The other day I was wondering who
decides what or who is right or wrong. I
think rightness and wrongness are just illusions.
Rebecca had been recently asked
by her neighbors to leave her apartment because she had apparently moved in
with her partner, an already married man. She was called a house-breaker and a
mean woman who could not see another woman happy. The man in question, Steve,
was married for the past three years to Anne.
Three years ago, Steve was
urgently called back home from UK, where he had been working for 8 years as an
investment banker. His father, John, was terminally ill and would die any
moment. He was a rich businessman, with acres of land and a lot of money. On
his deathbed, John held Steve’s hand and called Anne, his friend’s
daughter. Putting her hand in his, he
said, “Please fulfill this last wish, son. Marry her.” Steve looked at Anne.
She gently smiled at him.
A couple of hours later, Steve’s
father passed away. The funeral took place in the same week. Two weeks after
the funeral, Steve and Anne were married in a simple ceremony, where only
family and close friends were invited. Shortly after the wedding, Steve went to
UK to resign from his job. He did not want to leave his mother alone after
dad’s demise. In 15 days, he completed all the exit formalities and came back
home.
Steve and Anne went to Greece for
their honeymoon, as insisted by his mother.
Both of them had been busy after John’s death with the legal formalities
of his will and property. Anne had been looking after Steve’s mom and
persuading her to eat, talk, and sleep to move on. A month after her husband’s death, Steve’s
mother was looking better. She had started talking about her husband without
getting emotional and had volunteered to visit the workplaces once a week to
manage from where her husband had left.
It was impossible to understand
why Steve and Anne had decided to part ways. Family members who had seen them
together were eagerly waiting for their child to be born, as the big business
empire needed an heir. Anne and Steve
looked good together. One could often
see them lost in conversation in the garden or the library. They left for work
together in the morning and returned home together too, much to the pleasure of
Steve’s mother. Occasionally, they would go out for dinners or to watch a play.
On some weekends, they would stay at their farmhouse, sometimes, taking mom
along.
But one fine day, Steve and Anne
went to mom’s room and announced about their separation. Surprisingly, she said
nothing. They filed for divorce soon.
When family members asked for explanation, Ms. John calmed them down saying that it was their life and their decision.
A month after filing for divorce,
Anne moved back to her parents’ place. Soon after, she left abroad for her
further studies. Steve moved in with Rebecca. After the initial gossip about
them, they were left to themselves by the bothering neighbors. Occasionally,
Steve’s mom would visit them. They would have a good time together; going out
for a city tour, eating, and visiting interesting places in the town.
One day, Rebecca bought home a
guest. It was a Saturday and she had gone out for grocery shopping while Steve
caught some sleep after a late night with clients at work. Rebecca used her
keys to open the door as Steve was still asleep. She asked her guest to be
comfortable while she made some tea. The two were chatting away while Rebecca made
tea. Steve woke up to the chatter.
As Rebecca and her guest were
sipping tea, Steve came out wondering who the other person was.
“Hi, Steve, did we wake you up?”
asked the stranger.
Steve stood stunned for a moment,
but then immediately hugged the stranger. It was Anne. He had forgotten that she was supposed to come
to stay over at their place before catching her flight for home. Anne
had returned from Australia where she had gone to complete her abandoned
course.
Anne stayed with them the whole
day before they went to the airport for her early morning flight back home.
“Keep in touch, Anne.” Said
Steve, as he hugged Anne while Rebecca smiled, looking at them.
Steve and Rebecca returned to
their car after seeing Anne off.
As Steve reversed his car from the parking
lot, he smiled into oblivion.
“What is it?” asked Rebecca.
“If you were in Anne’s place,
would you do what she did?” asked Steve.
“I don’t know, Steve, I really
don’t know. But I wish I could do what she did.”
They smiled at each other and
drove away.
Just before their wedding, Steve
told Anne about his six year old relationship with Rebecca. They both worked in
the same bank, he told her. He did not
want to betray Rebecca, who knew about his father’s last wish, and had asked
him to go ahead and marry Anne. Not even
once, had Rebecca questioned Steve’s actions from his urgent visit home to his
resignation.
Anne then told Steve about the
real reason behind their marriage. His father was in a huge debt. Her father had promised to help Steve’s
father if their children got married. If Steve refused to marry Anne, he would
lose even the house they were living in, leave alone the business and the land.
So they decided to get married
for the world. Good friends that they always were, Anne always painted a pretty
picture of their fake marriage. Meanwhile, Steve started making changes to his
father’s conventional business strategies and took a few risks. In two years,
the business was virtually free of debt. He did not need Anne’s father’s
help. By the third year, the business
opened its doors to foreign nations, and surpassed Anne’s father’s company in
profits. Everything looked better than before.
“It’s time now, Steve. We must
tell mom,” said Anne, as she looked at the newspaper, reading about the profits
Steve’s new business was making.
“Why didn’t you tell me you knew
all this?” asked his mother.
“It wouldn’t matter, mom. Dad had
made his decision. He wanted me to listen to him for you. I only did what he
wanted. But now, I want you to let me do justice to Rebecca. She has never
asked me any questions all this while.”
“If you two have already planned,
I will not stop you. But you must be sure not to be unfair to Anne in an
attempt to be good to Rebecca.”
“This is what she planned, mom.”
Steve said, looking at Anne.
Mom looked at Anne in
astonishment. She came to know that Anne had planned how Steve would recover
his father’s business and make it independent from her father’s support.
According to her, if the business started flourishing on its own, her father wouldn’t
cause problems in their separation. To her father, she asked him not to mess
with her life any further, saying that business collaborations don’t always
work at personal levels. After filing for divorce, she resumed her studies that
he had forced her to quit for getting her married.
For the world, it was a god-made
alliance broken when Anne and Steve divorced. But for Anne, it was the union of
two people in love. She never existed as an entity in all this ever. As Steve
had promised his dying father, so had Anne promised him too, to help Steve. And
that is what she exactly did.
