The Bestseller She Wrote, page 16
‘Oh my God! Why are you doing this to me?’ she cried. She could feel the pain coming back. Deep inside her, the stirrings of pain which would soon shoot through her body, were beginning. This time the pain was different. It was accompanied by a churn in the stomach, like someone had set a centrifuge inside her. She rushed to the bathroom, clutching her stomach. The pain was unbearable now, and the churning was uncontrollable. Doggedly she held on, but for how long . . . The moment she opened the door, she let go, spraying vomit all over the floor and some bits inside the washbasin. She collapsed on the marble floor and started crying.
She couldn’t bear it any more. Yet, the pain in her abdomen seemed a lot more bearable than the pain that Aditya had gifted her.
50
ADITYA RETURNED SANJAY’S call the next morning. ‘Sorry, missed your call last night. I was talking to Maya.’
‘Really?’ Sanjay was not in a mood to humour him.
‘Hahaha!’ Aditya laughed, which only irritated Sanjay even more. ‘So, why had you called yesterday?’ Aditya continued.
‘I just wanted to tell you that last night I had a long call with Tim. He wanted us to finish the entire retrenchment exercise by today. Just get it over with and come back.’ He didn’t tell him about Maya’s conversation with him honouring Maya’s wishes.
‘And for that you called me so late at night?’ Aditya was curt. ‘In any case, everything is done. The letters have been handed out yesterday. If today there are no issues with the teams in Kolkata, no protests that is, then we can assume that everything is done and dusted.’
‘Let’s hope for the best. We’ll talk during the day.’
‘Thanks, Sanjay. By the way, I have been trying to reach Maya. She is not picking up the phone. Maybe she slept off after a tiring flight. In case she calls you, just let her know that I have been trying to reach her.’
‘Why will she call me?’ Sanjay barked, unable to hide his anger.
‘Just saying, in case she does . . .’ Aditya knew that Maya would call Sanjay in the morning to thank him once again for the trouble he had taken the night before. She was particular about these things.
‘She will see your missed calls for sure.’
‘What’s the matter, Sanjay? Is everything okay?’ Sanjay’s curt responses confused Aditya.
‘Oh yes, yes. Just stressed a bit about the lay-offs,’ Sanjay lied. ‘You are taking the last flight out today, right?’
‘Yes. Just riding the day out here, hoping there is no further complication.’
‘Hmm . . . Be careful. Union issues can get pretty rough. See you soon, Aditya. God bless.’
What a strange way to end a conversation, Aditya thought. Sanjay never said ‘God bless’.
After he disconnected the call, Sanjay dialled Maya. He wanted to update her about his conversation with Aditya. The phone kept ringing, but no one picked it up. Maybe she was tired, emotionally drained and fast asleep, Sanjay assumed. He kept the phone aside and started ironing his shirt. Once he was done, he called Maya’s number again. The phone rang. No one answered. He let it ring on speaker and started buttoning his shirt. He was hoping that after ten rings or so, the call would automatically get disconnected. At the eighth ring, he got lucky.
‘Hello?’
It was not Maya.
51
SANJAY DISCONNECTED THE call and ran, stopping only to wear his shoes and to gather the car keys.
On the way he called Aditya’s number. Thankfully he was not busy on another call.
‘You need to get back here right away, Aditya.’
‘What happened?’
When Sanjay told him, Aditya freaked. ‘Oh my god! How did this happen?’
‘I am going there to find out; will keep you posted. But you take the earliest flight out. I will manage Tim. Just brief the Eastern India HR head and he will take over.’
After he hung up, he called Diana. She was at home. He asked her to be on standby just in case he needed her help.
Sanjay reached Maya’s residence in a little over fifteen minutes. The maid was waiting for him at the door. He pushed the door open and hurried in.
Maya was lying on the sofa. She looked pale, as if all the blood had drained out of her face. Her skin was beginning to sag, and her eyes were drooping. Her entire frame had sunk into the sofa. She had no energy to even lift herself. Quite a contrast to the bubbly Maya he had picked up from the airport less than twelve hours ago.
‘Maya, what happened?’ Sanjay rushed to her side and sat down on the sofa. Maya looked at him, with extremely tired eyes. Lifting her eyelashes to bring them in line with what she wanted to see was an effort.
