"Shaggy no!....Shaggy….Shaggy!....Shaggy stop!"

A man desperately struggled to control his dog that seemed intent on displaying its affection at its owner. The man had been away for a week on a business trip and just when he had entered his home, his dog pounced upon him and began to lick his face.

Standing almost 4 feet tall while on all fours; their dog Shaggy, a German shepherd stood on its hind legs and laid its two forelegs upon the shoulders of its owner.

Prakash couldn't even try to escape from its hold on him as the seemingly crafty dog used its body weight to hold him in place and began its lick attack.

"Hahaha…" His wife Anita snickered on witnessing such a scene as she came out to welcome him, her 1-year-old child asleep in her arms.

"Anita, a little help please." Prakash sought out help from his only reliable ally.

"Praise me and I'll help you," Anita said, barely able to restrain her amusement.

"My most beautiful darling wife: sweet as honey, gentle as the petals of a flower and the most brilliant mind on Earth. The stars…." Prakash expertly mimicked a romantic voice that he had practiced before for such occasions to make his praise sound more charming and impactful, but since he had to speak while under Shaggy's barrage of lick attacks, his words weren't as coherent as he liked them to be.

The stakes were low but the hurdle was high which he gloriously failed to achieve.

"I'll prepare some hot water for your bath. Don't take too much time." Anita said as she coolly walked inside.

"...…." This tigress! Even after having given birth to a baby, being gentle was the least of her traits.
But, what choice did he have in the matter? He was that idiot in love that fell for a tigress.

"Diana…?" On noticing that his lovely wife had zero intention of coming to his rescue, he tried to call out for the maid that always tailed after Anita.

"Sir, I'm behind you." With a phone in her hand, Diana replied.

"Gaaah, since when were you here?" Prakash had a fright when he heard a voice from behind him.

"From the very beginning; Madam told me to record Shaggy's antics for her collection when you arrived," Diana said.

Only then did he notice Anita's mobile phone in her hands.

They had employed quite a few servants to maintain their house. One for gardening, one for cooking, one for cleaning, a driver to drive their car, and finally Diana, the lucky maid whose only job description was to tail behind her 'Madam' and accomplish some small chores while also buying groceries occasionally.

She had the highest pay and the least workload among all the servants.

"Alright; Diana, take Shaggy away from me," Prakash said. He began to feel a little frustrated.

"Madam forbid me to intervene in the middle." Diana shook her head in refusal.

"Doesn't matter; just pull him away for now," Prakash said in a slightly irritated tone.

Diana got intimidated by his voice and nodded her head in response as she began to drag Shaggy away. After all, if he got annoyed by her, he would just fire her from her only money-making job. Her 'Madam' might try to create some minor annoyances for him sometimes just for her fun but will never go against his decisions, that too in favour of a maid.

"Tie him up while you're at it," Prakash ordered as he sat on a sofa in the veranda and began to remove his shoes.

"Diana….don't tie Shaggy. And also, bring the luggage inside." A voice travelled from outside and Diana abruptly left her reins on Shaggy and entered their house with Prakash's travel luggage in tow.

"This girl, her only work is to collect her salary at the end of the month. Agh, Anita!" Prakash thought as he kept his shoes in the shoe rack when suddenly another thought intruded into his once peaceful mind.

"If she went inside then, who's controlling Shaggy?.....Gah.."

Shaggy once again pounced upon him with a wagging tail and its saliva dripping out of its mouth.

Sometime later…

"Hahaha, you look quite….dashing? Anyway, take a bath now. Lunch will be ready by then." Anita said as she kept humming a pleasant tune so that her child could sleep pleasantly in his cradle.

The poor dude Prakash walked up the stairs when he stopped mid-way and turned around.

"Anita…?"

"Yes?"

"Did you not like the new clothes I wore today?"

"Yeah"

"Alright"

Prakash sighed to himself as he continued to climb up the stairs.

There were various saliva marks on his dress and overcoat but most importantly, various places on his dress had sustained varying degree of tears, obviously due to the handiwork of Shaggy. Its sharp nails tore his clothes when it tried to play with him.

"Tigress….."

"Did you say something dear?"

"I-I'll be down in 10 minutes."

'…..Beautiful Tigress'

An hour later, they were finally done with their lunch. They were interrupted many times mid-lunch when their child Akash began to cry. It seemed like he had been born with an inbuilt 'Mommy Radar'. Every time his mother left his vicinity, he would start crying, even if he had been asleep just a second ago.

