The house smelled of rotten flesh and there was something mysterious and heavy about the air. A unique kind of silence ruled the arena indicating the disclosure of  lot many secrets in the succeeding minutes.
As the renowned detective Aman Mathur and his team accompanied by some police officials broke into Rajeev’s apartment, their attention was caught by the mess the house was in. The screen of the LCD TV that once exhibited grandeur was now nothing but a dissection of hundreds of thousands of lines and scratches. The cushions of the sofa were turned upside down. The books in the shelf fixed on the wall behind the sofa were distastefully arranged; some even lay on the carpet of thick fur that was earlier a royal harbinger.
A glass half filled with water stood on one edge of the dining table and a small note written on a beautiful sheet of red colored paper read: Happy Anniversary Sana.

#
An exhausted Sana enters the living room of their apartment post a tiring day at office to be greeted by Rajeev who was at leave from work. They share a warm smile and a brief hug at the entrance after which she walks into the house to find an unfamiliar face gaping at her. Being greeted by an innocent looking ten year old whom you sure have never met before is a surprise not quite pleasant. They share a half minute long eye contact post which she hears Rajeev speak behind her in a husky tone: He is the sole remainder of my previous relationship.
Sana’s limbs refuse to listen to any of her commands and go numb for time that seems to have stopped slithering for her. Her mind wanders to the day Rajeev’s family had come home to ask for her hand in marriage one slow afternoon in 2005. She remembers how within a minute of having met him, she found herself lost in the unending valleys of his eyes that seemed so earnest and promising. It was more like love at first sight for them.  The marriage happened and they lived to be a happily married couple for six long years until came this fateful day. She felt betrayed and conned. But could she deny the fact that of all the people she knew, he alone was the one who selflessly loved her? Could she ever forget those warm pecks he showered her with every single day they spent together?
She was still lost in her thoughts when she was startled by her own voice. She could hear herself breaking a deadly silence their house was never before subjected to, with the words: its okay. I love you.

That summer, Sana saw a rapport develop between the father and the son. Aryan resembled Rajeev in a lot of ways and though she found it difficult to accept her step son initially, she too grew to like that docile little kid who lost his mother to a car accident. They admitted him to a boarding school after all formalities of his custody were dealt with. Aryan visited Rajeev and Sana every summer for the next four years and his presence gave Sana that satisfaction of being a mother that she was not destined to receive. Though Aryan was not fond of his step mom, he never expressed this and gradually accepted his father’s legally wedded wife.

#
Aman was pursuing LLB when his sister Maya and the child in her womb were disowned by Rajeev. Aman had asked Maya to abort that kid but it was a mother’s heart he was trying to convince. And after many failed attempts of changing her mind, he saw his sister give birth to a beautiful healthy child on 8th of July, 2001. Maya’s family had a hard time dealing with the taunts and insults from relatives and neighbors who never were in favor of rearing an illegitimate child. It infuriated Aman to see Rajeev tying the knots with some random girl to whom Maya had lost her rightful share of happiness. On ample number of occasions he considered taking a revenge on Rajeev but the pleas of his sister always stopped him. Maya’s death had rekindled that fire of revenge in him. He was a successful lawyer and renowned private detective who in no time got people to send Aryan to Rajeev soon after Maya’s death.

#
Rajeev’s company was taking up new projects that required Rajeev to work for fourteen hours a day. He failed to recollect the last time he went on a dinner date with Sana. But today being their tenth marriage anniversary, Rajeev made adjustments with his bosses and colleagues to let him be back home by seven in the evening. He left a ‘Happy Anniversary Sana’ note on the dining table early that morning and silently left for work without disrupting the sleep of the woman who had always accepted his flaws and mistakes. In his attempts to produce no sound while doing his daily chores, his satchel had a brush up with some books lying on the table but luckily they fell on the fur carpet of their living room and therefore produced no sound. He quickly gulped down some water that he had earlier poured himself in a glass and left for work without picking up the books or caring to finish the water he had poured himself.

