44| Ardhangini

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Ch 45 and 46 available on ScrollStack!

Mandakini POV

"Lady, please give us some time alone with him. We need to examine him."

The acharya said, and I took slow backward steps. My gaze was anchored at him until I completely came out of the tent.

I sat before the the tent where he was lying lifeless. He has never been so weak in his entire life, not even my sister betrayed him. When he called me his lifeline, he wasn't lying. It was true, and now I can see that right before my eyes, but it's too late probably.

I glanced at ma, who appeared weaker now. I should be with her. I managed to stand up and go to her.

"Ma!"

I called her out, and quickly crouched beside her. It took no moment for her to hug me tightly.

"He missed you, with each breath of his he missed you. I couldn't call him after two days of his departure because the battery must have died, but in those two days, all he talked about was you. All he wanted to apologise was to his daughter. Why didn't you pick my calls?"

She informed about his condition, and asked me some questions that held the capacity to pierce my heart at this moment. I should have contacted them once. How could I even imagine that my Raj would survive my absence.

"Why didn't you contact me?"

She jerked me a little, and my eyes shed tears. I didn't have any answer to her question.

"And why didn't you pick my calls? I wanted to tell everything to you! We all tried, but you never cared."

Ragini jiji came up, and asked me in an exasperated tone. I know that she never gets angry, but today she was angry. More than that, she was broken.

"We thought you would never come back."

Dhanraj bhaiya spoke to me, walking to me carrying an active Mandira in his arms. She kicks and giggles a lot now. Only she was the one who wasn't sad at this moment.

What did I do to my husband? Things could have gone better if I had listened to him, if I had given this relationship another chance. He loves me, and I couldn't understand him.

"Even if bhaiya dies!"

Dhanraj bhaiya completed his statement, and I gasped, shaking my head.

"No! Please! Don't say such things for my husband. He is strong. He is a lion. He'll......he'll fight this."

I blurted out, my chin wobbled to utter these words, and I broke into silent cries, palming my face. Ragini jiji and Ma cajoled me. I embraced them, and recalled the good moments I had spent with my husband, but everything seemed to be fading now.

The acharya came out of the tent, and all of us looked at him.

"His condition was worst. The excreta had stuck on his body, infecting the area grievously. He is poorly malnourished, so his body cannot fight the infections. With passing seconds, all we can do is pray. I don't think he......will survive."

Ma cried terribly now. I felt my breath stuck in the air passage. This can't be true. I stood up, and ran to him, falling on my knees before the doctor.

"Please! Please! Don't say that. Give him nutrients. He'll survive, I know. He'll survive for me, please!"

I implored him with adjoined hands, and he gasped.

"Sorry lady! But his disease is not physical, it's more of an emotional trauma, that reflected upon his body. This is one of the rarest cases where kings become rags because they loose something on which they depended. Perhaps he loved someone immensely, but that person left him alone, that too when that person was the most needed one at that moment. He couldn't take that trauma. He is a warrior that survived in that condition for two months, but it's time to say goodbye to him."

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