Exit Part 1

For the remainder of the week, Cairo's routine was pretty much comprised of sleeping and eating. By Saturday, she was able to move around the bed more frequently. The pain on her side had dulled down a few degrees compliments of Harry's strict regimen.
Two detectives had come to visit her at the end of last week to ask her if she remembered anything about the incident. Apart from the perpetrators on the scooter in helmets and the hatchback following them, there weren't any other details Cairo could recall. They left her with frustrated faces. She'd had nightmares for the rest of the weekend, reliving the horror.
After Cairo had finished lunch on the second Monday in "rehab", she asked Harry if it was ok for her to stretch her legs.
'Sure you can, dear. But please stay indoors. It's very chilly out, and I don't want you catching a cold.'
'Yes ma'am,' said Cairo, stuffing her feet into the red fluffy slippers she had found on the floor when she woke up. She got to her feet slowly, locking her muscles to minimise the strain.
Her ribs felt like they were coming apart as the white-hot ache tore at her side. But she continued. She had to recover.
It was right of her to insist on taking a walk. Her legs felt shaky beneath her. She got to the door, taking carefully measured steps out into the passage. Her velocity gave her the time to really see the house. Everything about it was regal, from the pale wood-panelled walls to the rich rugs covering the pale grey floors. She passed the beautiful paintings that adorned the walls on her way. One was of a hilly landscape at sunset, warm and mysterious. The other was a light, chaotic jumble. It gave her a hopeful feeling.
At the end of the passage, to her right was a very spacious, open lounge. Light poured in from the floor-to-ceiling windows that dominated the east end of the room. The rest of the walls were covered in pale turquoise, and the decor, though light, had a very eastern edge to it. The sofas were all different shades of light teals, greens and browns. She noticed a lady dressed in uniform tending to the huge vase of fresh flowers in winter. A chill breeze was blowing in from the western end of the room, where French doors stood ajar, framing the garden beyond, where birds played in the bath.
She ghosted out of the room, having attracted little attention from the house staff. She headed up the stairs to explore the rest of the house. Every room had a different kind of eastern opulence. The colour scheme remained pale, but breathtaking nonetheless. She felt like an intruder in the Palace from a foreign time. She was a stranger among the house's occupants.
She passed three doors and was about to turn back when two aggravated voices drifted towards her from the end of the hall. She turned toward the sound and found that the door on the left stood ajar. She knew she needed to get as far away from there as possible, so she shuffled back to the staircase. Her escape was brutally incapacitated by her injuries.
'…I don't want her in our home, Amar! I want her out!' said a woman's voice. To say she was upset would be putting it mildly.
'You lost the right to call this your home, Sashni!' snarled Amar. 'You come back here and throw your weight around, acting like the lady of this house after what you've done?' he bellowed. Cairo knew that this was not a conversation her ears needed to be privy to. She had made a little distance, but unfortunately, the distance couldn't stop her from hearing. '…not after you've desecrated our home, our bed, with goodness knows who! You were my wife, Sashni, the mother of my children!' Cairo wondered at Amar's use of the past tense. She didn't like it, 'I did everything I could for you, for us, for our family, Sashni, and this is how you repay me?' he growled.
'Oh please, Amar, save it! You're never home, and when you are, you're out promoting whatever flick you're starring in or making business deals with hotshot TV producers or whatever else you're doing. You have no time for me. You claim that you've pledged your life to better our family, but you don't know what family means, Amar! I'm not just some beautiful trophy woman you string along to show off to your colleagues at your fancy dinner parties. I have needs too, Amar!' she screeched.
His voice was inflectionless when he answered. 'I've signed my places. Please do the same and leave this with Inez on your way out. Your prenuptial agreements shall be settled by next Thursday. Call my lawyers if you have any discrepancies.' Cairo froze halfway down the hall in shock.
'Is it because of her, Amar? The little slut you have in our house? What about our children, Amar? What should I tell them?'
'Tell them that you found something more important than our family. Tell them that you don't love me anymore. Tell them that you didn't respect them enough to express your feelings about me and what I do. Tell them that you sought the answers in other men's arms, while I was nothing but faithful and loving to you…' he was stopped abruptly by the harsh laugh emanating from his wife's throat.
