Mine

Chapter 23

'You know she hasn't known that she's already become, Mrs Abhimanyu Chatterjee four months prior to that.' This shocked his brother-in-law more. Yet, he continued, 'but I don't want you or anyone to open this little temporary secret to others. I want to announce our marriage when I tell the truth to my Nidhi and when she is ready to accept my apology. I know I screwed it, but I still want to mend it in every possible way, where it doesn't hurt my wife at any point. She deserves every happiness. Till then please don't even breathe about any of it even to my sister.'

'What do you mean any of it?' 'That I know it was Nidhi, that I married her legally without her knowledge, that I forced her into marriage and that she's the co-owner to all my properties.' 'What? When did you change everything on her name?' 'When she signed the shares papers unknowingly. She would definitely throw a fit if she gets to know about it. Right now everything is discreet but everything is legalised.' he said. 'When are you going to tell Nidhi about her status as your wife...I mean... your legal wife?' 'In two months time, during our 6th month anniversary. I will tell her about everything, and I will make sure she accepts the relationship soon.

 I am even ready to impregnate her if she defies.' He laughed like a crooked man. 'But I won't really do that yet, because I wanted to see and cherish her pregnant form. I want to experience the journey of parenthood along with her. I want to spoil her by fulfilling all her reasonable and unreasonable demands.' He said yearning. 'Notwithstanding, I know I need my eyesight back. I am getting impatient with the further delay they make. Honestly, I am desperate to have eye transplant surgery. I really wanted to see how beautiful she looks as my bride. I want to experience every beautiful momentum with her by looking into her magical eyes... God... I don't know why I am so addicted to her...' He sighed heavily.

They were talking for some time and he headed to the doctor's cabin to discuss his eye transplant surgery. He even stopped his wife and his sister from accompanying him. He really hoped he would receive a positive answer, so he could surprise them. But the doctor's words made his world turn upside down. 'Mr Chatterjee, I am very sorry to say this, but right now we don't have any donors yet, so we could perform the eye surgery for you. You see our eyes are sort of like cameras. They capture images, but it is our brain that processes and sees the image. Therefore, it is crucial that our eyes remain connected to our brains by the optic nerve, which sends visual signals from the eye to the brain, where they are interpreted as images.

The optic nerve is only between 1.3 and 2.2 inches long and less than one-fifth of an inch wide at its widest point, but despite its small size, it is made up of more than a million tiny nerve fibres. If these nerves are cut, they cannot be reconnected. Surgeons cannot transplant a whole eye because even if they could implant the eye into the socket, the eye still would not be able to transmit signals to the brain through the optic nerve, and thus the patient would not be able to see. 

So far the donors were of those who are about to die or are already having other eye problems like LASIK or cataracts because those donors are elderly people. We still need to wait for...' the doctor's words were cut off by emotionally enraged Abhimanyu. 'Wait for what? For my death? I am sick tired of waiting. Do you know how it feels when you suddenly become blind? No matter how hard you try to stay positive, you'd still yearn to see the beauty of the world because you were finely visualising them through your eyes. You can't see your loved ones, you can't see if they are worried or in pain or worst if they are injured. You'd be pitied of your condition in the name of concern and I am sick tired of it... sick tired...' he stormed out after shouting to him.

While angrily walking along the corridor, he heard someone talking, '...his wife has cheated on him while he was still at home... She used his blindness as her ace card to have an affair with his own friend... yeah... we can't do anything, but pray for his well-being now.' That really stirred something in him. He knew his Nidhi isn't like that, but he desperately wanted to listen to her voice. Without thinking twice, he called her. She didn't answer his call, so he kept calling her continuously. Doctor's words and the conversation he heard all made a blunder in his head. The cherry on top of the cake, when his continuous calls were finally answered by an unknown male. 

'Hello!!!' he said agitatedly. 'Who is this?' came a deep male voice. 'Who are you? Why are you answering her calls?' he asked still with the same tone. 'She is my girlfriend, but who are you???' replied the man. Abhimanyu was seeing all red listening to the man saying he is Nidhi's boyfriend. He just hung the phone without saying anything. He felt worse and cheated. With so many unspoken emotions he went back to his sister's.