She willed herself to not check her phone to see if he had replied. It had been around three days now. She hated that she was constantly checking his ‘last seen at’ status and yes, he had logged in just five minutes ago. Yet she couldn’t stop herself. The sinking feeling to find absolutely no communication from him was becoming unbearable, almost torturous.

And then, just as she sat down in her chair, her phone vibrated. With her heart thudding her ear, she unlocked her phone and stared at the screen. Finally! It was his message.

But when she opened it and read it, she nearly stopped breathing. She didn’t know if he was joking or not. What was this?

“I was in a relationship with a girl in Mumbai. I cheated you. Yes, I cheated you.  ”

(It was 6 months since Pranav had gone from Kanpur to work in a multi-national company in Mumbai. Coming from a small town, the first time exposure to a city like Mumbai has inculcated in him the habits of drinking. When Priya would confront him about his problem, he would just say that he had no choice but to give company to his friends and that he is doing it within limits. Priya could never understand his explanation. She insisted that the ‘friends’ will never ask him to do anything like that. But, he did not listen. They fought; over and over and, talked; lesser and lesser.)

Before Priya could read further on, she felt her heart has missed a beat and her tears have picked up the storm.

“I am sorry. I am not sure whether I have the right to say sorry to you. Leave me forever, Priya. I am not someone you deserve to spend your life with. I am not someone you would want to introduce your parents with. I am the worst possible person on this planet. Please hate me. Please don’t trust me. I have given you great pains. This is my truth.”

Priya was trying to muster all her strength to write something but she couldn’t get her hands move. She tried to shout out loud but her voice would not come out. She felt that the chair underneath her has gulped her into a deep well of darkness from where she would never come out.  She was more than numb and less than living. She felt that someone has poked a needle at the core of her heart and she couldn’t decide whether it had killed her or liberated her?

“I know”, Priya wrote.

“You know?” Pranav replied.

“Do you remember the first time we met, Pranav?

Read what happens next on 3rd December, 2015. Be prepared to get sugar coated with the story of love, infidelity and courage.