Episode 2 The Last Letter

In the middle of the night, Christian abruptly woke up and sat straight on the bed, holding his head in his hand firmly as he was experiencing intolerable pain in his head. He was sweating profusely and tried to calm his racing heart, taking some deep breaths, but nothing helped him.

He removed his hands from his face and his eyes roamed inside the pitch-black room and halted at the open door of the balcony, and between the cut of the white curtains, he saw a glimpse of an hourglass figure in a pure white dress, who was standing against the railing, facing the other side.

Christian gazed at her, removing the duvet from his body, and his legs started taking involuntary steps leading him to the mysterious woman. His heart was thumping against his chest as he was inching closer to the woman.

He halted at the entrance of the balcony, staring at the woman without blinking. Her long, dark brown wavy hair cascaded down up to her waist, and she shivered under the icy breeze.

Sweat was dripping from the sides of Christian’s face while taking steps forward in her direction, the sane part of his mind knew that he is hallucinating but the other part wanted to see the face of that woman, who was taking so much space in his mind since the last seven years.

Christian stood right behind her, his face sweating despite the cool breeze, and eyes were pinned at the woman. He stretched out his shivering to touch her, and when he did, he felt time stopped and just when the woman turned, everything turned black as the pain in his head turned excruciating, and he collapsed on the floor.

***

Knight Mansion,

Vera prepared Christian’s favourite breakfast. She was busy organising the dining table with the help of servants when Luke cuddled from behind. Vera tilted her neck left and Luke pecked on her lips. “Good morning, Wifey.” He whispered, and Vera blushed.

“Good morning, grumpy husband!” She said with an amused face, recalling his actions from last night, and quickly detached herself when she saw Leo approaching in their direction.

“Good morning, dad.” Luke and Vera said in unison and Leo smiled.

“Good Morning.” He said and pulled out the head’s chair to sit. “Where is everyone?” He asked.

“They are coming,” Vera replied and turned to the maid. “Please inform Rony, Rose, Daniel, and Chris to come for breakfast.” She said to the maid and the next moment, Rony and Rose appeared.

“We are already here,” Rony said, and they sat on the right side of Leo.

“Good morning, dad.” Rony and Rose greeted.

“Good morning, sister-in-law,” Rony greeted, but Vera scrunched her nose.

“Good morning, but is it important to always mention sister-in-law?” She questioned.

“Of course, it’s very important! I don’t want your husband and my wife to get any wrong ideas.” Rony answered, and Rose smacked his arm while Luke threw a napkin at him.

Vera chuckled, “Where is Daniel?” She asked.

“He was studying till late last night. Let him sleep.” Rose said and Rony gave her a look.

“Okay, let’s start. Christian will join us soon.” Vera said, and everyone settled at the dining table.

***

The maid knocked on the door thrice but Christian didn’t open the door or invited her in, and after waiting for about a minute, she finally turned the doorknob and entered inside. Her eyes gazed at the empty bed and she saw the washroom door ajar. “Sir Christian?” She called him, but no one responded. She turned to check the balcony and her eyes went wide, spotting Christian lying unconscious on the floor.

She spun on her heels and walked out of the room to call everyone. Vera, Rony, and Rose rushed upstairs while Luke called Dr Ken, but Leo remained seated with a poker face. He served himself some porridge and started eating as if he was totally unaffected by whatever was happening around him.

He finished his porridge, not looking at anything particularly, drank water, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and left for his room.

***

Dr Ken checked Christian, “High Blood Pressure, Again.” He said and prescribed new medicines for him. Vera was sitting beside Christian, stroking his forehead with a worried expression while Luke stood there looking worried.

“Hallucination?” Dr Ken asked.

“I guess so. The maid found him unconscious on the floor,” Vera answered. “Ken, is there no way to help him?” She asked anxiously. “Can’t we do something? What if we try to tell him about the past?”

“Seven years back, we did try to tell him about his past when he regains consciousness, and you know what happened, even he wasn’t ready to accept you. We just can’t, Vera! It’s not advisable to take any risk like that again. There is a chance of relapse!” Dr Ken said.

“Ken, you said that he will slowly recall everything but now it’s been seven years since that accident and he still doesn’t remember anything except this Ganesha idol,” Vera said and all three of them looked at the wall-mounted stand where the idol was placed nicely. “He says he has put it there, and he doesn’t allow anyone to remove it.”

“Let go outside and talk,” Dr Ken said and before they could exit the room, Luke walked out.

