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Sitting in the overground train heading home, Koyal closed her eyes. And immediately she was back in that little room, Atharv’s eyes boring into hers.
He cares. He bloody well cares. He cares more about you than he cares about anyone else. He cares more for you than anyone else in your life does.
No, I don’t need a man to care for me, she mumbled to herself. And I certainly do not need Atharv.
Her phone rang – the NGO office was calling. ‘You won’t believe this,’ the director said in an excited voice.
‘What?’
‘We just got another donation.’
‘Okay…’ Koyal said slowly. ‘And?’
‘Of ten thousand quid.’
‘Sorry, how much?’ she asked and then laughed. ‘I thought I heard ten thousand.’
‘Yes!’
‘What?’
‘Can you imagine, Koyal, what we can do with this kind of money? How far this will go in helping us provide support to women in abusive relationships?’
‘Wait a second, can you tell me who made the donation?’ Koyal asked, her heart thumping.
‘Let me check,’ the director said. ‘Uh … no, not really, it’s an anonymous donation. The only thing it says is that this donation is associated to the event you hosted which is why I called you. Do you know anyone who could have made such a huge donation?’
Yes, I know.
‘No, I don’t know,’ she said out loud, aware of the lump in her throat.
He knows, yes, but he also cares.
Someone who cares – sometimes that is all that matters and all that you need…
32
An unknown number was flashing on the screen.
‘Hi, Koyal Raje speaking,’ she mumbled distractedly into her phone, typing away at her keyboard.
Silence.
‘Hello?’ she tried again, about to cancel the call.
‘Koyal?’ came a voice Koyal had not heard in six years – yet, it made her hands grow ice cold in a matter of seconds.
‘Amit?’ she asked slowly. The nightmares. The waking up. The hours spent staring at the ceiling. The tears. The fear. Oh, the fear.
‘Yes … hi … I wanted to…’
Koyal cancelled the call and switched off her phone. She rushed to the ladies and threw up twice in a matter of a few minutes. She stared at her reflection in the mirror.
‘You pride yourself on being strong? You?’ she spat out angrily. ‘Look at you now.’
Koyal thought about how she had reacted when she had seen Atharv in Kent and gulped. She was a coward, a miserable coward.
Family is not just people related to each other by blood. It is also the people you pick up in life and the people who pick you up in life. It is the people who give you roots and the people who give you wings. It is the people who give you a home away from home.
