Raiza's Burden

Chapter 27 My Child

Mara had gone to attend Arabella's party leaving Siddharth alone. He made dinner and sat at his study table enjoying the view outside his balcony. It was dark outside reflecting his mood. the sinking feeling inside his stomach made him want to wring someone's neck. "How will I explain to Mara about Raiza, how will she react? Will she ever forgive me?"  The thought of Mara hating him just didn't sit well with him. He had been hated by Raiza for such a long time he didn't want his life to go back to the same toxic relationship. What he had with Mara was what he always wanted. Someone so much in love with him that they put him before anything and anyone else. If it hadn't been for Mara he would have been lost after his divorce. 

"Raiza had been stubborn and immature, she had been too much of a child to understand me or even care. She seemed to have loved me but she never really did. I should have never married her. The way she was in love with that Arjun, even though she has insisted it was just friendship, she never cared about me." Siddharth's dark memories clouded his mind. He sighed looking at the cold dinner. Unable to eat he walked up to the sink and dumped the dinner in the dustbin and then went to his room and rested on his bed. His mind conjured the memory of the day he had reached home hoping to find his wife waiting for him. She was not there the jealousy rose inside him. For so long he had made sure she was waiting at home for him that not finding her there was not acceptable to him. 

"Where did she go missing now?" he wondered. "did she find another lover?" "has she gone to meet some other man?" Jealous thoughts were running in his mind clouding his judgement. He threw his laptop bag on the sofa and went straight to the bedroom hoping to find her sleeping. She wasn't there. He had started panicking as he checked each room in his huge bungalow and not finding her anywhere, he had returned to her bedroom and opened the wardrobe with fear rising like bile in his stomach. Some of her clothes were missing some left behind. He then checked her wardrobe locker. Some of the jewellery was gone most of it left behind. Her wallet, cash and credit cards were gone. He knew his fear had finally come true. 

"She left our home, left me?" his mouth was tasting the bitter anger rising inside constantly. He ran to the toilet to throw up. Everything he had eaten was now in the toilet. He was feeling pain, hurt and disappointment. His eyes went to his mobile phone and he hoped again. "Maybe she is out shopping and simply emptied the wardrobe for some weird reason"  He hoped against all hopes and dialled her number. "The number is switched off" message hit the nail of truth on the glass wall of hope. Hope shattered and he threw his phone shattering it just like his wall of hope had. He dialled Vidya's number. 

"Hi Sid" she greeting him cheerfully.

"Activate tracking on my wife's number" he ordered.

His tone warned Vidya it was not the time for asking questions, so she simply acknowledged the request "Right away".

"Call the bank and initiate a track of all the transactions on my secondary credit card. I need to know the moment a transaction happens on it. if they give you grief remind them I can take my business to another bank" he declared.

"That won't be necessary your privilege account will allow us unlimited access to the details." she reminded him.

"Thank you" he sighed. "And Vidya, get me Shahan" he ordered before disconnecting the call. 

He knew Shahan was the best private detective that money can buy. He will find his wife no matter where she was hiding. However, it took 4 months for her to be traced. She had not used her credit card for a long time until one day she did. He didn't know why she did it at that time but he and Shahan had gone running behind her like hounds tracing her whereabouts. They had gone to the store with some local cops. Thanks to his contacts in the department, the cops got them her address. She lived almost 3 km away up a little valley in a farmhouse. He had discovered, it belonged to her friend Roina. When they landed at the front door and rang the bell no one answered. They kept at it for 20 minutes and were about to give up.