#
Sana woke up at around nine in the morning with a broad smile that appeared on her face only on her and Rajeev’s anniversary or dates. She had planned a surprise for Rajeev to make their tenth marriage anniversary a memorable one. She had asked Aryan’s hostel warden to let him spend the weekend with them. She hurriedly got ready for the special day and was just on time to receive her fourteen year old step son at the door when the bell rang. She was so excited for the big day that her eyes that otherwise never failed to notice any object that was not in its assigned place, overlooked the books lying on the fur carpet. She opened the door to find an Aryan supposedly in a sullen mood. He didn’t greet her, just walked in, dropped his bag on the floor and observed the house properly. He saw the books lying on the fur carpet. He called out his father’s name only to hear Sana say “He is off to work. You can spend some time with your mom till he returns.” The last line she said sparked the fire of dislike that existed in Aryan’s heart for her from a very young age. He went into the kitchen and returned after a few seconds with a look on his face Sana had never before seen. His eyes were red and hands behind his back and he was slowly progressing towards her, his eyes never leaving hers for even a fraction of a second all the while.

“What did you do to my father witch? Where is he? You killed him, didn’t you? You are now trying to portray it as if I’m the culprit.” Sana could absorb none of what she heard. She entered a state of shock. The docile little kid with eyes begging for mercy she had known four years ago was now replaced by a spiteful, vile and vengeful one. He kept coming towards her and finally produced the object he had hidden behind his back- a knife. He tried to insert the knife into her, she screamed and asked him to stop. She got hold of his wrists but he turned out to be mightier. They indulged in a dangerous skirmish which Sana had never expected herself to be doing. She was just trying to save herself from the clutches of Aryan and more importantly, get rid of that knife. The cushions of the sofa, the LCD TV on the wall, books from the shelf- all lay in a heap. The house was in a total mess but Aryan cared little about this. He just wanted to end the Sana chapter forever. But somehow Sana managed to get the knife off his hands and was about to run to the bedroom to lock down herself but Aryan won’t let it go and in her attempts to keep the knife away, she ended up stroking it in Aryan’s belly. In less than ten minutes, she had come down from being a wife and a step mom to a murderer. Though this was not intended, but she did lead Aryan to lying in a pool of blood in the living room of their apartment. She didn’t know what to do next. She had completely lost her cool. After giving much thought, she decided to hide Aryan’s body somewhere in their bedroom. She did so and quickly got out of the house with her handbag and car keys. She didn’t know where she was headed.

#
Rajeev returned home with a bunch of beautiful roses and a bottle of Champagne, mentally prepared to spend a lovely romantic evening with his wife. But the ten-step walk from the living room to the bedroom killed all his anticipations and left him shattered and lost in all sorts of negative thoughts. His mind wandered around all the possible things that could have happened. With his son lying lifeless right before his eyes and all his calls to his wife going unanswered, he was left with no choice but to turn to the police for help.

#
The police started looking for Sana after twenty four hours of her absence but all this while Rajeev didn’t disclose it to the police that his son was no longer alive and that his body was still lying in one corner of his bedroom. The police sensed that some part of the story had been skipped by Rajeev and ultimately upon the insistence of renowned detective Aman Mehra, they broke into Rajeev and Sana’s apartment. Aman was more than sure that his nephew was in danger and therefore influenced the police into doing this. Meanwhile, Sana’s whereabouts were found out by the police and upon much pleas on the part of Rajeev, they agreed to let him talk to her before the police did.

#
She sat in the Starbucks Café, sipping her coffee and staring out of the window. The blood stained knife lay next to her handbag, covered with her blue silk scarf. She had big dark circles beneath her eyes and her hair was in a total mess when Rajeev first spotted her at the café. He occupied the vacant seat next to her and put his hands over hers. Until then, she had seemed to have been lost in some dreamy land. Seeing Rajeev sitting beside her almost gave her a heart attack. For the first time in the past eighty five hours, tears rolled down her eyes. She narrated the entire story to Rajeev in between sobs and sniffs and a dutiful and loyal husband that he was; he offered to take up all the blame just to assure a problem free life for her. Together, they drove back to the police station and Rajeev made up a story that convinced the police that he had killed Aryan because Aryan’s presence was affecting his married life. Detective Aman Mehra was too pleased to hear the news and didn’t consider that there might be other possibilities. Aman entered the police station to find the person responsible for his sister’s miserable life behind the bars.
Rajeev was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment by the court of law. Sana visited him every weekend. They share a forced smile and a wordless interaction every time she visits him. While Sana’s life on rest of the weekdays shifts from home to office and occasionally on a lonely bench near the gravestone of Aryan, Rajeev’s days are spent paying off for his past karmic choices.