Even though she hadnt slept at all in the last 72 hrs she still couldn’t fall asleep. Her throat felt dry but it had felt like that all day nonetheless she decided to get a glass of water. Maya got out of bed, her knee felt cramped the bed was too small for her. Obviously….it was meant for a 6yr old. She decided she’d move into a hotel the next day.

The corridor connecting the bed room to the drawing room was not more than 10 feet but felt like a mile as she walked past the photos. The two people in all the pictures on the walls of the really long corridor were looking at her, she could see their eyes following her. She quickened her pace, once in the kitchen her eyes sought a glass, when she dint find one she picked up a cup n poured in some cold water from the refrigerator. As soon as the cup touched her lips she felt a chill go down her spine, this was his cup, he must have drank coffee in it every morning, she could feel him on it and then she felt herself shaking. She put the cup down on the counter and drank more water than she needed from the bottle. By now she knew sleep wasn’t going to knock on her door tonight, still shaking she walked into the drawing room and sat down on the couch.

Her eyes combed the room and halted on a shelf on the opposite wall, it was their wedding picture, the girl in the picture looked beautiful in her ivory wedding gown and the guy had his arms around her. They must have been in love. Did he love her more? What was her name Jane….June…..no…..it was….was Jenny. She turned her attention to him…..her husband Nikhil…..I need answers, u know. Why did u do this to me? Was the kid yours? Did u love me? She had said the last one out loud.

When she had first entered the apartment that morning she had a nagging feeling that it was a bad idea, she should just sell it away, she dint have to see it, all she had to do was turn around and walk away. But she stayed, she had walked around the apartment all day. The kitchen, the pictures in the corridor….. their years together, of all the vacations they took…..in the snow and on the beach, Christmas celebrated with his wife and kid….his true family maybe, the birth of their child, his first day at school… Before she knew the tears came gushing out, she had held them back the entire day. The only room she hadn’t stepped in was the master bedroom and she dint want to either….no she would just sell the apartment. All she wanted was to go back home, to her parents, her land, leaving this past fortnight behind. She would tell no one, nobody needed to know, it would serve no purpose to tell everyone, how would she answer their questions, the only person with the answers was gone.

Over the past 14days she had done a lot of mental searching into the last 4 years of her life only to realize in the end that he hadn’t really given any obvious indications of another parallel life. He did spend 20 days every month in New York but how was she suppose to know, the head office of his firm was in New York. Could he have loved them both? Is that humanly possible? Clearly he had been married when they got married, he had a 6 year old son. So did that make her the other woman? He must have married Jenny right after college, if the calculations were correct. Then had he married her only to appease his Marwari parents? Only once in their 4 years had Nikhil joked that if he hadn’t married her his parents would have disinherited him.

A distant fire alarm sounded somewhere…..must be down the street. The conversation she had with the cops came back to her….your husband was killed in the crash and there were 2 other people in the car….one a 6 year old kid…do you have any idea who they could be?

The phone started ringing somewhere in the apartment, she knew where but she dint want to go in there, not yet, maybe never. Oh! she wished it would stop ringing…..who could be calling so late. After 10mins the phone was still ringing, she had to make it stop. She walked up to the bedroom door, turned the handle with trembling hands, mercifully there were no other pictures in this room…..but she could feel the weight of the memories in her stomach. She headed straight for the phone, she’d shut it up and leave the room before her mind could register what was going on. She picked up the receiver but before she could speak a girl was frantically trying to tell her something, she couldn’t make out what. Her eyes were on a picture she saw in an open drawer of the bedside table……the only words she heard were…fire…..3rd floor……evacuation…..fire engine. The receiver fell through her fingers, they reached out for the photograph….it had been taken on her honeymoon. Everything came flashing back, after their first night together she had woken up to the clicking sounds of a camera. Nikhil had told her that she had no idea how beautiful she looked in the morning…..pure like the sunrise outside the window. She had forgotten all about it…..she pulled the drawer further…..there were other photographs in it…..their wedding photo, their first anniversary, her in the shower, her first time at a pub…..he had to carry her home that night. A smile crossed her lips amidst the tears. She finally sat down on the bed the weight of the emotions pulling her down. Now she knew….she pulled the photographs close to her heart and rested her head on the pillow. She could finally feel the sleep coming on. So coming here wasn’t such a bad idea afterall. Maybe this wouldn’t be a bad idea either….she would finally find answers to all her questions. She pulled the covers over her still shaking body, they smelt of Nikhil’s aftershave, this was his side of the bed……this was where he had slept for the last time.

p.s. i just cant think of a title.........pls suggest some.