Everything was all hazy; I think I think I went out too far with the alcohol. I just had to take some time away from my wife. Yeah, pretty common sentence you'll see any husband saying. I didn't know what I was thinking while marrying her; it was a reason unknown to both of us. Now, I really don't know what I feel about her right now, we both love and hate each other at the same time.
I didn't have much of an intention in going back home only to hear the numerous taunts thrown at me, I planned to stay the night at the hotel. And plus I liked it here, no drama, no family problems. It's some times like these where I start to feel the lack of normal in my life, where I just gaze around myself looking at the normal people carrying out their normal conversations in a normal meeting place. For me, that is heaven, having a job being so committed to that my family starts getting annoyed at, a successful yet unsuccessful marriage, a father who doesn't even glance at my face, a brother who always seems to get in any sort of trouble and a sister whose -now- ex-husband was recently proven a molester.
It's like all the melodrama in a drama you see on stage is just playing itself out in my life. I needed some sort of distraction, some sort of reason why I'm still clinging onto this hell of a lifestyle.
Just moments after shaking myself out of my trance where I was grieving the sanity of myself, I saw a man, well I couldn't really see his face, he was in the far corner of the room and his back was against me. All I could spot was a woman, not too young not too old in front of him, backing away with quick footsteps as he took slow ones. I only managed to catch a glimpse of her face when I stormed towards him putting my arm on his shoulder and turned him around to face me. The aftermath just resulted in a lot of blood, and the ambulance. The woman was nowhere to be seen a after that, the last thing I could see after I drifted into unconsciousness was a swift movement of light pink fabric walking outside the room.
I couldn't possibly go back home in a pale white shirt which made it evidently visible that there was blood splattered all over it. I had decided to stay over at the hospital, he might have been the one hurt but if something happened to him, I was the one being punished. I couldn't risk his death; I agreed to pay for all the medications to his family.
Within five hours, I was in an interrogation room, well not specifically an interrogation room, just the main hall of the police station with the lights off with only the light bulb hanging above the front desk switched on. Oh the drama! Yeah, like I needed more of that in my life.
I was already ready with my answers; I knew exactly what he was going to ask and what I was going to say. I was a clear case of culpable homicide. It was obvious that I didn't just go over a knock him out, I tried to reason but he was the one who got offensive, and I had to defend myself from the punches he was throwing at me. But, I think the interrogators didn't understand my point and the next thing was I was inside a jail cellar. Great.
"Wake up!" I heard as the first thing of the day, clearly not a good way to start it.
"You have your first hearing the next two hours." He said before fleeing off.
What?! Two hours?! And I'm supposed to think of every answer to the question they could throw at me. I hadn't even spoken to my lawyer about this, he too wouldn't have much time to revise the evidences and facts about the accident. I couldn't have ever thought I would ever end up in a situation like this.
"Mr. Raman Bhalla is therefore sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment for the culpable homicide of..." , were the only words I could remember, or could even hear. After the judge spoke those words, I knew life was going to become a living hell. I would lose my job, family's trust, freedom and even sanity! "What could have been even worse?", I asked myself as I was being handcuffed and leaded outside the door by an army of police officers. "Nothing," I answered.
I could only catch a glimpse of my family's faces after I was moved out of the room, and that picture stayed in ever since.
My reputation in the business world would now be somewhere in the drain. There was no hope that I could find a job after getting out, considering I was probably fired already without having a proper professional meeting with my boss.
I rounded up all I could think of what was happening in my life right now. I had just been arrested and sentenced to seven years of imprisonment, the job I worked on building for half of my career life had just been washed out, I don't know about my family's reactions to such a sudden flash of terror in their lives and how are they handling it.
A reaction I wasn't quite sure of what was it, when I was led out of the court room I could only but manage to look at Shagun's face, unlike the others she didn't look at me while I was taken outside. Her eyes had just sort of froze at a sort of eternal abyss, she was looking at nothing. Her hand clenched her stomach while all the feelings she could muster for me rolled down her cheek and come to rest at her chin.
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