***

Sitting at the edge of his bed, Leo was looking at Mishka and Christian’s wedding picture on his mobile phone, he zoomed Mishka’s face and lightly stroked it with his thumb and his gloomy eyes recalled how everything ended in a blink of an eye.

“It’s been seven years since I last saw you, touched you, heard your beautiful voice.” He mumbled, tears rolled down his cheeks, “I am so sorry, I ruined your life. I shouldn’t have forced you to marry Chris. He destroyed you.” He sniffled, wiping tears from the corner of his eyes, and opened the second drawer of the side table to read the letter again that Mishka left for him seven years back.

Dear Dadu,

After my parent’s demise, I felt like someone removed a protective shield from my head. I feared everyone and everything. I don’t know how to put my feeling into words but I was afraid of my home, my school, friends, and people around me like they will harm me and no one will be there to protect me from them.

Every day after school, I waited for Papa to come and pick me, but no one came. Every day after returning home, I waited for mom to shout at me to complete my homework, but she didn’t shout. The place called home once was scaring me, and finally one day, I locked it with an intention of never opening it again.

Years later, I met you in an ambiguous situation and I don’t know if it was a blessing or curse, but when you put your hand on my head listening to my problems, I felt that protective shield again, but now it turns out that it was all facade. It was all game.

Why Dadu? Why did you play with my life?

You knew from the beginning that Chris was in love with someone else. Then why did you force him to marry me? You told me he wants to take over the position, so he agreed. Even this reason was unsettling to me, but I agreed just for you, but you chose to hide the fact that he was in love with someone else and you forced him to break up and marry me. I loved you so much, but in return you betrayed me, and now I know why you always feared history repeating itself, because you knew you did exactly the same thing your wife did in the past.

My life was a dirty mess before meeting you, but I never knew that it will be a disaster after meeting you. You wanted to save your family from crumbling, and all I ever wanted in my life was a family. But today, I am standing exactly where Vera mom was standing seventeen years back.

She had two options, either to walk away or commit suicide, and she chose the latter. But don’t worry, I’ll not let the famous history of the Knight family repeat itself. I am putting an end to this circle. I am going and I’ll never come back.

Goodbye, Mr Leo Knight.

I hope we will never meet again.

Mishka

“Are you alright?” Luke asked, breaking Leo’s trance, and sat next to him on the bed. Luke’s gaze fell on Mishka’s picture on his mobile phone. “Are you never going to forgive Chris?”

“Never, and it’s not like I have not tried, but whenever he comes in front of me, it reminds me how he betrayed Mishka and destroyed her life. I understand he is in a vulnerable state, but I can’t give him any comfort.” Leo stated his feelings.

“We all loved Mishka. But the reality is, Mishka is no more with us and we are not even sure if she is going to show up in the future.” Luke said and paused for a moment. “I agree Chris did wrong to Mishka, but you can’t give punishment to someone who is clueless about his mistakes. “

“It’s been seven years since I saw her. She left her home in India so that none of us could ever reach her. It’s all because of Chris that I don’t know where she is or how she is coping up with her life. Luke, I have witnessed her struggles back in India. I know what she has gone through all her life and Chris just doubled all her struggles,” Leo said and Luke looked at him attentively.

“Dad, I might sound selfish, but Chris is my son and I want him to be happy. That’s why it’s my request to you to forget the past and move on. Mishka isn’t coming back ever and who knows, she might have moved on with someone else. She might’ve got married, have a family.” Luke said and abruptly stood up from the bed. “I am here to inform you I want Chris to start his life…. with someone else.”

It stunned Leo for a moment. “Are you out of your mind? Do you know what you are saying?” He growled.

“The lady who Chris hallucinates or sees in his dreams is none other than Mishka. She is haunting Chris for the last seven years. Once Chris will involve himself with someone else, these dreams and hallucinations might come to an end.” Luke stated and Leo looked at him with wide eyes.

“You won’t do anything like that. Have I made myself clear?” Leo shrieked.

“I will, dad! For seventeen years, you took all the decisions of his life. Now let me and Vera decide Chris’s future.” Luke stated and turned to leave but stopped at the door and looked back at Leo, “And dad, Mishka hates Chris, she doesn’t want to be with him, then why should my son wait for her and not move on in his life?” He exclaimed and left.

Leo felt defeated and looked down at his mobile. “Where are you, Mishka? Please come back. Just give me a chance for once to apologise.” He said, looking at the wedding picture of Christian and Mishka.