Page 44 of The Secret Bride
"Sir, she is stable now. The doctors are with her. She hit her head when she fell in the bathroom. There was a lot of bleeding from the head wound, but they have stopped it now."
I ran my hand through my hair, trying to process the information through the fog of panic.
"Where were you? Why were you not at home?"
Mamta's face crumpled with guilt.
"I went to the market to buy groceries. It was early morning, and Dadi was still sleeping. I thought I would be back before she woke up. But when Viya beta called me, I was still at the market. She told me Dadi had fallen and there was blood everywhere. I told her I would come home immediately, but she said there was no time. She said Dadi had lost too much blood and we needed to get her to a hospital right away."
My chest tightened.
"So Viya brought her here alone?"
"Yes, sir. Nobody else was home. Ramesh had gone with you. Viya beta called an ambulance and somehow got Dadi downstairs. She brought her here all by herself. I came as soon as I could, but Viya had already admitted her and the doctors had taken Dadi to the ICU."
I stood there, trying to picture it. Viya, small and fragile Viya, finding my grandmother unconscious and bleeding. Making the decision to get her to the hospital. Handling everything alone because there was no one else.
"Where is Viya now?"
"The doctor needed some medicines from the pharmacy downstairs. She went to get them."
The ICU doors opened and a doctor in blue scrubs emerged. I immediately turned my attention to him.
"Doctor, I am Kalyani Khanna's grandson. How is she?"
The doctor pulled down his mask and gave me a reassuring nod.
"She is stable, Mr. Khanna. She suffered a fall and hit her head on the bathroom tiles, which caused a significant scalp laceration. Head wounds bleed heavily, which can be alarming, but the injury itself is not as serious as it looks. We have cleaned and sutured the wound. There is no skull fracture and no signs of concussion."
Relief flooded through me so powerfully that my knees felt weak.
"Thank god."
"She is very lucky," the doctor continued. "If she had been alone for much longer, the blood loss could have been dangerous. But your househelp Viya acted quickly and got her here in time. She did exactly the right thing."
Your househelp.
The words hit me with unexpected force.
"Can I see her?"
"We are going to move her to a private room shortly. Once she is settled, you can see her. I want to keep her under observation for forty eight hours just to be safe, but I expect her to make a full recovery."
"Thank you, Doctor. Thank you so much."
The doctor nodded and disappeared back through the ICU doors.
Mamta looked over at me.
"Sir, I am going to get some coffee for all of us. I will be right back."
She walked away, leaving me alone in the hallway.
The panic was slowly receding, being replaced by a different kind of awareness. An awareness of how close I had come to losing Dadi.
Chapter 12
Viya
