The Bestseller She Wrote (23 page)

‘Where will I go, Maya? I don’t have anywhere to go except our home—the home that you and I built. Where will I go?’ he yelled, as Maya rushed away from him.

She stopped for an instant as she reached the washroom and looked at him for that brief moment. ‘For all I care, Adi, go to Hell. Until then, may I recommend the Hyatt.’ She banged the toilet door behind her.

‘Sanjay, dare you let him in,’ were her last audible words.

Sanjay walked up to the door. ‘I think she needs to let out some steam. You go home. I will calm her down. Till then, it is better you stay away.’

‘Which home? This is my home.’

‘Go to my house, Aditya. Stay there. The maid is at home. I will call you once things are under control.’

‘But she is so unwell. How can I stay away?’

‘Trust me. Your being here will do more harm than good. I am going to give her the next dose that the doctor had given this morning. Hopefully she will calm down. Once she does, it will be easy for me to bring around reconciliation.

Aditya didn’t know what to say. He was quiet. The only sound he could hear was Savitha knocking on the door of the bathroom. Maya was vomiting her bile out. Aditya had tears in his eyes.

The washroom door opened and Maya stumbled out. Her eyes were red. Water was flowing in a steady stream. She was struggling to walk. Savitha rushed towards her, wanting to support her and extended her hand.

‘No. I can manage,’ Maya said. She looked at Aditya who was still waiting for her to open the door, and then at Sanjay who was standing where Maya had been standing till a few moments back.

She looked frail, as if she were about to collapse. But seeing Aditya at the door had given her renewed energy and vigour. She wanted to let him know what she thought of him for cheating on her.

‘Till I am alive, Aditya,’ she declared, ‘you will not enter this house again. You have lost my trust. You have taken advantage of Aryan and me, our blind faith in you. I will never forgive you for it,’ she sank to the floor. ‘Ever,’ she added before she turned over and clutched her stomach again.

Sanjay ran to call the doctor.

‘Shut the door, Savitha,’ Maya let out a scream. A hesitant Savitha walked to the door and gently shut it on Aditya’s face.

‘The doctor is on his way,’ Sanjay announced as he ran back to help her gain balance.

‘No. Stop!’ Maya yelled at the top of her voice. ‘Don’t come near me. Stay away.’ Sanjay stopped in his tracks. Gasping for breath, she was about to faint. She was still holding her abdomen but the pain had now spread to her chest too. Sweat was glistening on her face. It looked as if she had washed her face and forgotten to wipe the water off. She pointed to the table. There was a glass of water on the table. Sanjay hurriedly picked it up and extended it towards her.

‘No’, she shook her head, struggling to even breathe. ‘The paper,’ she whispered, pointing to the newspaper lying on the table.

Sanjay looked at the open newspaper. Page seventeen—the international news section of the
Times of India
. He looked at the picture staring out of the newspaper. He had no idea who it was. But it was not the picture. It was the news that accompanied the picture which scared him. Sanjay began to panic.

53

Woman detained in Paris,
tests positive for Ebola Virus

An Egyptian educationist Minouche Shafik, who arrived in Paris three days back and who was rushed to a Paris hospital on Sunday evening, has tested positive for Ebola, giving France its first Ebola case. The educationist is believed to have been infected by her fiancé, a diamond merchant with business interests in Egypt, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. The diamond merchant (refer inset) passed away on Saturday morning in an isolation camp in Sierra Leone. Health authorities are worried that Minouche Shafik, might have passed on the Ebola Virus to various people she came in contact with during the course of the Global Educational Conference she was here to attend. Health authorities are in the process of identifying and isolating the individuals she may have infected. The concern arises from the fact that it was a global conference with delegates from all over the world . . .

Sanjay turned and looked at Maya, scared. Wasn’t this the conference that she had returned from?

54

I
N NO TIME
an ambulance screeched to a halt in front of the housing complex. The area had already been cordoned off and access to the 10th floor had been restricted. The elevators had been stopped, causing a fair bit of problems for the residents. But this was serious.

Three men in yellow biohazard suits stepped out of the ambulance. Seeing the men in full body suits, head gear, face-masks and eye-covers, a crowd had gathered outside the apartment complex. The three men accompanied by six assistants and an equal number of constables hurriedly took the lift up to the tenth floor apartment. Outside the main door, they found a desperate looking Aditya waiting for them. After the initial introductions, Aditya guided them inside. By then Diana too had reached Aditya’s residence.

The three men in body suits entered the premises. They took over one of the lifts. They were carrying disposable stretchers—these would be thrown away after use. The three people in the house—Maya, Savitha and Sanjay—were made to lie down on the stretchers and wrapped in some cheap-looking tarpaulin. All three were carried down to the ambulance. Once they had been transported to the ambulance, the apartment was sanitised by spraying a combination of bleach and water. The entire process was repeated for the elevator too.

Aditya tried to get into the ambulance with the three patients. He was advised against it.

‘Not in the ambulance. We can’t take any chances,’ the doctor informed him.

A worried Aditya ran to his car and followed the ambulance. Diana followed him in her car.

Just as the ambulance was driving off, Aditya saw the first media van arrive.

He followed the ambulance to the isolation ward at the Government Hospital (GH) in Jogeshwari. On the way he called Shreya and told her about Maya’s sickness. He also told her about Maya finding out about the two of them. Shreya fell silent.

‘Now what, Aditya?’ she spoke finally.

‘I don’t know what to say, Shreya. I am not even thinking about anything right now. I just want her to get okay. She was so upset; I just can’t get over the look in her eyes. She was in agony. I could see that the pain was not because of the illness. It was the pain of realising that I have cheated on her. She trusted me, Shreya, and I failed her. I failed her, Shreya.’

