The protagonist of the story is Vidya, a smart and accomplished lady in her 40’s. Vidya is the Vice President of Finance in a top consulting firm. She was a mother of two, a 10 year old daughter and a 6 year old son. Despite being successful in her career and a doting mother, Vidya’s divorce always seemed like a huge failure to her. Her husband Ashwin, was her best friend and her lover for years. In spite of having made a comfortable life for her and her children, the fact that she had lost him forever seemed to create a sense of emptiness in her. Vidya met Ashwin in the year 1996, in college, where Ashwin was her senior. Sparks flew immediately and the two were unconditionally in love. Even after Ashwin’s graduation and his move to Mumbai for his job, the couple continued their relationship.
Their long distance relationship ended when Vidya too, moved to Mumbai after graduation. In the year 2001, the couple got married, after having long struggles with their respective families. After a long honeymoon that lasted for 5 years, Vidya and Ashwin were blessed with a baby girl, Swathi. Ashwin’s sole purpose in life seemed to be revolving around their daughter. He had started neglecting Vidya and became too busy with his career. Although he was an amazing father, Ashwin seemed to be sharing very little when it came to parental responsibilities. He didn’t seem to notice Vidya’s loneliness whereas she started sensing the physical and emotional drift between them. Eventually, Vidya had to give up her thriving career to focus on Swathi at home.
After two years, Vidya resolved to get back to her profession with the help of a baby sitter, taking care of Swathi. For a year, Vidya juggled between taking care of Swathi and performing well in her career. Her company decided to send her to a week-long offsite leadership event in Miami,Florida for which she was to go with her boss Niren. Niren was a go-getter and an excellent mentor, who’s company Vidya enjoyed.
It was in this trip that her whole life changed. On their way back to India, their flight from Frankfurt was cancelled owing to bad weather. As fate would have it, due to the lack of rooms for passengers, Niren and Vidya were left with no choice but to share the same room for the night. Vidya and Niren ended up talking the whole night, opening up about each other’s personal lives. Vidya spoke about how she felt lonely in her marriage. One thing led to another and before they knew it, love had taken over and they had lost each other that night.
Vidya and Niren continued their relationship even after they returned from Frankfurt. She was loving all the attention that Ashwin forgot to give her which Niren was giving her. But things went down for the love birds when rumors about their affair started doing the rounds in the office. Soon, both of them were summoned by the Internal Complaints Committee and were asked to resign their respective jobs in order to establish a standard working environment for others.
But the biggest blow however came to Vidya when she found out that she was pregnant with Niren’s baby. The truth broke her marriage and did great damage to Ashwin. He filed for divorce and obtained full custody over Swathi whereas Vidya obtained visiting rights. Niren did not waste too much time in suggesting an abortion. Vidya and Niren moved to different companies and did not cross paths again. She continued with the pregnancy and gave birth to Shreyas. Her children are her only source of happiness. Sometimes, she thinks about how different her life would have been if she hadn’t yielded to temptation that one night in Frankfurt.