Chapter 1: last wish

Standing at the edge of the roof, waiting for the perfect moment to die, thinking how unfair this life was, I started to think about my dreams and wishes that will never be fulfilled.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and tried to jump from the building, when someone held my hand and hugged me.I felt the warmth of someone after so much time and tightly hugged that person back without even knowing who that person was, and busted into tears.

 My tears flowed as if they found the way out after so much time. Not knowing who that person was, I let my tears out.

When I came back to my senses, I looked upward towards his face. 

Standing in front of me was a handsome man with a domineering personality. 

His dark black eyes were filled with tears as he wiped tears off my face. "Sir, sorry for ruining your clothes and thank you for saving me", I apologized and thanked him at the same moment. 

He held my hand as if he was really worried about me and said in a shaking voice, "What were you going to do? What would I have done, if something had happened to you?" 

I was looking at that person in surprise as his words didn't make any sense to me. I asked in a low voice, "Sir, have we met before?".

"It's me Linda, Brent", he replied. I tried to think whether I have met any person named Brent but failed to do so. 

Suddenly I saw blood on my hands. While preventing me from jumping off the building, that man ended up hurting his arm. 

His shirt was stained with blood and I was worried and concerned about him as he got hurt while saving me. 

I didn't pay much attention to myself and started carefully seeing his wounds but somehow that person saw minor scratches on my arms and hands and hurried to get me to hospital. 

"Sir, I'm fine. Please let go of my hand so I can see your injury". I tried to free my hand from his tight grip when he suddenly held my hand more tightly and started seeing my scratches carefully, "How can you say you are fine, look at these injuries".

It was for the very first time when I experienced how it feels to have someone, Who truly cares about you but Alas! A stranger cares about me more than my own family and friends do. 

I gently tried to free my hand saying, "I'm a medical student and I am sure that for now you need more attention than me." 

I offered to take him to the hospital which was around the corner but he kept on refusing me so I decided to take him to my home instead to disinfect his wounds. 

"Sir, let's go to my house. It's on the second floor. I will help you clean your wound."

He accepted my request and followed me to my house. I was living alone in that apartment and my apartment was not in a good condition to invite someone home. 

I felt embarrassed and looked towards the floor as he carefully looked each and every corner of my apartment. Standing there in surprise as if he was not expecting to see me living in ruins, he worriedly asked, "What happened to you when I was away?".

Suddenly I remembered to ask him how he knows me and why he sounded like he had seen me in a better condition because the only thing that I remembered was living a life full of misery and despair. 

"Who are you?", I asked. He looked at me in surprise as If I asked the wrong question. He replied, "It's me, Brent. Look I have come back for you. Did you miss me? " 

"Brent? Who? ", I asked. He stared at me for some time without saying anything and after some time, he told me that he is from Harvard University and he has seen my research proposals that I had submitted there. Everything didn't seem to make any sense to me though but I decided not to be suspicious and convinced myself that he might have mistook me for someone else and now he realized it that I'm not the same person. 

I disinfected his wounds and applied some ointment on them. I asked him for some coffee but he left as soon as I was done with his wounds. 

He seemed tense and lost when he left my house. His meeting with me when I was at the edge of my life waiting for death to take my sufferings away turned out to be a blessing in disguise. 

My name is Linda and I was a medical student in Australia at that time. I belonged to a middle class family. My parents were financially struggling to meet the educational and day to day expenses of me and my siblings. My father took loans for our education and upbringing and being the eldest child, it was my responsibility to pay back all that loan and to help my parents financially. 

I didn't have many memories of my childhood. All I could remember was the clouds of poverty and getting bullied for my appearance. I had short height, and a pale looking skin with rough dark black hair and dark brown eyes  with dark circles as dark as my black hair. I didn't have anything good to remember about my childhood as my childhood was only a dark memory, a dark past and the source of my insecurities. 

All my life I have met superficial and selfish people who were around me only for their gains. Financially, I never had much to offer anyone but I was blessed with intelligence and ambition. I never gave up in face of difficulties and worked as hard as I could to change my destiny. 

I was already standing in the valley of darkness and was hoping to reach the heights of Hills where sun will shine and will brighten my life.

But my already hard life got worse, When people who claimed to be my well-wishers pushed me into the well of despair that was present in that dark valley.