‘You have been an amazing husband, Aditya. Despite everything not once did your commitment towards your family waver. I am sure you can explain things to her.’

‘Bullshit!’ Aditya screamed. The panic over Maya’s condition was evident. ‘There is no logic for what is going on between us. There can be no explanation. It is an inappropriate relationship and both of us know that. Yet we have gone ahead with it.’

‘So what are you saying, Aditya?’

‘Nothing. I will talk to you later. I’m very disturbed right now.’ He hung up. Shreya called him back a few times as he was driving. He didn’t pick up the phone.

55

I
N A MATTER
of minutes, the news channels got wind of what was the first suspected case of Ebola in India. OB vans from all news channels rushed to the General Hospital in Jogeshwari—the only hospital in Mumbai with an isolation ward for Ebola patients. Aditya would find out only later that a few bigger hospitals like Lilavati and Jaslok in Mumbai were not approved for patients placed under quarantine or isolation for Ebola.

Sanjay’s parents had been informed and they were rushing to Mumbai, from Kolkata. Aditya did tell them that it would not be necessary for them to come to Mumbai at this stage as Sanjay was only under quarantine, pending the blood test results. But in India, no one particularly understood the difference between isolation and quarantine. Isolation separates sick people with a contagious disease from people who are not sick, to prevent them from infecting others. Quarantine separated and restricted the movement of people who were exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick. In this case Maya was the one who was in the isolation ward. She was sick. She was the one suspected to have Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). Sanjay and Savitha had just been quarantined to see if they would show symptoms of the disease and if they would eventually fall sick. They were the ones who had come in close contact with Maya.

A general advisory was issued by the government, and the authorities started getting in touch with everyone who was on the flight with Maya, to inform them of the risk and put them under quarantine in their own houses. The French authorities had apparently communicated with the Indian agencies on the possibility of an Indian having contracted Ebola, but the Indian agencies on their part had been extremely lax and did not display the same agility in reaching out to Maya in time.

At the Jogeshwari GH, a steady stream of visitors trickled in to provide moral support to Aditya. The CEO of National Bank, people from his team, colleagues from Maya’s school, a few friends; soon it became a carnival. The TV cameras only added to the entire cacophony. They debated if Maya should have been held back at the airport when she came in from Paris. Shouldn’t the security checks at the immigration point be strong enough to detect possible cases of Ebola and detain those infected?

No one really cared about what was going through Aditya’s mind. If guilt could kill, that day Aditya would have died a thousand times. He loved Maya. He couldn’t help thinking that the knowledge of his affair had precipitated her illness. She was sick and heartbroken at the same time. It was a strange twist of fate. But the fact was that Aditya liked Shreya too. Whether he loved her enough to leave Maya for her, he was not sure. He had also told Shreya many a time that for him family was a priority, and that he would never be able to leave them for her. Whenever they had this discussion, Shreya always told him categorically that she had no such expectations from him either.

Sunaina called him that night.

‘Shreya called me, Aditya. She told me about Maya. It is really unfortunate.’

Aditya was listening. He didn’t say anything.

‘She was in tears, poor Shreya. She is very worried for you.’

‘I spoke to her when I was driving to the hospital,’ Aditya said.

‘She also told me that she is not going to the hospital to see you, because she won’t be able to see you unhappy and stressed. She didn’t want to complicate your life at this stage. She wanted me to tell you that she will be waiting for your call, whenever you are free. She doesn’t want to disturb you or put pressure on you.’

‘Thanks for that, Sunaina. I was very worked up at the time I spoke to her.’

‘She was panicking about what you told her. Apparently you were very curt. She is scared that she is about to lose you.’

‘I was disturbed, Sunaina. Isn’t that to be expected?’

‘I am in Mumbai tomorrow, coming for a couple of days. I’ll come and see you.’

‘Sure,’ he said and hung up. He could see the Medical Superintendent walking towards him. He stood up from his seat and waited for the doctor.

‘Will you please come with me to my cabin?’ the doctor directed. Aditya accompanied him to his cabin at the end of the corridor. The Medical Superintendent made Aditya sit down on a sofa in his room. Maya’s parents, who had followed Aditya, sat down next to him. They had flown into Mumbai immediately on hearing about the scare, leaving Aryan with Maya’s sister who stayed with them.

Dr Krishnan, the Medical Superintendent, looked at the three of them through his rimless glasses and began, ‘I am sorry.’ Aditya’s heart sank as he heard those three words. ‘The news is not good. The medical reports have just come in. It’s EVD.’ He looked at Maya’s parents and said, ‘Ebola Virus Disease.’ He even explained to them the possible connection to Minouche.

‘Has she regained consciousness?’ Aditya interrupted.

‘Yes, a few minutes ago. She apparently helped the Ebola patient wash up and get into bed after she had thrown up. That’s when she must have come in contact with the body fluids of the Ebola-infected person and contracted it. Ebola manifests itself in the patient within two to twenty-one days of contracting it. In Maya, it has been quick to show up; within two days, and that is not a good sign.’

Aditya clutched his head in his hands and looked towards the floor. He was about to cry.

‘What about the other two?’ Maya’s father asked.

‘No signs of Ebola. We will keep both of them quarantined; under observation for three days and then let them go. The good thing with Ebola is that the virus cannot live for long outside the human body. So it is not airborne or contagious as many other viruses are. Only when the person comes in contact with the Ebola patient’s body fluids or blood or faeces, is there a chance for transmission. That said, it is always better to be careful, given the 90 per cent mortality rate.’

There was a stunned silence in the room.

‘Are you then saying,’ Aditya asked, horror writ all over his face, ‘that Maya has only a 10 per cent chance of survival?’ He knew that Ebola patients had high mortality, yet someone laying it out in black and white could be nerve-wracking.