Anita had to slowly make him fall asleep every time he cried before proceeding to continue her lunch. It was a bit vexing at times but it was something every mother wished to witness. Her baby was the source of her pride and joy after all.

Just observing the act of Akash crying every time Anita moved away from him and her spending more and more time to calm him, Prakash was super jealous.

Just two years ago, before she conceived Akash, she used to pamper him and only him. Sure, he loved his son very much, but, as an idiot in love, he felt jealous towards his own son.

"He has the fortune to be pampered by Anita for the next few decades. No, this line of thought is too depressing. Yes, I must even out the playing field. I want a daughter!" Prakash thought as he prayed to all the 33 million Deities in existence to bless him with a lovely daughter soon. At that time he would show them the true meaning behind the term 'Daddy's Princess'.

Anita rolled her eyes at him, his thoughts were practically written on his face in clear bold letters.

"It feels like taking care of two kids rather than one." Anita thought as she amused herself with pinching the chubby cheeks of her son, listening to his breathing sounds and admiring his cute sleeping face. Basically, she was just being a mother.

"Diana, just sit beside his cradle. Call for me if he wakes up." Anita whispered, closed the door to the room shut and walked towards the living room.

Prakash just happened to be watching some local news on the television that went about the grand opening of a newly established Zoo in the outskirts of their city. As he lazed about on the sofa while watching the news, two gentle hands hugged him from behind and a chin rested on his head.

"Is he asleep?" Prakash inquired.

"Yeah, he's asleep. Did you feel lonely?" Anita said as she ruffled his hair and sat beside him on the sofa.

"I feel a little lonely, to be honest. Only if Akash doesn't start crying the moment I try to pick him up." Prakash replied as he put up a pitiful face.

"You'll have someone to spoil too. Soon," Anita said.

"R-Really?" Prakash became excited at the prospect of getting a cute daughter as he couldn't help but think, "Finally, the playing field will be even!"

"Depends on your effort tonight," Anita replied, a trace of ridicule present in her voice as her eyes almost arched into a crescent moon.

"Yeah right," Prakash almost felt like a fool for taking such obvious bait. He also felt a bit angry at her for shattering his expectations. She knew that he wanted a girl child to spoil her as his son hardly ever came to him but giving him some hope and shattering it immediately made his mood worsen, by a lot.

"I went a bit too far. Sorry dear." Anita apologised.

"Humph" Prakash turned his head in the opposite direction as he made up his mind to ignore her.

Anita maintained silence after that. She wanted to give him some time to cool down before bringing up other topics of conversations.

15 seconds later…..

"What would you like to have for dinner?"

"15 seconds…didn't you give me way too much time? I'm as cool as a penguin now."

"Hehehe"

"Hahaha"

"So, how did your client meeting go?" Anita inquired.

Prakash ran a textile business. He mostly supplied fabrics for various popular brands. Some fabrics were ordered to have certain texture inlaid on them, the quality of cotton, silk used to weave into threads, etc. while others directly purchased fabric in bulk from their warehouse which housed a wide range of products.

It was a lucrative business. With a good head above his shoulders, Prakash managed to sign many export deals with foreign MNCs. He managed foreign trade while Anita managed the domestic counterpart.

This particular meeting was one in which Prakash sought out to further increase their international reach.

"I successfully managed to sign a deal with two MNCs. One of them is based in France while the other is based in the UK." Prakash replied.

"But didn't you meet with like 30 of them?" Anita blurted out in shock over getting so few clients.

"Their offers were counter-productive to our existing clients. I think our rivals were involved behind this. Those ********." Prakash cursed.

"Mind your language dear." Anita admonished him.

"Sorry, my bad," Prakash replied.

The world of business was a cruel place. One always threaded between dangerous lines. Striving to improve one's business relations, hindering the growth of rival companies, and plotting to swallow them later. It was a common occurrence.

"Anyway, the two deals were quite favourable to us and the clients are big enough that our rivals wouldn't be able to influence them," Prakash assured.

Just when she was about to inquire further, the pupils of Anita suddenly dilated to almost pin sized and a surge of pain reverberated from her heart and soon spread throughout her entire body.

"Anita…?" On seeing her sudden change in demeanour, Prakash tried to reach out to her when he too felt a burst of pain originate from his heart and soon, his whole body felt the effect.

His outstretched hand couldn't grasp onto Anita's and his vision started to become blurry.

He saw Anita become farther and farther away from him, his voice couldn't leak out amidst the pain and, his outstretched hand could never grab ahold of Anita.

He soon lost consciousness.