Chapter 1 - Three Days Before Goodbye
Eight months earlier, Maya had sat in a quiet consultation room staring at an envelope she could not bring herself to open.
She was twenty-nine years old, newly promoted at an architectural firm, and married to the man she had loved since university. Until that morning, her greatest concern had been whether Arjun would remember their dinner reservation.
The doctor sat across from her.
“The preliminary results are concerning,” she said gently. “We need further testing, but there is a strong possibility that this is lymphoma.”
Maya heard the words, but they seemed to belong to someone else.
She thought about the fatigue she had blamed on work. She thought about the swollen area near her collarbone that she had ignored. She thought about Arjun leaving before sunrise every morning and returning after she had already fallen asleep.
“Is it treatable?” Maya asked.
“There are many effective options. We should wait for the complete results before discussing a plan.”
Maya nodded as if she understood.
Outside the hospital, rain covered the city in silver. She stood beneath the entrance canopy and called Arjun.
He answered after the fourth ring.
“Maya, I’m walking into a meeting.”
“I know. I just wanted to hear your voice.”
He laughed softly. “That sounds serious.”
She almost told him.
Then she heard another voice in the background reminding him that the Singapore executives were waiting.
“I got the regional-director interview,” Arjun said. “It’s finally happening.”
Maya closed her eyes.
“That’s wonderful.”
“I’ll tell you everything tonight.”
But that night, he came home after midnight.
Maya sat in darkness with the unopened hospital envelope on her lap.
Arjun kissed the top of her head, too exhausted to notice her swollen eyes.
“Three more weeks,” he promised. “Then this project ends, and I’ll make everything up to you.”
Maya looked at the man who had spent ten years fighting for every opportunity he had earned.
She placed the envelope inside a kitchen drawer.
May you like
“You don’t have to make anything up to me,” she said.
It was the first lie.
