Fatal Attraction

Part 25

"You really love her, don't you?" asked Neerja with a sad smile on her lips.

"Of course I do. More than anything. But I don't know how I ended up hurting the person whom I loved so much in such a gruesome manner," he said.

He looked out from the window at the cars racing their way to their destinations, and there he was. Lost in his path, and with his destination out of bounds.

"It is not too late for a realization, Daksh. I think you still have a chance with her. But the success of that chance depends whether you will give up your everything to use that chance completely or not. So, are you ready for that?" she asked with narrowed eyes.

Daksh turned to face Dr. Basu as his brain processed her words. Did she say he still has a chance? He immediately knew that no matter what, he was exploiting it as much as he could.

"How do you advise me to go about it?"

He could not imagine that he had a chance with the angel he broken into millions of pieces, which failed to heal even after eight years of therapy.

"I am going to be straightforward about it. It may hurt you or make you feel even guiltier. Would you be fine with it?"

Her scrutinizing and penetrating gaze studied every feature of Daksh's face to analyze his thoughts.

He reminisced about the words Asmita had uttered just before she lost herself in her panic attacks. "I am ready to face a trial by fire for Asmita, Dr. Basu. Tell me. Tell me, how to win her hand?"

"You snatched her freedom from her, Daksh. You showed her what helplessness entailed. You made her question herself. What Asmita craves the most is respect, which you never gave her. I don't think you showed her any respect even today when you forced her to accept that she was still your wife when she is not. She is the wife of the owner of this therapeutic center, but it is your deep love which compels me to guide your way to her heart."

Her voice never wavered or revealed her thoughts or her emotions. It was a hoarse whisper which reignited the almost extinguished flame of hope.

The minute she had seen him crash onto his knees listening regarding Asmita's counseling sessions, she knew that she had found what she was searching for.

"I will not let you down!"

He wondered if it was his punishment to see his love to be someone else's love, and he was ready to accept any form of punishment if Asmita would be his salvation.

"Give her whatever you took away from her. Show her respect, give her freedom, show that she is not helpless, show her your love for her, not your madness!"

Her voice reverberated in his ears and reached his heart, which agreed to every word said by the doctor.

"I will!"

The determination in his voice made a smile appear on Neerja's lips. She did not have any doubt that Daksh had set his heart on the goal and would not stop at anything to accomplish the same.

"Continue with your sessions with Asmita. She needs to know how guilty you are to forgive you. If you really want to make your place in her heart in a chamber of love, then you should prove yourself to be worthy of it, Daksh. Beware! The boundaries around her heart would be stronger than ever. She is not the old Asmita you had blackmailed into marriage. She is the Asmita who made her own name with her hard work, and her training as a therapist would have placed several more boundaries to stop her heart from controlling her. If you want to win her heart, then you have to put the boundaries of her down!"

Daksh nodded.

"I will take your leave now. Although I never imagined I would say this to you, all the best, Daksh. I hope you make it!"

She rose from her chair and began walking out.

"Wait!"

Daksh's words stopped her mid-path and made her turn around.

"Yes?"

"Why are you doing this? I mean, isn't confidentiality supposed to be the ethic of the doctor? After knowing about my deeds and the pain I inflicted on her, why would you want me to be with her?" he asked, his eyes revealing his confusion about her views.

"Sometimes we leave our ethics aside for fulfilling certain other duties for us, Mr. Malhotra. About why I am doing this, I would surely explain this to you when the right time comes. Till then, some things are better left unexplained," she said, smiling at him, almost mockingly, as she turned around on her heel and walked out of the room.

Neerja walked to her room and told the nurse to send in the patients after ten minutes. She needed some time with herself after what she did and what she was about to do. She pulled her mobile out of the pocket of her apron and called the person who needed to be informed about the latest developments.

"Hello Vikas! Are you busy?" she asked as the line got connected.

"No, Neerja! I was just looking at the history of a patient. Tell me," said Vikas into his receiver.

"I met Daksh. Daksh Malhotra," she said, anticipating Vikas's angry reply.

"If you want to talk about that burden on earth, then leave it, Neerja. I have no time to talk about that jerk," he hissed.

"Vikas, please. He really loves her. I have seen it myself!"

Vikas threw the pen in his hand against the wall as he resisted the urge to raise his voice by an octave.

"If he had, then he would not have hurt her so badly. He is just an obsessed mad man who hurt Asmita so much that our combined efforts have proven to be futile. Eight years, Neerja! We tried for eight years and we still have been unsuccessful in pulling her out of this phase. Are we bad at our job? No, we are not. He caused her such pain that even professional therapists, who are good at their job, could not pull her out. And you name his feelings as love by seeing him once. Ridiculous!"

"I understand that. But sometimes a person doesn't need professional therapists to heal, they just need a right person. Don't we both know that? And I think a person madly in love could recognize another person madly in love, isn't it?" she said, rousing his mind to glance over that part of his memory which never failed to fill him with remorse.

"They would be. You still think about it, don't you? I am sorry, Neerja. I wish I could accept your proposal, but it was always Asmita for me. I am sorry!" he whispered, looking at the photo which captured the smiling faces of him and the woman who was speaking to him.

Neerja had the same photo on her desk and she held it in her hands, caressing their jubilant faces. It would not be long before it was once again the reality, since she had put her plan into action to eliminate Asmita from the equation.

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Neerja joins the club of obsessed, which is led by none other than Daksh Malhotra -_-