Beyond the Boundaries

Chapter 39

'Who the hell is dying at this hour of the night?' She thought to herself sarcastically, while searching for her ringing phone in the blanket, yawning, reorienting herself and barely managing to keep her eyes opened.

Zoya had always been a heavy sleeper and it wasn't easy to wake her up. Being a night owl, she slept late and to wake her up at this hour was pretty much impossible. This was the third time that the caller was trying to reach her and finally the buzzing reached her ears.

At last, finding her phone, grabbing it from underneath the pillow after frantic searching, she answered it. It was a call from India. She sat straight up in her bed, wide eyed and confused, it was a call from India but the number was not Maahi's.

'Hello, Maahi?'

'No, it's Abhay.'

'Oh. Hi, Abhay, I thought you went back, when did you return? Is everything ok? I have been trying to reach Maahi, but I guess she must be busy.'

'Maahi is in a coma.'

'What... wait, what????? Please come again. What did you just say? Coma? What happened?', Zoya was clearly blabbering. She couldn't comprehend what she was being told. It was as if time had stopped. How could this be?

Abhay explained the whole situation and also how Maahi took two names; one hers and the second, Oliver's during her brief period of consciousness.

Zoya couldn't say anything in shock for few minutes. She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes until she saw nothing but starts and waving patterns.

'Who is Oliver?', Abhay asked straightforwardly.

She tried to get up from the bed, but it was more like a stumble and fall. She was not sure what to say and how much to say. But Maahi was in coma, she was the one who had to make a decision whether to come clean about everything or not.

She made a split second decision and told Abhay everything. She requested him to understand Maahi's perspective and the circumstances that followed. There was no right or wrong in this whole situation, Maahi was in love with Oliver and there was no denying that. She found a meaning to her life in someone that appreciated her as herself and saw her as a wonderful human being that she was.

She never really cheated on Abhay or did she? All she knew was that both Abhay and Maahi drifted apart slowly disappearing into their own shell. They didn't have anything left between them to save. What was different about Oliver was the fact that he met her halfway to share her pain. He loved her and at the same time drove her crazy.

When Abhay learned about Oliver he felt like he was at a crossroad and whichever way he chose he was going to lose one thing or another. He also knew he had made some choices in his life which were not in favor of Maahi and now was the time to choose which was worth losing. He owed at least some amount of happiness to Maahi.

'Zoya, I need a favor from you.'

'Go on!'

'Can you ask Oliver to visit Maahi?'. The question came as a complete surprise to Zoya.

'Well, the thing is, he has been missing for a month now. Maahi was trying everything to contact him and so was I, but we still haven't heard back from him.'

'What can we do?'

'Give me few days, Let me give it a try one more time. If it still doesn't work out then we will come up with something together.'

'I can go to France to find him myself.' Abhay proposed.

'No! let me do this. I want to do this, I insist. I have my own personal reasons behind it. Though I need to talk to my parents but I am sure they will understand. Leave it to me.'

'Aa, well...okay then', hint of doubt clear in his voice, 'I will look forward to hearing from you. Please keep in mind we really don't know how much time we have left on our hands.'