Chapter 2

Delhi, Friday 22^nd June 2012

Khushi disconnected the line. She had heard the same message twice every day for the last month. Yet she never gave up. The first thing every morning and last thing every night and sometimes int he middle of the day. "The number you have dialled is switched off. Please try again later." There was something about the way it was scrawled that piqued her curiousity. She put away the paper carefully. Even though she knew it off by heart, she always held it while making the call. She always traced his script. It filled her with hope and calm.

She had been following Shyam's whereabouts for the last month. She had found out a lot more about the vile man, but nothing that had her closer to her husband's whereabouts. At times she even doubted his involvement in the matter. Surely if Shyam had anything to do with it, by now he would have used it as leverage. Instead the man had become a maniac when he learnt that she had destroyed the will and that he wouldn't get a cent.

She thought of what might motivate his kidnapper, why keep him hostage for over a month without making any demands. So money was not it. She had asked Akash religiously every day if any employee had made any demands or had there been any threats to the business. Every day Akash had replied in the negative.

She kept up with the English lessons. She knew she had to be well versed in the ways of his world if she wanted to seek him out from within it. It had been hard at first, but then Khushi was known to embrace everything that was difficult. Even the man she married was proof of that.

She had bored through his past with Anjali but other than a torrid affair. His father had made a suicide pact with his lover, his mother committed suicide devastated by the years of betrayal. There was the uncle. The cha-cha who Arnav had squashed when he requisitioned Sheesh-mahal again. But the uncle had moved to a village and seemed to have made peace with whatever he had.

She had hit a dead end. A feeling of growing helplessness and unease was starting to brew within her. The family had settled back into a semblance of routine. Even the frequency of Anjali's nervous breakdowns had reduced, she was now positively looking forward to the birth of her baby. She wanted a boy, to remind her of her little brother, she told Khushi with tears in her eyes.

"We will find him Di. My heart says that he is alive. And well. He is alive and well. I just know it. Don't you worry Di." She clutched his photo to her heart wiping away the tears that had made their way down her cheeks. She was trying to console herself more than anyone else. The nights were the hardest. She had started to wear his ashirts to bed, clinging on to his scent. She felt relaxed, as if in his embrace. An embrace she had never felt, yet somehow knew she would peace in his arms.

His thoughts lulled her to a slumber.

Barbados, Friday 22^nd June 2012

"So do you think she was having an affair with him?" Sean looked over towards Arnav who stood up and walked slowly towards the edge of the terrace and leaned over the railing looking at the brilliant sunset.

"I want to believe that she wasn't. But then, I can't erase what I saw." He replied softly. Barely audible.

"What does running away to the Caribbean achieve?"

"I couldn't stay on knowing that she might actually love that sonofab*tch."

"Anjali?"

"My sister will be fine. I left her enough money that even her great grand-kids will never have to work. She will miss me, but she is strong in the face of death. Just not strong in the face of the living. Shyam's infedility will break her heart, but her baby will keep her going. And eventually she will move on."

"you haven't answered my question, do you believe she was capable of what you think you saw?"

"what do you mean what I think I saw. I know what I saw OK?" his temper rose ever so slightly, but clear in his voice. Sean changed the subject.

"So what about Shyam and Khushi?"

He flinched visibly and gritted his teeth at the mention of the two names in the same sentence. "If they have something going, then my disappearance will give them the chance to do whatever. "

"And if they don't?"

"She will find me."

"Why?"

"To kick my ass." He smiled and raised his glass to his friend.

Delhi, Saturday 30^th June 2012

"Khushi, wake up, its time to eat."

"What? Jiji are you mad? Its only 4 am!"

"Its teej today. You forgot?"

"Oh! I will be down in a second."

Khushi rushed to the bathroom. And just as she was about to make her way downstairs when she remembered her phone. She sighed, it was like a routine now so she just dialled and waited to hear the message. A blank. She hung up. Tried again. It was ringing. She felt the butterflies whizz around in her stomach. She sat down. And waited.

"What do you need?"