'Oh, Please. Don't be so naïve, Amar!' she spat out with a short, harsh laugh. 'I never did. Our union was arranged. I've always loved Vikram and always will.'
Just then, Cairo shuffled down four steps, desperately trying to find the sanctuary of her room. But the overexertion had her ribs grating against each other. Her chest was on fire. After managing to descend another two steps, Mrs Vargar stalked past her and shot her a filthy glare before tossing the sealed manila envelope on the table at the foot of the stairs and heading for the door. It closed with a loud bang.
Cairo had to give it to her. She knew how to make a dramatic exit.
'Damet!' breathed Cairo. What have I gotten myself into?
Cairo let the magnitude of what her ears had just witnessed seep in. She couldn't wrap her head around how she had come to be the reason for the split in Mrs Vargar's mind. She knew the woman was in the wrong. There were a lot of witnesses to attest to it. But all Cairo could recall doing wrong was getting stabbed! Who in their right mind asked for such a thing?
The chill in Amar's voice was a clear indication that the subject of Cairo's presence in his house was not to be discussed, Period! How was it her fault, though? She hadn't asked to be taken to such an exclusive rehabilitation centre, nor had she asked him to sort out her hospital tab. Sure, the situation was a bit dicey, but was she really the catalyst of this entire calamity? She knew that she could ask all the questions she wanted, but she didn't have the answers thereto.
She needed a second opinion, one from someone who never cared to sugar-coat. From someone who never spared her feelings and had no policeman in front of her mouth. After more than two weeks of solitude, Cairo decided to give Alexis a call. She hit the buzzer under the eaves of the bedside table. Two minutes later, Kelby, the petite strawberry blonde, walked in. She was one of the many corporals in the small army that ran the 'Palace'.
'You called Miss?' she asked in her staunch Scottish accent.
'Hi,' smiled Cairo. 'Could I use the phone, please?' she asked, hoping that was allowed. Her cellphone had been shattered, and she had yet to replace it.
'Of course,' she said, ducking back out of the room.
A few minutes later, she returned brandishing a box with the latest iPhone. Cairo looked at her askance.
'Mr Vargar noticed you didn't have a phone, so he said you could use this one. It's connected to the Wifi so you can make online calls.
'Thank you,' Cairo said before Kelby left. 'Wait…' she called just as Kelby was about to close the door. 'Do you know how long I'm allowed to use the phone?' she asked.
'I doubt that Mr Vargar would set a time limit, Miss.' she said meekly before she closed the door.
She found WhatsApp and punched in the number and waited for the ring.
'Hello?' asked the perplexed voice of Alex.
'Hey girla!' said Cairo warmly.
'Choma! How have you been and where on earth are you?' she asked, sounding relieved. 'Your phone is off! Graham is losing his mind and driving the rest of us crazy looking for you.'
'Brah! The story is so long wuh and I don't know how long I'm allowed to use the phone. What's been happening in my absence, Joe?' asked Cairo.
'Well, Michael, Andrew and I have divided your duties amongst ourselves. Everything work-related is covered. Everyone's extremely worried about you. None of us knows where you've disappeared to.' said Alex anxiously. 'When we got wind that you were conscious on the Thursday after the attack. We made plans to see you on the Friday. When we got to the hospital, we were told that you had already been discharged the night before and that you'd left at five in the morning. By the way, who does that?' she said in disgust.
Cairo laughed out loud, forgetting that she was still very sore. She had to stop to catch her breath in shallow gasps.
'Graham popped in there later to check in on you and returned much worse for wear...' she added, her tone thick with implications. 'He was upset that none of us had the decency to inform him that you had been released and that he didn't know where you were. He sulked when we couldn't tell him your exact location. He didn't even bother sticking around long enough to hear that we didn't know the answer to that ourselves. He's been in a bunch of foul moods ever since. If he's not sulking, he's scowling at everything in sight. Brah, it's getting tired FAST WUH!' Cairo was intrigued by the exasperation she heard in Alex's tone. She couldn't help but wonder if Alex was just giving her a light sample of what was really happening at work.
She laughed again, careful to lock her muscles. She was pleased to find that it didn't hurt as much.
'Where are you, brah?' asked Alex, genuine concern colouring her tone.
'Well, I've been skipped over to Dracula's lair by the look of things. I've had no one to talk to in two weeks, my bru! But that's not the reason I called…'