I cried in his arms all night, perhaps, and he didn't sleep till I was dead asleep. He kept murmuring sweet, soft word to me, and the comfort he provided was enough for me to fall into a dreamless sleep, where there was no Vikrant trying to attack me, there was no Neil who left me when he promised to stay with me always, and there was no Papa to blame me for everything that went wrong.
I received many calls the next day - even from people who usually avoided me at all costs. I knew that all of them were probably genuinely concerned for me, but I was still not going to relive the memory just to appease their minds. Vikrant was a name I wanted to bury for a long time and if I had to ignore calls for an entire year, then I would do that too.
I wanted to call my mother, and I could even see