‘Memsaab was lying on the floor of the bathroom unconscious when I came in. I have my own keys,’ the maid volunteered. ‘I sprinkled some water on her face, and helped her drag herself to the sofa.’
‘Maya, what happened?’ Sanjay repeated his question.
‘I don’t know. I think I was sleeping, when I had this shooting pain in my abdomen. I threw up and passed out. I don’t know for how long. The only thing I remember is the maid waking me up,’ she took a deep breath as she finished.
‘Did you call a doctor?’ he asked. Maya shook her head to indicate that she hadn’t. ‘Let me do it,’ Sanjay offered and took Maya’s phone to search for the number.
The moment his hand brushed against hers, he was shocked. ‘Maya,’ he said with a touch of concern in his voice, ‘it feels like you are on fire. We need to go to the hospital.’
‘No, Sanjay. I think it is just exhaustion from the trip. And probably something we ate in Paris did not agree with my system. I will have another Crocin.’
‘You had one only four hours ago. Are you sure?’
‘I probably vomited the Crocin out. Thanks for driving all the way. I have troubled you so much over the last twelve hours.’ She looked at the maid and asked her to get her two slices of toasted bread and the medicine box.
‘I have spoken to Aditya. He is coming back in the afternoon today. He has been trying to call you.’
Maya suddenly sat up straight. ‘Let him come, he has a lot to answer for. He better have his defence ready,’ she said, despite the fact that words were barely coming out of her mouth.
The maid brought her some toast. Maya quietly nibbled on it. Sanjay called Aditya and briefed him when Maya was having her breakfast. He was already on his way to the airport.
Maya popped another Crocin and sipped water to wash it down her throat. Sanjay sat down next to her. He picked up the newspaper and started reading it. Maya stretched out on the sofa and curled up around a cushion and closed her eyes. Sanjay was worried. The fever did not seem like a normal one.
And then it started, all over again. Maya clutched her tummy and ran to the washroom. The maid ran after her. This time it was worse than before. Sanjay stayed in the living room, wondering what his next step should be.
When Maya came out after fifteen minutes, looking even paler compared to her earlier state, he decided to call the doctor. This time Maya didn’t object.
The doctor came within forty-five minutes. He stayed nearby and had known the Kapoors for a long time. By then Aditya had reached the airport in Kolkata. He had managed to get a seat in a flight and was waiting for boarding announcements when Sanjay called him again.
‘It’s severe gastroenteritis. That’s what the doctor said. He has given her some medicine. It will slow her down a bit for the next few hours and then we will see what needs to be done. He has said that even if she doesn’t eat, it’s fine.
‘Where is she now? Give her the phone. She has not been taking my calls.’
‘She has just closed her eyes. Let her sleep, Aditya. She has been through unmentionable trauma all night.’
‘The boarding announcement has just been made. I will be home in four hours,’ Aditya said.
52
MAYA WOKE UP after three hours. She was weak, though a lot better than how she had been in the morning. The antibiotics and sedatives that the doctor had given her seemed to have had an impact.
Sanjay was with her. He was worried and had decided to wait till Aditya arrived. He had even got the conference call with the regional office postponed.
He was in the living room watching some mind-numbing programme on television when Maya walked in and sat down on the sofa.
‘When is Aditya’s flight coming in?’
‘He should be landing any time,’ Sanjay replied. He could see that Maya had calmed down. She now wanted answers. What was it that was lacking in their lovely family that made Aditya do what he did?
‘I think I should go and take a shower,’ Maya interrupted his flow of thoughts. ‘I’m feeling very yucky. I constantly feel that I smell of puke.’ She got up and went inside.
Maya showered, changed into fresh clothes and came out to join Sanjay in the living room. By then Aditya had landed and was on his way home. Maya casually picked up the newspaper and started to glance through it.
The doorbell rang. ‘It must be Aditya,’ Sanjay said.
The maid walked towards the door. Maya didn’t even bother to look up. She continued reading the newspaper. She was on the seventeenth page of the Times of India. The maid had reached the door and was about to unlatch it when Maya screamed.
