My school best friend moved to Delhi for her graduation around 12 years ago. Since then, we’ve stayed in touch, mostly over the phone, and she’d visit me whenever she came back to town. She’s a biomedical engineer and works in a hospital, so she was in Delhi during COVID too.
She went through a devastating break-up two years ago, all thanks to her family’s interference with her college love. She never really got over it, but she carried on. She seemed to be doing well-traveling, hanging out with friends-living a fairly normal life, or so I thought. I was at least aware of what was happening in her life, until two months ago.
Out of the blue, she called to tell me she’d gotten married to a guy I had vaguely heard of before. I was shocked, but I saw him on a group video call with her, and she seemed happy. The thing is, she told me she wasn’t speaking to her family anymore because they wouldn’t understand her decision. I supported her, of course, but something felt off.
The very next day, she called again, this time saying all good things about her new husband. I was happy for her-finally, it seemed like she’d found someone decent. But I still had this nagging feeling in my gut. I told her to reach out if she needed anything. But guess what? She didn’t.
And then, one Sunday night, two months later, I called her at 11 PM. This wasn’t unusual we had spoken late before. But now, since she was married, I made sure to ask if it was a good time. She said yes, and we had a fun, light-hearted conversation for about 20 minutes.
But then, at 12:30 AM, I received a call from her. There was background noise like two people talking. I thought it was a wrong number, so I hung up. The phone rang again, and this time there was complete silence. I could hear someone breathing, and then a voice- her husband’s-sneered, “Are you going to tell her, or should I tell her?”
I froze. My heart was pounding. He repeated this a few times, his tone getting more hostile. Finally, my friend’s voice, barely recognizable and full of fear, told me in a cold, frightening tone, “Don’t call me at night again!” I was stunned, terrified. I quickly apologized and hung up.
But I couldn’t sleep that night. It kept replaying in my mind. Her social media accounts are now gone-deleted. I’m too scared to reach out because what if he sees it? What if I’ve been blocked already?
Here’s the worst part: I found out her husband forced her to quit her job, and she’s two months pregnant now. I have no idea what to do.