Hide and Seek

18 hours...

'As I walked to my car, I received a text message. In it was a picture. I would recognise that dress and figure anywhere. It was Renata in a floral dress that I bought for her birthday. She was hugging a man that wasn't me in a hotel corridor. His face was deliberately blurred out so I couldn't who it was, but the grey hoodie he wore looked familiar. I just could not tell where I had seen it. I could not even think straight at the time.  The only thing on my mind was how my wife had the nerve to cheat on me. The actual nerve to cheat on me. Me! And with who?
I used my contacts to find out where the picture had come from. It was not easy because the person was someone as powerful as I am.
I went back to Renata's hospital room after everyone had left. I stared at her unconscious form for the first time in years. She was different from the first time I'd met her. Her face seemed like it had lost its life. Though she was still alive, she did not look that different from a corpse. I reached over and touched her cheek. She felt cold and she had lost so much weight I could see a vein pulsing on her neck.

"Who is that man Renata?" I whispered to her.
The door to the hospital room slid open and a police officer walked in.

"Mr Levi," he greeted.

"Yes?"

"We suspect that your wife was poisoned intentionally. After inspecting your house we found rat poison mixed with the sugar in-"

"Who gave you permission to enter my house?"

"Well, it is the crime scene sir. And your mother in law-"

"So, it was her? What right does she have? How dare you enter my house without my permission?"

The room door slid open and Nadya walked in. "The policeman just told you that someone tried to poison your wife, and all you care about is who gave them permission?" She narrowed her eyes at me. "Someone poisoned you wife Eli. Someone tried to kill her and you don't care. Unless of course it was you."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me Eli. I'm accusing you of trying to kill my daughter."

"I understand that you are upset Nadya, but this is ridiculous."

"Officer, please put Eli Levi on your list of prime suspects." Nadya turned to the policeman. "Seeing as he is indifferent about this whole thing, he must have something to do with this."

"Ma'am, these are serious allegations, and we cannot do something like that without any evidence."

"Don't worry officer, my mother in law is just very upset."

"If I find that you tried to kill my daughter, I will not be able to control myself."

That old woman had the nerve to say that to me while her daughter was busy cheating. On me. In that moment I kept quiet, letting her have the last word. I knew that I was going to find out who the man was and embarrass that precious daughter of hers.
Renata woke up after two days and I, as you could have guessed, was the last to know because I didn't spend my time at the hospital. I went into her room when her mother had gone out.

"Renata, You're awake. Finally." I walked over to her.

"Hi Eli," she said.

I reached over to stroke her hair and she flinched. She was repulsed by the man who had taken her from the bundus* and given her such a lavish lifestyle.

"What have you been doing behind my back Renata?" I asked her, still stroking her head of hair.

"What do you mean Eli?" She sighed. "I just woke up. Would it kill you to ask how I feel first before interrogating me, or ridiculing me, or whatever it is you want to do?"