By the time Rupert reached London, Henry was already in his hotel room dead drunk. He had reached the night before and lay unconscious on his bed from a bad case of the hangover. When his brother knocked at his room his head was throbbing with pain. After careful administration of vaso-dilators Henry was functional again. "Do you want to go back into therapy?" Rupert asked with a solemn face.
"I did not have an attack. I was drunk." Henry stated.
"What made you drink? I thought you had quit?" Rupert asked concerned.
"I was angry with someone," Henry answered vaguely.
"Do I know this someone?" Rupert asked intrigued.
"His name is Mitch Michael and he happens to be my set designer," Henry said.
Rupert nodded, urging him to continue, "He found out my secret."
Rupert's eyes widened perceptibly. He knew his brother's secret and he knew how much uncomfortable he was with it, especially with the cultural background they had.
"Did he threaten to expose you? You could just come out in the open you know. Remember how relieved you felt when you told your penfriend about it and she urged you to tell me. I owe her one." Rupert said referring to the time that Henry sat in his room with a crumpled sheet of paper in his hand which was a letter from Monique asking him to suspend his disbelief and listen to his brother without judgement.
"A gay music director is just so cliche. I would rather be the musician who does not date." Henry stated obtusely.
"But your muse is a woman. How did that happen?" Rupert said, referring to Monique again.
"Well, honestly Monique isn't my muse. Her obsession with you is. All Monique has ever aimed for is to stand in front of you as an equal and claim your attention." Henry said, confessing for the first time that the bond he shared with Monique had more to do with his brother than anything else.
"So why haven't you ever introduced her? And does that make me your muse because it would be beyond unacceptable," he warned though amused.
"She always said that if she is worthy you would walk to her door and take her to the stars," Henry said solemnly, knowing that the words were meaningless now.
"Well she took a bit too long to claim my attention and I am married now and intend to remain so." Rupert answered with a sigh. He couldn't dwell on the what ifs but rather than the what-ifs.
"Yeah, she is married too," Henry stated briefly.
Rupert gave a nod. "Well, that is good. I came here for another reason." He said perhaps a bit relieved that he would not have to bear the burden of another person's hopes and dreams.
Henry nodded back to let him continue.
"Phoenix Group of Companies had ventured into Lifestyle for a lot many years. What it does is to finance independent fashion labels thereby nurturing several talents and brewing healthy competition. One of our investments has been found to embezzle our funds. It is one particular Mr Juneja entrusted with a label called Madame M. a label that has you as a fellow benefactor. I want to meet this scum and if possible Madame M."
"That's not possible. They are kind of...you know....dead." Henry said hesitantly.
"Kind of dead? What does that mean? And why then mind you, is the advance that I rolled out for this London Fashion week being drained by a family in some part of western India?" Rupert asked.
"I'll have to ask Monique that." Henry thought aloud.
"Monique! What does she have to do with this?"
"Monique is Madame M but she retired after Juneja passed away and she kind of got married to another guy" Henry explained.
"Monique is Madame M. Why does that not surprise me? When you are involved I really wonder if that woman would be far away. I want to meet her." Rupert said.
"Ah! Finally, the fabled meeting is to take place. I am shipping you two but you meet her when things have all taken a turn for the worst." Henry tried to laugh but his brother's serious face did not let him. ""
"What do you mean by a turn for the worst?" Rupert asked.
"Monique was marrying Juneja but he died in a car crash and now she gets married to someone else and well the last time I spoke to her is that she agreed to marry someone she hasn't met because she conceded with her family that living alone isn't really an ideal life."
"What was ideal about this Juneja? He seems like a scheming idiot." Rupert commented.
"He was a compromise between loneliness and exploitation that she made, that I could not stop her from making. Do you know my reaction when I knew I did not have to give Monique away at her wedding? It was Relief!"
"Why would you be giving her away. Doesn't she have a family somewhere in the world, Australia or wherever she is from?" Rupert tried to tell his deranged brother.
"She is from India. I was supposed to give away my Monique a few weeks ago because her family considers her dead. Or rather considered her dead. Her family's sudden resurrection isn't sitting well with me. I'll see if I can reach her. If I can't I have some plates that she gave me, the wedding collection she called them. I can give them to you for the fashion week."
"Do that, pronto," Rupert said and walked out into the hallway. Why couldn't Shimonthini leave his mind alone?