The Wrong Woman

19. Dhruv

I scrolled through the websites and articles on my laptop. Pages and pages of medical information and terms or other useless crap that didn't help relieve the knot in my stomach. I took a sip of my black coffee but coughed as it went down the wrong pipe; it was grossly cold, too.

Sighing, I placed it on the dining table and shut the laptop screen down. It didn't make sense. The doctor placated me by trying to say it was temporary and a form of memory loss but to find nothing in the scans...that meant everything was normal.

That there were no signs of memory loss.

What was going on? I thought, leaning back into the chair and staring out the window that took up half of the wall near the kitchen. The birds chirped happily and the sun cast light shadows through our white curtains, but not even the orange glow and the warmth it provided could shake the eerie feeling in my gut.

Something wasn't right. I couldn't come up with anything and I sure as hell couldn't ask Anish and sound crazy. He'd asked how she was before and I'd already said she was fine and just disoriented from going to the bar the night before. That, and I'd promised Rani I wouldn't tell anyone. It was our secret and I would keep it. I just didn't understand it.

My phone rang then and I picked up without looking at the caller ID. "Hello?"

"Hi, is this Mr Dhruv Menen?"

"Yeah, this is him." The voice didn't sound familiar to me and my spine automatically straightened. A gut feeling of some sort told me Rani was in trouble. "Are you Rani Kapoor's husband?"

"Is something wrong?"

"She was brought in to St Patrick's Hospital after fainting. We found your information on her cell phone."

She hadn't finished her sentence fully before I stood up. My foot caught the post of the table, surging me forward. I adjusted myself before settling my eyes on the rattling coffee cup. "I'll be there right now," I said, hanging up and grabbing my wallet and shoving my shoes on. There wasn't any time to waste getting changed in more appropriate clothes other than shorts and a t-shirt.

How come she'd fainted? I thought. She'd been eating more now after that incident. And she was getting more sleep than I'd ever seen her take. Maybe her body couldn't take whatever was happening.

Hell, I didn't even know what was happening.

***

The smell of bleach hit me in full force the moment I rushed inside the bustling hospital. I swerved past a few people before getting directed to the floor and room she was on. My foot tapped against the crusty floors, arms tightly folded against my chest; I was starting to understand why Rani was so annoyed by me.

Any news of something bad happening to her and I panicked like a taunted bull behind a cage. Running a hand down my exhausted face, I blew a deep breath out, willing my chest to deflate and give myself a chance to breathe a little bit. The ding allowed me to get out onto an insanely dim floor; the walls were dark brown and the floors were a polished maroon, so squeaky clean I could see my reflection as I walked down to find room 240.

There were no patients on this floor—most likely inside their designated rooms—and I found myself relaxing at the thought of not having to push through to get to Rani; room 240 was on the right, a plain wooden door with golden letters placed right in the middle. I went to open the door when it opened itself to reveal a young, tall nurse with a nose ring.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

"Rani's husband."

The nurse relaxed, although the hard edge to her voice didn't ease. "She's awake now. The doctor's already checked on her and has deemed everything to be normal."

"So nothing's wrong with her? Have you done scans and tests?"

"Yes, sir. The doctor found nothing. She can go home now. Come downstairs with her to sign the release documents."

So he couldn't find anything either, I thought. Maybe there really was nothing happening here and I was overthinking it. In fact, why was I overthinking this? This was good news. She was fine. Healthy. The same Rani. The most important thing was looking after her but also creating new memories so that maybe...things would go right between us again.

I vowed to myself that that was what I would do. After the nurse left, I went inside the room to see Rani sitting straight up with a pillow to act as a pillar of support. She was reaching for the glass of water and I went over and handed it over.

"How're you feeling now?" I asked, sitting near her feet.

"Really tired," she responded after gulping down the water.

"This must be taking a toll on your body. Maybe getting some rest from work for a few days might help."

Rani shook her head, colour fading from her face more than it already had. "No, I have to work so that Ra—I won't be fired."

"You won't be fired," I said with a chuckle. "Taking sick days from work is completely normal. Tina won't be mad."

"Tina?"

"Yeah, your boss, right?"

She managed a wobbly smile. "It's Tara."

Thank God, a smile, I thought with an internal one of my own. "Tara, Tina. Whoever she is, she's got to have some sort of sympathy for you after fainting like that. What happened, anyway?"

"I had to read a story I wasn't familiar with in ten minutes. It was too much for me to handle," she whispered, staring down at her lap almost as if she was embarrassed to face me. "I'm sorry."

I went to reach out to touch her head but then slowly retracted it, shoving both my hands into the pockets of my khaki shorts. "You don't need to apologise for fainting. I'm not going to hold you to something you couldn't control. Trust me, neither is Tara." When she didn't say anything to that, I gestured to the door. "I was told you were able to go. You feeling up for it or do you want to rest for a little while longer?"

She shook her head. "I've been here for a few hours now, I think. I want to go back."

I watched as she pushed away the covers, catching sight of a small, round bandaid on the inside of her elbow. "Wait. You don't want to put too much pressure on that arm." I went around to the side and reached out to touch her arm, letting her know that she could put her weight on me. She glanced at me but I didn't look to see the icy expression she most probably had on her. Both her feet touched the floor and she pushed herself up. I waited until she seemed stable enough to be standing by herself. "You don't feel like fainting again? Dizzy? Headache? None of that?" I cursed at sounding like the annoying husband Rani'd always complained me to be and cleared my throat. "Don't answer that," I said awkwardly. "Uh, let's go home."

"Thank you."

Gratefulness, and from Rani was a rare occurrence. But at the same time, it twisted and tugged at my nerves. "Don't. I don't need to be apologised to or thanked like I'm your helper."

Her eyes widened and I regretted those words slipping from my mouth the moment it had. Instead of a glare or a sharp retort, she simply giggled like a little schoolgirl that had me gaping at her. "You're right. Those very words I've thought myself."

"Then you know how annoying that can get, huh?"

"Very."

We managed a smile at each other.