Echoes Of Destiny | Multicouple ✓

28. ECHOES OF PAIN AND HOPE

Avya

The pace with which Hridhaan was walking made me fear he might as well storm through the door and scare the living hell out of Mythila.

But there was another thought that made me even more concerned: Mythila's medical condition.

Her Dissociative Amnesia, caused by the immense trauma of her past, often left her disoriented and confused.

She had built a fragile new identity, a defense mechanism to forget everything from her old life.

It had taken me years to gain her trust, and a sudden storm of emotions could shatter the delicate peace she had found.

My biggest fear was whether she'd remember her family members. Her past was so tragic and traumatic that the only way she had survived was by erasing it from her memory.

Yet, Hridhaan was the only person she remembered whenever she had a panic episode.

His name was the anchor that steadied her when everything else seemed to crumble.

As we neared the door, I watched Hridhaan's reaction closely.

The corridor wasn't crowded, but the staff still looked.

He slowed down as we came nearer to the room.

For a second, it felt like Hridhaan got lost in the view before his eyes as he looked through the glass toward Mythila.

Inside, Mythila was watching her new favorite cooking show. Her blue-grey eyes shone a little brighter as she laughed at something the judges said.

It was like watching a slow-motion movie. Hridhaan's face changed from disbelief to surprised to happiness to a mix of every emotion at once.

He just kept staring.

His world seemed to have just stopped.

___________________________

From the corner of my eye, I saw Vrit and Samaira emerging from the elevator. Soon after, Dadi and Abhinav followed.

Everyone slowed down as they looked through the glass, Dadi gasping as she took in the scene inside.

And just as I expected somehow, Abhinav Singhania, without any delay, was already turning the knob.

Damn it.

I wanted to go inside to be by Mythila's side, but Hridhaan wasn't letting go of me. If his grip had been painful before, now it was different, firm, like he was anchoring himself by clutching onto me.

His breathing was starting to increase too.

I kept a keen eye on Abhinav as he approached Mythila.

The nurse present there asked who he was, but he seemed only focused on mythila, his supposedly dead wife.

"Who are you?" the nurse asked, making Mythila turn her head in Abhinav's direction too.

I waited with bated breath for her reaction. She blinked, once, twice, and then nothing.

No reaction.

"Mythila," Abhinav called, the name like a prayer, filled with so much pain, longing, and sadness it touched me.

As soon as she heard the voice, she looked at him as if she had been waiting for him her whole life.

For a second, I believed she recognized him, hoped she did.