‘Savitha, wait!’ she called out to the maid.
The doorbell rang again. Savitha turned and looked at Maya but she was lost in her newspaper. She was looking at a picture—a picture which she recognized. She lifted the paper, brought it to eye level and read the entire article in a flash. Sanjay and the maid looked at her, waiting for the next set of instructions. The doorbell rang a couple of times in the interim.
Maya read through the article and kept the paper down. She got up to walk towards the door. Her eyes were red with anger. She looked hurt, sad and furious all at once. She opened the door and looked at Aditya through the grill door.
‘Hey, Maya. What is this? Why are you not taking care of my baby?’ Aditya gave her a big smile. He was genuinely happy and relieved to see her. He bent down just a bit to pick up his bag, which he had kept on the floor, in anticipation of Maya opening the door.
‘Why have you come here, Aditya?’
‘What? What do you mean, Maya?’ Aditya had a look of surprise on his face. He looked at Sanjay who was inside the house and asked him, ‘Is there a problem?’
‘Look at me, Aditya. Why are you looking at him?’
Aditya turned towards her. ‘What were you thinking when you got involved with that woman,’ she turned to Sanjay and asked him, ‘What’s the name of the girl? Aaah Shreya!’
‘I am not involved with her. What is going on?’ Aditya was completely taken by surprise and didn’t know how to react.
‘What is she to you, Aditya? Does she mean anything to you?’
‘She is just a colleague who works in my team. Listen, Maya, I am sure there is a misunderstanding. Open the door. I will clear all confusions. She does not mean anything to me. Believe me.’
Maya held her phone in her hand and started reading, ‘“Baby, come over. I am alone and missing you.”’ She moved the phone away and looked at Aditya. ‘Is that what you would say to someone who doesn’t mean anything to you?’
‘What?’ Aditya attempted to look disgusted. ‘What did you say I said?’
‘Baby, come over. I am alone and missing you. There are more. Want me to read them out to you?’
‘I never said anything of that sort. There is a misunderstanding,’ he lied, confident that there was no way Maya could possibly know of his affair.
‘Oh really?’ Maya seemed perfectly okay now. The way to kill pain is to inflict a bigger pain on one’s self. ‘Then what is this?’ She lifted her phone and showed the message through the grill to Aditya. ‘And this,’ she said as she swiped through a few screens and pressed a button on her screen.
Shreya’s voice could be clearly heard, ‘And tell me Aditya, that day when you kissed me, did you think of me when you came back home?’ There was a sound of some liquid being poured into a glass and then Aditya’s voice came on line, ‘Of course yes. How could I not? You kiss fabulously and I haven’t been kissed like that in a while.’
The entire recording of Aditya and Shreya’s sexual escapade started playing on the phone. Maya had tears in her eyes.
Aditya was shell-shocked. How on earth did Maya get hold of the recording? This was the recording that Shreya had made the first time she had come over; when she had told him that the sex in his book was thanda; when she had helped him spruce it up. But even in his wildest dreams he couldn’t comprehend as to how that recording could’ve ended up on Maya’s phone.
Maya was shattered. The look on her face said it all. Unable to tolerate the audio recording, she shut it off. ‘Aren’t you ashamed, Aditya?’
Aditya didn’t know how to respond. The evidence was there, for everyone to see. There was no way he could have refuted or denied a dalliance. ‘There is some confusion. Let me come in. We will talk it through. I can explain, Maya,’ was all he could say.
Maya could feel the pain building up inside her again—deep inside her gut, a dull pain. That’s how it had begun the earlier few times. And then it had rapidly grown in intensity till it seemed like an elephant was sitting on her and squashing her, blowing the wind out of her lungs.
‘Don’t even try to lie, Aditya,’ she raised her voice. ‘I always had a suspicion. But I invariably gave you the benefit of the doubt.’ She clutched her stomach and bent forward, her breathing laboured. Aditya could see that she was in enormous pain. He was helpless. He couldn’t do anything till she opened the door.
Her breath was now coming in short spurts. She was panting and had begun to sweat.
‘Maya. Give me a chance to explain, baby. You are in bad shape now. Let’s get some help. I will work it out. I love you, Maya. I really love you. No one else matters to me. Trust me on this.’
