The missing person advertisement

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Looking at the papers of the file scattered on the floor, Sneha couldn’t hold back her tears. This project report wasn’t easy to compile. It took her 46 days (to be exact) to complete her research and present this report to Geetika, her immediate boss. Some minor errors and a few missing references landed her project report on the floor, rejected and insulted. Job’s aren’t that easy, thought the poor employee and gathered her compose & papers to walk out of Geetika’s cabin. “Bitch”, Geetika was better known as this amongst the members of her team. Her attitude and behavior towards them made her gain this title. Never did her team or her seniors had seen her smiling or having a casual chat with anyone. Work was only what she was here for and she had made it quite clear with her actions. Four months in the company and she had not taken a single leave or left early. All she did was work.

Geetika’s husband, Kapil Shukla, had left her for another girl, six months back. He left her to marry a fashion model whom he met through a friend. An orphan, Geetika, had seen worse days than those and hence it was quick for her to cope up after a disastrous end of her love marriage. Within a few weeks, she had return to work and everything became as normal as it was. Some considered this as her reason for being rude and some blamed her rude behavior as the reason behind that bad end of her marriage. Whatever it was, Geetika was never in a mood to answer; as if anyone had the courage to even ask.

The clock struck six and the office staff was already set to leave the premises, knowing that it was last working day of the week. Everyone but Geetika was in a rush to reach home, for someone or the other was waiting for them. Summing up her work for the week, Geetika finally grabbed her belongings and a bottle of vodka from her desk drawer and left the office. The drive of one and a half hour to the apartment seemed to pass in a few minutes, thanks to the quarter of vodka. Green Field Apartments were the newly constructed, isolated ones at the outer scuds of Gurgaon. The only one she could have afforded. Not many apartments were occupied in her wing as the apartments weren’t a hit among the buyers. Floor 23 had 5 apartments while only Geetika’s was occupied, leaving the floor quite isolated and obscure. A little tipsy Geetika, entered the apartment to pour yet another short of vodka from her mini bar and settle on the couch in the living room. Lying on the coffee table, next to her, was the wedding photograph of Kapil with his new wife Delsy, a little crushed and burnt at the edges. A hint of smile flashed on her face as her eyes then caught the site of the pile of the week’s newspapers. While everything in those papers were of no interest to Geetika, she only had saved them to re-read a missing person advertisement that was common in all of them.

“Delsy Parker, a model, 6ft. tall, with fair completion and black hair has been missing from Monday,4 May from Janak Studios in Faridabad. Any information about her can be given to her husband, Kapil at 99******32”; read Geetika loudly and laughed. Alcohol had done its job. While everything else started to fade away from her drunken eyes, she still was able to see and enjoy the site of half dead and heavily drugged Delsy lying on the floor of her living room.