Fiction by Sanchita Sannigrahi
Bright lights, pearl white painted walls, a grand couch with a one edge higher making it almost look back from the Victorian era and a whole team of people behind me. This is all I ever wanted in life – be successful and be relevant. This was the most important day of my life, for my business and for the people who trusted me, my husband, Abhimanyu Singh. Let me come to my husband a little later.
I walked into the meeting room, nervously waiting for Abhi to arrive, along with another investor, although he was the least of my problems.
“There you come. Welcome honey! How has your day been going?” I asked.
“Well! Let’s hope this board meeting makes the day for me.” He spoke as if this was the last thing he wanted to do.
It almost felt like he doesn’t believe I can do this. Every time we spoke about this, he would ask if I ever lacked something. But this was not why I started working, it was because I had always been ambitious. This was him, too indulged into his business to even care about me.
So, my partner, Sunil and I started our presentation.
“We have hosted 11 eco-friendly weddings this quarter, 2 were low profile which did not generate much profit, but we have some good news, the Hinduja wedding profited the company with about 2 crores. Other new weddings total profited with 5.5 crores and currently we stand in good competition in the market with 6 more deals awaited to be closed. We expect these deals to bring us another 4 crores, through which we plan to invest in creating a more sustainable business, incorporating more innovative elements like environment-friendly flower decor in our new package and also a team.” I ended with the brand name in the slide in big bold letters “MADE IN HEAVEN”.
“This is good!” my husband exclaimed.
“I am happy you have managed to stay afloat. I was not expecting that, this is good.” My partner almost jiggled in joy as he handed out the company financials to him.
This was good for me, I was finally able to make a point to him. I could finally call myself Shreya Singh, a first of my kind businesswoman. I started very small, with small goals of low waste, resource friendliness to create a major impact.
Abhi and I have been together for two years now. Our marriage to me had become nothing but two people who sleep in the same bed. Although there was nothing that he didn’t do for me. For the outside world, we were the ideal couple, perfect clothes, much in love, but there was something missing. I felt it. All marriages come to still at some point, and the love needs to be re-ignited, but for me it was like that since day 1. I never seemed to be enough for him. I felt lonely in that world, a world full of luxuries and endless money, something that I always wanted, but I wanted to be loved now.
I would be alone in that big house, for long nights, waiting for Abhi to come home. My mom would always tell me there is something missing in my life. And that missing was to add a new member, ‘a baby’. But I was not ready for it. Instead I decided to build something for myself, to make a difference in this world, that would keep me busy and I called ‘Made in Heaven’ my baby.
“Hi baby! When are you going to be home?” I called Abhi.
“Hey! I will be late, there are some issues in the factory, I have to sort it out tonight.” He responded in ignorance.
“Okay! How late? I made dinner and sent the staff home, so that we could spend some time alone.” I tried to cheer up the conversation.
“Not today baby! I might sleep in a hotel nearby.”
I was confused because there was no hotel nearby. The factory was in an isolated place, and the closest hotel would be about 20 minutes from the house.
This is it, I knew something was odd about him. Late at night, coming home in the morning, I never saw him at home. The aberration ate me up. I needed to know what he was upto. I decided to go check the restaurant he was at. Calming myself to think, he must have a business dinner. I reached there and to my surprise he was there right infront of my eyes, with Faiza, his childhood friend. In these two years I had become very good friends with Faiza and I didn’t understand why he did not include me in this dinner plan. As I almost spied on them hiding behind the pillar, I knew this was something more than friends catching up dinner.
They finished and headed upstairs to the hotel room, walking hand in hand, almost in love. I had never seen him like this. He was happy! Smiling and laughing at her pathetic jokes. I felt in my gut,
“Is she the reason for all the late nights?”
“No! No! Faiza won’t do this to me, she has always envied us as a perfect couple, she would never do this.”
But as I followed them, my fears started to come true. They went into the room and that was it. I didn’t see them after that. I actually couldn’t see them after that. I knew my marriage was over. All that effort I had put into for him to fit into his world, my perfect dream, everything started crashing down. He was the love of my life, and I was his. Then what went wrong?
I rushed home in shock, and no tears. I couldn’t cry, I started asking myself all these questions.
“Is this because I became too busy in building my business? I should have done what mom had said, the baby would have been something that kept us together and him happy. But I never asked him if he wanted to have one.” I kept having this internal fight with myself asking whether I was less, or did he want something else in his life. I waited all night for him. I didn’t understand if I knew all this while that I was being cheated on, whether I should leave him, or just accept things as they are? I could not go back to the life that I worked so hard to leave behind. Being betrayed was not a part of my manifestation. My own ‘Made In Heaven’ dream was gone. I lost.
The next morning, I heard his car enter and I jumped out of bed.
“Where were you last night?”
“I told you, I was at the factory.”
“Can you for once please look me in the eye and speak to me?” “What do you want?” He yelled.
“I want you to tell me the truth. Where were you?”
He knew what I was getting at. He didn’t seem to feel guilty, but almost relieved. As if a huge rock was removed from his chest.
That’s it, I knew it in my mind, this marriage was over. Not because of the infidelity, but because there was nothing left that bound us together except a piece of paper.
As I left the conversation, I realized this affair was nothing to me, it was my ticket to living my dream on my own terms with no fears pulling me back. I owed Abhi my dream that he helped me live, but more than that he owed his happiness to me, and that made things equal.