The secret wish

Part 8

The dwindle was right and Anya was in the car, Shaan was driving it. Only words that were put forth by Shaan that had persuaded Anya were

"Hey, Anya... Tell me just one thing, did you look into Noah's eyes? Were they the same as the ones you used to see in the hospital?"

Anya felt as if she was thrown back. She didn't answer, but her mind was resonating with Shaan's inner voice and it pronounced the answer for her

Noooo... They weren't the same! She was happy when she was flying! So happy that she portrayed the most beautiful face of her.

It was almost like Shaan could read Anya's mind. He stood up and said slowly, helping Anya to stand.

"It wasn't happiness Anya!" His voice still shaking "What Noah was experiencing was the joy of living."

He was right! Anya had felt it too. In those tiny moments, Noah had lived a better life!

But still...

Shaan hadn't spoken anything else then. In fact, he hadn't spoken anything for two months. The only thing he did, was to put up the table for lunch and dinner and make Anya eat even when she resisted. And now he had said his part of words and had taken the car keys. He turned around and said with a slow rumbling voice

"Doctor Vivek wants to meet us. He said it is something regarding Noah."

Now Anya was in the car hearing the splatter of the raindrops on the windshield and the windows. She could see a faint reflection of herself in the window pane in the darkened cabin of the car. Her hair was a mess and her face at a loss of all the charisma that Shaan had loved her for, and had married her for.

"That thing on your face..." Was what he used always say.

Like always the little things make someone remember their gone past, the raindrops made Anya remember Noah's 'day of death'.

Anya had felt her whole world turning around for a moment when Vivek came out of the ICU and had uttered three words

"I am sorry."

And saying that, he had walked away. Shaan had carried Noah to Vivek's hospital in an ambulance with the ventilation on. And Anya had hoped that Noah would live.

But still...

When the body of Noah was delivered out of ICU, the image that came in Anya's nightmare was now right in front of her. The dead little frail body of Noah. She had resisted to not see it, but her mind couldn't think of sending her little princess away without seeing her for the last time. She resisted. She fought with her own conscience. And at last, had thrown a glance at Noah's face.

All Anya could see was a pale beautiful face. But there was neither happiness nor sadness, all that pale face portrayed was pure eternal silence, that had ended all the misery that the little girl was going through.

But still... In the end, Noah didn't live. And there was nothing called as Hope.

The memory of her little princess being cremated as heavens cried for her death, rushed in and Anya bit her tongue to make it go away. But the bitterness increased when she remembered Shaan being there, torch his own daughter. Without shedding a drop of tear!

Anya snapped at Shaan and he bore the words that came from nowhere.

"How could you say... she had only one month to live?"

"I said so because..." He slowed down and brought the car to a halt. "Vivek had said me that she had undergone Multiple organ dysfunction and she was also showing the symptoms of immunodeficiency..." He took a deep breath and said with a smile

"She didn't even have a month to live."

That explanation was right on the stone, but what made Anya lose her mind and made her whole body feel like burning was when she saw that smile on his face.

How could he smile, even when his daughter has died and he is one of the reasons for it?

Shaan smiled again, with the raindrops showing their brutal side when they started to hit the windshield as hard as stones.

"I smile because I did not let my daughter die without making her wish come true. Maybe I am completely broke inside..." His eyes full of tears and his voice shaking, but still that smile adorning his face "But I am happy that Noah lived! Be it for some mere minutes, but she lived there!"

Anya wanted to ask

Then why wasn't I informed about all of this?

But the answer was plain and open, she heard her conscience say louder than ever

He took it all, to not let you get broken down into pieces...