Discordance

Chapter Seventy-Two

Abhimanyu sat on the floor of his office clutching the piece of paper in his hand and staring at the door waiting for his wife to come through so he could finally feel like the band across his chest would loosen and he could let go, but he had to be strong until she got there because he wasn't sure he would be able to stop otherwise and he didn't want to scare her too much.

"Abhimanyu?" he heard and instantly his head shot up towards the door to find a panting Akshara standing there clutching the knob looking at him wide eyed and finally he felt the stone lodged in his throat move a little and feeling to return to his limbs.

Something in his face must have reflected his distress because Akshara locked the door and was dropping to her knees in front of him, taking his locked-up fists in her hands and muttering something but with the buzzing blood in his ears he could barely make out the words.

"I messed up" he said in a hoarse voice but Akshara didn't react to it, instead she pulled his arms around her waist and slowly slid into his lap, letting Abhimanyu rest his head onot her chest. One whiff of her sweet vanilla scent and Abhimanyu felt the first tear fall down from his eyes but he wasn't afraid to fall apart now, because he knew he was in safe hands.

"shhh" she kept repeating over and over and if she was shocked at his resolve crumbling, she didn't let on, instead rubbing her hands over his back to soothe him. Finally through a choked up voice he let out a "The radiologist missed something in the test last year for Maa and like an idiot I gave her an all clear and the cancer is back and it's bad Akshara, really bad."

He knew she would be equally heart broken at it and he waited for her to say something but all she did was gasp once before her arms tightened around him and she went back to running her palms all over his back.

After a while when he thought his tears had dried up, he pulled back slightly and looked at his wife with heartbreak written wide and clear all across his face but to his surprise Akshara remained dry eyed as she slowly lifted her fingers to wipe his face before she kissed each cheek once and grasped his clammy hands in her dry ones and squeezed tight "Tell me" she said once and Abhimanyu breathed deeply before nodding once, closing his eyes and resting his forehead on hers

"I don't think it was with malicious intent, I think it was hard to diagnose even back then and well with her recent health, we did a bunch of tests but a lot of it didn't make sense so finally I convinced her to get another mammogram done and well...yeah it's clear now. It's bad Akshara, I am scared." He said in a shaky voice, Abhimanyu had never felt so useless and hopeless as a doctor but worst of all as a son. He had been so busy in the last few days that akshara had to take care of his mother and all he had done was yell at her and make her feel bad for caring about his mother.

Digging the heels of his palms into his eyes he groaned loudly "I feel so fucking useless, I made you feel bad for taking care of my mother when I couldn't and now see...look what happened. I was a fucking fool." He wasn't sure why he was going into a self-deprecating spiral when there were other much important things he needed to do but he couldn't even string one sentence together without becoming a mumbling mess then how was he going to be strong for his family?

"Sona" Akshara whispered from next to him and Abhimanyu felt worse, like he couldn't even meet her eyes. He had once again failed his family, first with the whole Ishika thing, then treating Akshara like shit and now this. "Sona, look at me" she said lifting his chin with her fingers and Abhimanyu finally met her eyes shining with love and confidence he couldn't quite understand. "It's not your fault, it's just an unfortunate event." Clasping his cheeks with her small palm, she stroked her thumb across his skin wiping the remaining tears.