The untold story of the first wife

Chapter 43 - Hope

The night is still young and the two friends were sharing drinks while talking about the years they missed in each others lives. Pratap asked his friend about the various countries he visited and about how their politics is, how their diplomacy works as well as the prosperity of the kingdoms. As a king, he always need to be updated with the knowledge about other kingdoms and kings. Although he has spies working for that, it doesn't harm to listen another perspective.

His friend was one kind of a talkative man, otherwise how could he have survived in different kingdoms with different languages and cultures. So he told whatever he knows to pratap who was his childhood friend from Gurukul(School) where they spent years away from their parents with only each other as best friends.

Pratap was shocked when his friend renounced his title of crown prince and gave away his rights to his younger brother so that he could go on travelling and do adventures. Since Pratap's marriage happened just few months ago for which his friend was invited, Anamika prepared for a feast to send off his friend for his adventures.

When pratap went on his war expedition, he didn't want to fight his friend's little brother, so he asked for their submission which they gave immediately. Now after all these years, here they are drinking together and sharing experiences.

That's when Pratap said, "Since it is night time, I will take you to my son tomorrow. After all, he is the main reason for you blessing us with a visit rather than attending your best friend's crowning ceremony." His friend laughed at that and said, "Sorry man. But yes I'm very eager to meet the Shezade".

"What does that mean? ", Pratap asked for which he replied, "Oh, I sometimes mix words of different languages. Shezade means Prince which is used by Turks. I came directly from there, so I got a slip of tongue". Pratap just laughed at his reply and they continued their talks.

Suddenly his friend said, "Pratap, I heard about the demise of your second wife just a few days ago. I extend my condolences to you for your loss." To which Pratap remained silent without giving a reply, so his friend questioned about that. "You may not know because we didn't let the news known to public. But none of our royal family members mourn for her because she committed treachery. That is the reason why we didn't postpone the ceremonies", Pratap replied.

His friend just looked at him for sometime and said, "Now spill." Pratap looked at him with a frown, to which his friend rolled his eyes and said, "I know that you want to say something or ask something. So just go ahead". Pratap let out a sigh and kept his drink down.

"I don't know how to put this question but what I want to know is how to identify love? How do I know that I love a person? Is it possible to love more than one person at the same time? Can a person forget about his love? I am totally confused right now", Pratap poured out his rant and took a deep breathe.

His friend looked at him seriously for sometime and then laughed while saying, "Pratap! You opposed my decision to be a bachelor all my life. Now you are asking me questions which you should have asked before you got married".  Pratap just made a face due to his mocks and remained quiet.

His friend stopped laughing and asked, "Pratap, if you ask this questions even to great scholars, they wouldn't be able to answer this. And I'm just a mere human who never had a relationship with a girl. So if you just tell me the reason why you are asking all this, then I may give you my piece of knowledge."

Pratap knew that his friend is serious. So he told, "After my marriage with Anamika, we were both happy with each other. But after a few years, Anamika being not able to conceive a child became a huge issue which further led to my second marriage. Anamika, even though strongly believed in monogamy, accepted the situation just so the kingdom could get a heir. I didn't marry again for a wife but for just a child so I kept my distance from Saudamini. But then she became pregnant and I had to spend time with her as a duty. Gradually I started to split my time for both my wives.  After my first child was born, I started my war expedition. But whenever I came back to the palace, I spent time with Saudamini and children. That's how we have six children now. But I totally forgot about my first wife. I wrote official letters to Anamika but didn't speak anything as a husband. And when I'm in palace for a few days in between the wars, I would see her at court but never on her chamber as a husband. And I didn't even realize all my deeds, till the prediction of Pandit ji about the heir came up. As per the prediction, Anamika is the only one who could give a heir for the kingdom. Now she thinks that I came back to her only for that. But that is not the truth. It's just that I realized my mistakes earlier due to that, otherwise I would have still come to her but just late."