Circle of Trust

Chapter 4

Varun Rajawat aka the biggest jerk this side of the town. He snorted. He needed to get a lid on it. Like right now. Or he’ll run the risk of losing the one most important thing in his life he had actually worked hard on building – his relationship with his wife.

It had needed a lot of effort, on both sides, to get to the place they were in. And he was beginning to royally screw that up all on his own. Based on baseless suspicions and pent up frustrations. His emotional and physical dependency on his wife shocked him and added to his miserable state.

How could she lock herself away for months on end working on a novel when he could hardly breathe without her? He just did not get it. It was different from the earlier times when she had needed time away to write. He could sense it. She refused to discuss the story with him, which in itself was a cold hard fact he couldn’t ignore. He had literally heard her thinking aloud while she wrote the previous four books. He had been her sounding board – at the dead of the night, in the coffee shop, during the delivery of their daughter, and even in the middle of his board meetings.

If he was being absolutely honest, her passion for writing was an aphrodisiac for him. Her non-stop chatter about her characters and the plot fascinated him.

There were times when he would wake her up in the middle of the night to make her tell him about the progress she made with the story that day. Groggy with sleep, she would tell him; she could hardly keep her eyes open but she would talk to him. And then she would climb on him, rest her head on his chest and promptly go off to deep sleep.

Varun clutched the steering wheel hard, feeling a dull ache in his chest. He missed her. She was unnaturally quiet about this book. It scared him. Did she not miss him, miss what they shared every single day? She looked lost, unaware of things around them. The call from that bastard yesterday only added to his wounds. And to see that same number flash on her mobile this morning raised the devil in him. It couldn’t be, could it? Once a ….no, he wouldn’t go there. He couldn’t go there…if he had to keep his sanity.

“Who are you and what have you done with my partner?” said a familiar voice.

Varun jolted out of his torturous thoughts and was shocked to find himself in his office, walking towards his cabin. WTF? He looked around him wildly, wondering how he had managed to enter the office building, park his car, ride up the elevator 23 floors without being aware of what he was doing.

“Hey man, you okay? You kinda look green,” said Hari, his business partner and friend.

“No…yeah, I’m good. Am I late for the meeting?” he enquired, as he settled down behind his massive desk.

“Tell me, really. Where have you stuffed your double’s body? I hope to God, you tortured the bastard before bagging him.” Hari sat on the maroon couch in the far corner of the office, stretching his long legs on top of the glass center table.

Varun showed him the middle finger without looking up. He pulled out all the drawers on his desk, searching for the documents he needed for the meeting. Pressing the button on the intercom, he was about to ask his secretary, when Hari switched off the intercom.

“I wouldn’t dare, if I were you.” He gently pushed a grey file towards Varun. “You wouldn’t want to annoy Miss D’Souza.” He smirked. “This early in the morning…” he added, pointedly.

“Drop it, Hari. So I’m early today. Don’t fucking make a criminal case out of it.”

Hari backed away holding his hands up. “I’m happy you’re early.” He smiled. “I hope to God, she didn’t kick you out. That’d be a pity.”