‘Liar! You are a liar,’ she screamed through her pain. It was getting unbearable, as if she had been stabbed right in the abdomen and now someone was turning that knife three hundred and sixty degrees, slowly, inch by inch. The air was gushing out of her lungs and she was finding it difficult to breathe. She was struggling as if she was fifty metres under water. ‘You cheated on me. You cheated on Aryan. I hate cheaters. Now get the hell out of here,’ she said as she turned to rush to the washroom.
‘Where will I go, Maya? I don’t have anywhere to go except our home—the home that you and I built. Where will I go?’ he yelled, as Maya rushed away from him.
She stopped for an instant as she reached the washroom and looked at him for that brief moment. ‘For all I care, Adi, go to Hell. Until then, may I recommend the Hyatt.’ She banged the toilet door behind her.
‘Sanjay, dare you let him in,’ were her last audible words.
Sanjay walked up to the door. ‘I think she needs to let out some steam. You go home. I will calm her down. Till then, it is better you stay away.’
‘Which home? This is my home.’
‘Go to my house, Aditya. Stay there. The maid is at home. I will call you once things are under control.’
‘But she is so unwell. How can I stay away?’
‘Trust me. Your being here will do more harm than good. I am going to give her the next dose that the doctor had given this morning. Hopefully she will calm down. Once she does, it will be easy for me to bring around reconciliation.
Aditya didn’t know what to say. He was quiet. The only sound he could hear was Savitha knocking on the door of the bathroom. Maya was vomiting her bile out. Aditya had tears in his eyes.
The washroom door opened and Maya stumbled out. Her eyes were red. Water was flowing in a steady stream. She was struggling to walk. Savitha rushed towards her, wanting to support her and extended her hand.
‘No. I can manage,’ Maya said. She looked at Aditya who was still waiting for her to open the door, and then at Sanjay who was standing where Maya had been standing till a few moments back.
She looked frail, as if she were about to collapse. But seeing Aditya at the door had given her renewed energy and vigour. She wanted to let him know what she thought of him for cheating on her.
‘Till I am alive, Aditya,’ she declared, ‘you will not enter this house again. You have lost my trust. You have taken advantage of Aryan and me, our blind faith in you. I will never forgive you for it,’ she sank to the floor. ‘Ever,’ she added before she turned over and clutched her stomach again.
Sanjay ran to call the doctor.
‘Shut the door, Savitha,’ Maya let out a scream. A hesitant Savitha walked to the door and gently shut it on Aditya’s face.
‘The doctor is on his way,’ Sanjay announced as he ran back to help her gain balance.
‘No. Stop!’ Maya yelled at the top of her voice. ‘Don’t come near me. Stay away.’ Sanjay stopped in his tracks. Gasping for breath, she was about to faint. She was still holding her abdomen but the pain had now spread to her chest too. Sweat was glistening on her face. It looked as if she had washed her face and forgotten to wipe the water off. She pointed to the table. There was a glass of water on the table. Sanjay hurriedly picked it up and extended it towards her.
‘No’, she shook her head, struggling to even breathe. ‘The paper,’ she whispered, pointing to the newspaper lying on the table.
Sanjay looked at the open newspaper. Page seventeen—the international news section of the Times of India. He looked at the picture staring out of the newspaper. He had no idea who it was. But it was not the picture. It was the news that accompanied the picture which scared him. Sanjay began to panic.
53
Woman detained in Paris,
tests positive for Ebola Virus
An Egyptian educationist Minouche Shafik, who arrived in Paris three days back and who was rushed to a Paris hospital on Sunday evening, has tested positive for Ebola, giving France its first Ebola case. The educationist is believed to have been infected by her fiancé, a diamond merchant with business interests in Egypt, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. The diamond merchant (refer inset) passed away on Saturday morning in an isolation camp in Sierra Leone. Health authorities are worried that Minouche Shafik, might have passed on the Ebola Virus to various people she came in contact with during the course of the Global Educational Conference she was here to attend. Health authorities are in the process of identifying and isolating the individuals she may have infected. The concern arises from the fact that it was a global conference with delegates from all over the world . . .
