniel said as he took a sip of the coffee. He was pretty much confident in Karen.

"I don\'t think getting some financial details from the bank would be that difficult," Alex told Daniel.

"I won\'t say it\'s hard," Daniel nodded, agreeing with Alex, "But if you think it\'s a walk in the park, then you are mistaken," Daniel said.

"What do you mean?" Alex was confused listening to Daniel.

"It\'s easy for the right person. If I was the one doing it, I can assure you that I wouldn\'t be able to get it done," Daniel said and laughed, thinking about something.

That laugh got Alex curious, "You are hiding something from me, aren\'t you?" Alex asked.

"You know I was a snob during my college days. Everyone hated me. But they could do nothing about it. I was one of the best students out there, and my family background was decent as well. I felt everyone was beneath me," Daniel said, but when he saw the look of disbelief on Alex\'s face, he smiled, "Believe me. I was."

"But Karen, on the other hand, was the polar opposite of me. Everyone loved her. You know Jessica? She was among those who followed Karen around." Daniel told Alex.

"That\'s great, but what does it have to do with what I asked." Alex tried to bring Daniel back to the topic.

"You see, the Vice-President of the bank we need help from is one of our college mates, and we never saw eye to eye. And though I have changed a lot since then, we don\'t really get along that well even now." Daniel told Alex, "That\'s why I told you, it\'s easy for the right person."

Now everything was clear to Alex. He looked at Daniel, who was smiling on his own maybe thinking about his college days, and felt the urge to know more.

"Have you known Karen for long?" Alex asked curiously.

"I have known her from our college days. We have been friends for nearly a decade now". Daniel told him.

"Just friends?" Curious to know more, Alex asked.

Daniel looked at Alex with his brows raised and a questioning gaze.

"I didn\'t mean it that way. It\'s just that, you know, she is... She is smart, beautiful and has a great career, so I thought maybe it was more than just friendship," Alex tried to explain.

Daniel didn\'t answer right away but continued to look at Alex, then he sighed and said, "It would be a lie to say that I never did feel anything for her".

He looked towards Alex and then looked away. Looking outside the window of the cafe, he said, "She was the only one who was patient with a snob like me. And to a certain extent, she is the one that helped me change.” Daniel spoke, “I thought she was the one. So, I once asked her to meet me at a coffee shop just like this one. It was about a month before we were going to graduate. I wanted to propose to her that day," saying this Daniel paused, and a small smile appeared on his face, "I had everything prepared with me, a ring some cheesy lines and all that was left for me was to pop the question."

"But you didn\'t?" Alex asked.

"No," Daniel shook his head.

"Why?"

"I never got the chance to", Daniel said, and as if remembering that day, continued, "When she came, she looked a bit tired and stressed. I ordered her favourite coffee and some sandwiches for her to eat. After that, we continued to sit in silence. I was trying to find the courage to propose to her, and she was just fidgeting with her food".

Daniel let out a small laugh, "Any other day, I would have noticed that something was wrong with her. But that day, I had my brain occupied with how I was going to pop the question that I couldn\'t even see the obvious in front of me. Just when I was going to say the words, she dropped the bomb on me".

"What bomb?" Getting engrossed in the story, Alex asked.

"She said she was going to get married," Daniel said with a mocking smile.

"What?" Surprised, Alex couldn\'t keep his voice down and exclaimed in shock, "Just like that? Out of nowhere?"

Daniel nodded, "Yup, out of nowhere. I asked her who was the guy because I had never known about her dating someone".

"Then?"

Shaking his head, Daniel continued, "She didn\'t tell me. She just told me that she was getting married the next month after graduation, and that was it".

"What did you do?" Alex asked, leaning closer to Daniel after each sentence he finished.

Pushing Alex back with his finger on his forehead, Daniel asked, "You are very much interested".

Embarrassed by his behaviour, Alex said, "No, I am just curious".

Smiling toward Alex, Daniel said, "I did nothing. To be honest, I could do nothing. I couldn\'t say a word. We sat there for some time without uttering a single word, and before I could even comprehend things, she left, and the next time I heard about her, she got married to some guy".

Alex looked at Daniel with pity all over his face. He wanted to ask Daniel whether he still loved Karen. But he was hesitant to do so.

Daniel, looking at Alex\'s face, couldn\'t help but laugh, "It\'s all in the past. I am happily married now, and I even have a beautiful daughter," Daniel said, showing Alex the ring in his hand.

Alex, not realizing himself, sighed in relief, but it didn\'t go unnoticed by Daniel.

Looking at Alex, Daniel smiled and said, "You know what I learnt that day?"

"What?" Alex asked.

"If you love someone, don\'t wait. Because there is nothing like the perfect moment. If you wait for too long, you may not realize it, but it might be too late". Daniel told Alex, "You might be hesitant because of many reasons. If she is a friend, you might be afraid of losing her friendship. If she is a colleague, you might be afraid of the awkward encounters if she were to reject you. But believe me, it\'s all trivial in front of that happiness you will experience if one in a million chance she feels the same way for you." Daniel tried to explain it to Alex.

"And what is the worst she can say?" Daniel asked.

"Well, going by the memes, they really can do worse," Alex laughed.

This got Daniel to laugh as well, "Well, I have seen those memes as well. Such creativity."

As they finished their beverages, Daniel looked at his watch and said, "Let\'s go. It\'s almost time for the session to begin".

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