The Flaws of Hope
Chapter One - When Shadows Run
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Slipping sideways, silver stars collide
And fade away just like our love that died
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He had been and IAS Officer for the better part of a decade.
A Special Secretary of the State, who had been born into a family of Bureaucrats and Lawyers, Jaidev Sinha knew exactly how the game was played.
Fortunately for him, Jay had never really had to play.
Not that that meant he couldn't.
He just wasn't like his younger brother, he had no burning desire to change the system from the inside, or to be labeled a modern day Robin Hood. That kind of drive only really came from hopeful, rose-colored idealism.
And of all the things that he was, Jaidev Sinha, was neither innocent enough nor nave enough to believe in anything as insubstantial as hope.
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And there is nowhere in this universe to hide from you tonight
I've wrestled with angels all my life
It's always the halos and the wings that keep you blind
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But that wasn't the only reason Jaidev had never played the favor' game - the perhaps more substantial reason, was quite simply that he had never needed to.
He had watched his father wheel and deal with the best of them, sometimes to help a family member, sometimes to cash in a debt that he was owed - but he himself had simply never been put in a position where he needed to call in a favor from anyone.
So for 11 years, he'd done the one thing that any reasonable IAS Officer with his level of clout, and his degree of indulgence would do - he collected favors.
There was after all, something sadistically satisfying in knowing that over half of the top fifty most powerful men in India owed you something. Something you could collect on, anytime, any day, anywhere.
For a man whose own silence had once served as a noose around his neck for five unbearable years - collecting each of those silent chits had often felt like the only semblance of control he had had in his life.
Until last week.
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And if I'd fought with all the strength I held inside
I wouldn't be out here alone tonight
I wouldn't be standing alone tonight
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In the past seven days, the coolly calculative Jaidev Sinha, had methodically spent every waking hour cashing in on nearly every one of his ruthlessly collected favors, chasing his woefully inept wife.
His long fingers, carefully almost reverently caressing the ragged edge of the note he'd found delicately folded under his wallet last Monday.
The cool indifference that he had claimed to feel when he had realized what she had done had lasted all of seventy-two hours.
Three days.
That was how long it had taken Jay to realize that Jaya Sinha, had not simply walked out of his life - she's somehow managed to disappear altogether.
Initially Jay had very logically presumed that Jaya, like any normal woman of their standing would have, had taken herself off to her parents house, and while he had no intention of asking after her, he had seen no reason why his mother couldn't make a casual phone call and ask for Jaya - she was after all her favorite.
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Alone tonight just like the western star, I'm sinking.
The angels curse me blind with straight and crooked thinking
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However, what was meant to be a five-minute conversation to assure the family simply where she was, had turned into something else altogether when Jaya's mother had somewhat uncomprehendingly asked Suhasini what she meant.
Jaya it seemed hadn't been home or even in touch with anyone from home in weeks.
And that was when the rage had settled in.
He was hardly going to beg her to come back, when he'd spent the past five years practically provoking her to leave.
Hell, if she wanted a damn divorce he'd have signed one in his sleep - so why, in the name of all her idiotic God's had she felt the need to dramatically slip out of his bed in the middle of the night and disappear with nothing but three nearly illegible words scrawled out on a torn piece of paper.
Raking a surprisingly unsteady hand through his hair, Jay snatched his jacket off of her side of the bed just as his phone rang jarringly into the silence that had filled the void her incessant chatter had left behind.
"What?" He snapped curtly.
"Sir, we have a lead - "
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Alone tonight just like the western star, I'm sinking.
The angels curse me blind with straight and crooked thinking
And if I'd fought with all the strength I held inside
I wouldn't be out here alone tonight
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Author's Note:
Hello! This as you can see is my first foray into the world of Dehleez, so if you like what you've just read - please do leave a review!
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