Prologue
One Fine Weekend
It was almost twilight. A man in his late forties was sitting in the office. He was a petite man, with brown eyes, black hair, and stubble on his face, quite an ordinary-looking man. No one passing by him would bother to give him a second look. But he liked it that way. That was paramount to his job, staying away from the limelight as much as possible.
He had just finished a phone call, wherein he got to know about his promotion to the head of the department. He was happy. He has worked tremendously hard to reach that position. It was a position of power. It was something he aspired to achieve since the start of his career. He was always ambitious since he started working his way through the bureaucracy.
He came from a poor background and thus knew how people in power are the actual ones controlling the world, and the rest of them are simply puppets played by them. He didn’t want to be a puppet throughout his life. He wanted to be on the other side of the table. And that was the day he had finally achieved his dream of being a part of a group of influential people.
After the call, he decided to wrap it up for the day and head back home. He was eager to share the news of his promotion with his wife. She would be happy. He met his wife a few years back when he was on an assignment abroad. She always said that he was her knight in shining armor. He packed all the papers on his desk, put them in the drawer, locked it, and picked up his bag. He was not planning to take any work back home that day. He wanted to celebrate the great news with his wife. He locked the door on his way out of the office and walked through the foyer. He met a few people, exchanged pleasantries with them, and then was on his way to the parking lot.
He reached home with a celebratory wine and dessert in his hand that he bought on his way back home. He parked his vehicle, but the lights were out. The house seemed empty. He was early that day, and his wife was used to him coming home late at night every other day. He thought that his wife might have gone for a walk or so. He decided to cook dinner for both and surprise his wife. He got out of the car, picked up all the stuff he bought, and locked the car.
He had an ordinary house. A small garden was at the entrance, followed by a porch that had a swing. He always dreamed of sitting on that swing with his kids. However, his wife could never conceive. Thus, they never had a kid of their own. There were times when he longed for a child of his own. He also thought once about adopting a kid, but his wife was not on board. And he couldn’t make that decision alone. That was not fair for her. So, a few years into their marriage, they decided to drop the subject altogether.
Once you entered the house, there was a small passage, with a coat stand on one side and a shoe rack on the other side. On the left-hand side of the passage-way was a small storage room. And at the end of the passage-way, a door opened on the right-hand side towards the living room. The kitchen was accessible from the living room, and another door opened from the living room to the backyard. A bedroom was after the living room. And there was a staircase going upstairs at the end of the passage-way. On the upper floor, they had two bedrooms, out of which one was converted into an office as the man worked from home, sometimes. That room was always locked, and only he had the keys to that bedroom.
He was standing outside the main door when he saw a small manilla folder kept on his doormat. He picked it up and checked the address. The package had his name and address, with no return address. He picked it up and rattled it a bit. However, it didn’t seem anything suspicious. He unlocked the door, went inside, hung his coat, and switched on the lights. He went to his living room and opened the folder.
What he saw shocked him to his core. He couldn’t possibly believe what his eyes were seeing. That was not possible at all. After a few minutes of shock, he composed himself and kept the papers on the table in the living room. He called his wife. She informed him that she would be home in another half an hour.
He changed his clothes and was sitting in the living room with a glass of wine in his hand. He had long forgotten about his plans of making dinner and surprising his wife. After an hour or so, he heard the opening of the main door. His wife was back home. She called out for him. He told her that he was in the living room.
She saw her husband seated on the sofa as soon as she entered the living room. He had a glass of wine in his hand and a revolver on the table alongside some papers. He asked her to come and sit in front of him. She sat opposite him. He picked up the gun, pointed it at her, and asked her while pointing at the papers kept on the desk,
“How long has this been going on?”
The wife looked at the papers and was stunned. She replied, “You have a misunderstanding. It is not what it looks like.”
The man’s voice raised at her reply, “How could you do this with me?”
The wife didn’t say anything. She was just calmly sitting in front of him. When the man first saw the papers, his primary instinct was to shoot his wife dead. But as much as he hated her at that moment, he couldn’t bring himself to do that. He asked her to pack her bags and leave the house immediately. If he ever sees her again, he will not spare her. And the consequences will be dire. The wife immediately got up, went upstairs, packed her bags, and left the house hurriedly. Before stepping out of the house, she said,
“If it helps, everything was not an act. I felt something for you, and I know you do too.”
Saying this, she stepped out of the house and left. The man couldn’t believe how everything changed for him within a few hours. He left his office thinking that he would be celebrating with his wife his new success, and it ended up with him forcing his wife out of his house.
Someone across the street was watching the whole scene with binoculars. The person across the street expected the man to kill his wife. But that didn’t happen. Nevertheless, the mission got accomplished. A call was placed to someone by him. He informed him that the first phase got concluded. And they were good to go and start executing the next part of the plan.
