Chapter 6 - The Conditions of Staying
Maya refused to let Arjun call himself her husband.
“The divorce is final,” she reminded him.
“I know.”
“You have no responsibility toward me.”
“I know.”
“You cannot stay because you feel guilty.”
Arjun placed his suitcase beside the chair in her hospital room.
“I’m not asking to repair our marriage today. I’m asking permission to sit in this chair.”
Maya folded her arms.
“For how long?”
“Until you ask me to leave.”
She expected him to last a few days.
Instead, Arjun rearranged his meetings, appointed a temporary deputy and rented an apartment near the hospital. He attended consultations only when Maya allowed it. He learned when she wanted conversation and when she wanted silence.
He brought her tea without asking whether she needed it sweetened.
He remembered.
One afternoon, Maya woke to find him sleeping awkwardly in the chair, his laptop open on his knees.
For the first time, she understood what she had denied him.
He was tired, frightened and uncertain, but he was still there by choice.
“You should go home,” she said.
Arjun opened his eyes.
“Do you want me to?”
“That isn’t what I said.”
“Then I’m staying.”
Maya looked toward the window.
“What happens when your company stops being understanding?”
“I step down.”
“No.”
“Maya, my career belongs to me. You do not get to sacrifice it without my permission, and you do not get to preserve it without my permission either.”
She turned to him sharply.
“You worked your whole life for that position.”
“And I worked my whole life to become someone who would not abandon the people he loved.”
Maya’s anger faded.
Arjun leaned forward.
“You were right about one thing. I was absent before. I convinced myself that providing a future was the same as being present in one.”
“I used that against you.”
“You used a real wound to hide a deeper one.”
For the first time since the divorce, they spoke honestly.
May you like
Neither asked for forgiveness.
But neither walked away.
