Tiptoeing towards love

1

She turned 18 a few months ago and he is 33... (Have raised the age gap to 14 as otherwise, it is way too impractical)

Parthiban

Had she listened to me when I requested her to move to the city, she wouldn't be in the state that she is at the present. I fist my hands and stare up at the ceiling of the hospital to not let my emotions bubble out. My niece, Mozhi is seated beside me, crying profusely for her mother who is on the rim of losing her life.

Even after I've brought our life to a decent condition, my sister insisted to stay back in the Village and work as a maid as she always did. When I demanded her to quit the job, she shut me up saying that she wouldn't want to stop doing the job that fed her in her hard time. I had tried my best to make her leave the said job but everything ended in vain as her stubbornness won in the end.

And now that was what rendered her to fall in this pit that leads to death. The people for whom she works have framed her of stealing their money whereas, in actuality, it was stolen by another one of the maids but it was way too late when the truth was revealed.

My sister's blood pressure ascended because of the false accusation and she has sustained a heart attack. Before she was affected by the same, she had called me and cried, spilling out about the horrible incident that had occurred, and put forth a wish that I don't even want to rewind of.

Soon after she has said the same, she became a victim to heart attack and I boarded a flight and flew here quickly as possible with my parents.

From the moment I came here so, I sat quiet while Mozhi was being pacified by my parents who were equally apprehensive and perturbed as well.

The world seemed to close in on me as I reminisced about my sister's condition. The doctors were trying their maximum to bring my sister alive but it appears that there has been no improvement in her body so far...

Which terrifies me.

She means everything to me. She was more like a mother to me than my own mother. My parents weren't as affectionate as my sister. She was the one who always had looked out for me and cared for me, genuinely, without expecting anything in return!

My parents regarded me as a source of money and now they're living happily in one of my guest houses in Chennai.

Tilting my head down, I sigh out a breath and trot my hands through my hair, feeling more than devastated. My mind is racing with negative thoughts and the organ beneath my chest is urging me to cry.

Something in me tells that my sister was no longer alive and that instinct kicked my tears out of my eyes.

The memories of my sister feeding me food, taking care of me when I fall sick, the kind smile of hers, the way she scolds me when I commit any mistakes, the way she encourages me to do better in life, the true and pure love of her towards me crammed my eyes with agony that drops down the floor in the form of scorching tears.

"Mama..." Mozhi's hands touch my arms as she pats there comfortingly. This was perhaps the first ever time that she was beholding the view of me with teary eyes. I'm not normally an emotional person, but quite the opposite, and this is by far the first moment I've cried since years.

"Mom will be alright mama. Don't cry," I don't reply. Instead, I hold the tears in and await for the doctor's words.

A while later, the doctors informed the soul-shattering news of my sister's death. Mozhi couldn't handle the shock and fell unconscious. She was escorted to a ward and was treated while my parents and I mourned her death in our own ways.

My sister's words rang over and over my brain as I sat back on the chair and closed my eyes, wailing inwardly.

"If I were to die, marry her Parthi. I don't trust her with any man other than you. Deem it as your sister's last wish Parthi,"

Never in these eighteen years since my Mozhi was born had I ever looked at her in that manner. I love her, as my niece, as my sister's daughter, and had never seen her under any other light.

Which is why, when she asked me to marry her, I felt my whole world stop for a moment and become upturned. Our Village still practices such marriages but I just cannot view my niece as my wife...

God, I could never do it.

Ignoring the inner battle caused as a result of having to refuse to my sister's wish, I get on with the funeral procedures...

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Thoughts?