‘But that’s impossible,’ Aditya protested. ‘I saw her.
She would have killed Rohit if I had not fired. She was pushing the knife down ...’ Aditya stopped himself mid-sentence. Rohit was holding Tanvi’s wrist. Was he really defending himself or ... pretending? Had Rohit been acting all along? Aditya began thinking about that night from a completely different perspective.
If Tanvi could not move of her own volition, as Dr Mistry had pointed out, Rohit must have positioned his sedated wife on top of himself, also propping the knife in her right hand. He was not pushing it away; he was, in fact, pretending to bring it down towards himself. Tanvi was not trying to kill Rohit; she couldn’t have. The darkness, with its dancing lights, and the loud music, completed the illusion. Masterminded by Rohit.
He grasped the arms of the chair and stiffened, a cold dread hitting him like a punch in the gut. Head spinning, he reached out with shaky hands for the glass of water on Dr Mistry’s table. He gulped it down, spilling some on himself, and put the glass down, feeling nauseated. Rushing out without a word to Dr Mistry, he hurried to the restroom next to the reception. He retched, gasping for air, then splashed water on his face, ran his hands through his hair and looked at himself in the mirror. He shook his head slowly, as a wave of anger and disbelief overcame him.
Impossible for her to get up ... but then, who did he see running after Rohit that night?
He was walking back to Dr Mistry’s office, when he heard the siren of an ambulance. His mind went back to the day he left Meera’s house after the wedding in Pune—that feeling of unease, of something bothering him. What was it? And then it hit him. It had been staring him in the face all along. But he had missed it.
That night, at Meera’s house, when her suitcase accidentally opened and the contents spilled out, he had caught a glimpse of it. It had fallen to the floor, partly hidden between two other dresses.
A white hospital gown.
That was it! What was bothering him that day, triggering that nameless anxiety. The hospital gown.
In Meera’s suitcase. But that meant ... Aditya was shaking violently as he drew the inevitable conclusion ... it was not Tanvi he had seen running after Rohit, it was Meera! She must have left for Mumbai immediately after he left from Pune and reached Paradise.
Meera and Rohit were in it together!
The stage had been set perfectly, and Aditya was the unwitting actor.
Aditya, help me! A voice from the past spoke in his head again. And then, he heard the gunshot.
Aditya came back to the present with a shudder.