"What have you done? Why did you ruin everything? Our story was a fairytale dream come true."
She kept thrashing her arms on the door with full force, only for her pleas to fall on deaf ears. Her wedding bangles broke and fell, her wrists bled and h...
She heard him but the words faded away in her ears.
She sat up straight, with her vision pinned to the opposite wall.
"Kalyani..?"
His words fell on deaf ears again.
She had zoned out.
Completely and inevitably.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
✧ · · · ────── ·𖥸· ────── · · · ✧
"Mumma! When will Papa come? It's going to be 12 soon!"
It was her tenth birthday. And tenths are always special. She was waiting for her father to return from work, to cut the cake.
They had a ritual of cutting the cake at 12 AM sharp at midnight while celebrating her birthday.
Let Papa come! I will climb on his shoulders and ask him to carry me around like a toddler. So what if I have grown up! I am his princess and I can fuss and have my way with him. He has to carry me the way we would play when I was younger. I will not give up my wish today.
"Kalyani! Relax! He must have got overworked with work and duty. You know Dussehra is round the corner. Security is high and regular checking is going around, maybe he is busy with that."
Just a week before, was her father's birthday. She would feel really proud that she shared her birthday month with her father, and also in the holy month of Dussehra. Dussehra and Durga Puja, or Vijaya Dashami was widely celebrated with great pomp and show in Banaras.
"You've given me the best birthday gift.", Her father would tell his mother every year on her birthday.
Just then, the telephone in the hallroom rang. Her mother walked towards the telephone to receive the call.
"Yes, this is Mrs. Rathore speaking."
Seconds after picking up the call, the phone fell from her hand. "What…?" She mumbled.
"Ma'am, your husband has shot himself with his service revolver in his room. We heard a loud noise but when we tried to open the door, it was locked. We broke the door open, only to see him lying there, in a pool of blood and a gunshot in his temple above his left ear. Please reach the police station soon."
It was Rakesh on the call. He was sobbing in between as he gave the details.
"I am coming soon." She held Kalyani's hands and rushed through the door.
But as she went downstairs, she saw an ambulance waiting near the gate of their residential bungalow.
She understood immediately what it meant.
Some police officers got down from the police van that accompanied the ambulance. They had grim faces, unable to look at her.
