Chapter 1: The Corridors of Light
Two months after our divorce, I never expected to see her again. Especially not like this.
I had gone to the hospital to visit a close friend after an intensive surgery. As I walked through the quiet corridor of the oncology wing, something made me stop dead in my tracks. She was sitting entirely alone against the sterile wall in a pale blue hospital gown. Her beautiful long hair was gone, cut completely short. Her face looked thin, pale, and thoroughly exhausted. An IV stand stood right beside her, humming softly.
It was Maya. My ex-wife. The woman I had once promised to spend my entire life with.
For five years, we tried to build a family. We dreamed of children, painted a nursery, and picked out names. But after two devastating miscarriages, something between us slowly died. I became distant, burying myself in my corporate work. She became quiet, disappearing into the background. And one night, cold and unfeeling, I told her we should get a divorce. She didn’t fight me. She didn’t scream or cry. She simply packed her things neatly into two suitcases and left.
Now, here she was—alone in a hospital hallway, looking like life had already taken far too much from her. I walked toward her, my hands shaking uncontrollably in my trouser pockets.
“Maya?”
She looked up slowly. For a brief second, she seemed completely shocked to see me standing there.
“Arjun…?”
My chest felt suffocatingly tight. “What happened to you? Why are you here?”
She tried to smile, but the warmth didn’t reach her hollow eyes. “It’s nothing,” she whispered, pulling the pale blue gown tighter around her thin shoulders. “Just some routine tests.”
May you like
I sat down beside her on the cold plastic chairs and took her freezing hand into mine. “Maya… don’t lie to me. I can see you’re not okay.”
She stayed silent for a long time, her eyes fixed on the linoleum floor. Then finally, she looked up at me, a single tear escaping her lower lid, and started to speak. And what she whispered next made me realize that our divorce might have been the absolute biggest mistake of my life.
