The Shadow

Chapter -2 Resemblance

"Mr. Robert?” The inspector asked.

“Are you OK?"

Robert simply nodded to the inspector, but his eyes clearly depicted the turmoil in his heart.

The inspector narrated the events of past to him, “As I said earlier to you, the man, who kidnapped your wife, is dead. The kidnapper, Jake, was mentally unstable. This man had lost his wife and child in an accident. The death of his family was too much to take. He had lost his sanity. When he saw your wife, Mrs. Isabelle, he thought she was his wife, well and alive.”
The inspector gulped silently before uttering the next words, “So he kidnapped Mrs. Isabelle. Your wife also said in the statement that he had never mistreated her.”

Robert did not know how to digest this news. To him, the man was of least importance now. All that mattered was the bastard child, that this dead man had left behind, in his wife's hands. This felt like an extra burden on his shoulder. A burden he wanted to get rid of. However, he trusted Isabelle, his wife, more than anyone. The burden was not the child but was the anxiety that it would be a memory of the pain the man might have inflicted on Isabelle and a proof, mocking him, that he was unable to safeguard his wife.
Robert firmly believed in Isabelle. The moment she has said that the child was his, he had believed her. But a part of him was still scared and skeptical. Skeptical, because it had been a year away from her. His wife had been away for a year and when she returned back to him, with a child in her hand, it had shaken him to the core.
The existence of the child was playing a sick game with his mind. Robert was unable to see the facts that were laid in front of his eyes. The only way to win this game was the DNA test. The test would relieve his mind and would bring some content to his heart as well. He knew that his decision might hurt the sentiments of his wife. Hence, he had decided to do it in complete secrecy.
Robert inhaled a deep breath in and looked at the inspector. “Can I have this kidnapper’s picture?”, he asked the inspector.
“Yes, sure.”, the inspector said and picked up a file from his table's right side. He turned a few pages and handed the photograph over to Robert. “Here you go.” The inspector added.
Robert took the picture. The second he looked at the photograph of the man, his breath was stuck in his lungs. The sample in his pocket, the baby's hair, was completely futile now. The picture screamed and mocked him. It mocked him that he was a failure of a husband. He was unable to protect his wife. His failure had cost his wife to move around with a bastard in her hand.
The resemblance between the kidnapper and the child gave him the message with a painful punch in his heart. The reality was smacked right into his face. The room of the police station had become suffocating for Robert. He closed his eyes tightly comprehending the facts. Seconds later, he opened it and shot up from his chair. He shook hands with the officers, thanked him, and left.
Robert drove to his house and parked his car outside the house. He had no guts to go inside and spill the beans to his family. He simply sat in his car analyzing the facts and telling his mind the truth, over and over again. 
It had been an hour since Robert arrived. He was still in the car, with no heart to pop out Isabelle's bubble of beliefs. He could understand the reason behind his wife’s web of lies. She was not at fault at all. It was his incapability. Incapability, to save his own wife. He did not count it as cheating. The circumstances had made his wife vulnerable. It was an opportunity for the fates to play with their lives and that’s what it had done.
*********
Robert rang the doorbell and the sound kicked in sudden anxiety in his mind. Isabelle opened the door with a smile on her face and winked as soon as she realized it was Robert at the door. Her cheerful smile lit Robert's mood and his face up. It relieved him of all his worries and exhaustion. He hugged Isabelle tightly and she returned his hug, warmly. The moment lost it's charm when they heard little Camilla's cries, who was carried by a maid.
Isabelle's motherly instincts kicked in. She immediately let her husband go and took Camilla in her arms and started cooing her. Robert, on the other hand, glared at the child with hate and disgust. Robert was kicked out of his reverie by his little girl's voice.
“Daddy! Daddy!” Gabrielle cheerfully rushed to Robert from the corridor. He bent down to his daughter’s level and picked her up to twirl her around in the air. Gabrielle giggled at her father's loving gesture. He placed her in his arms and Gabrielle started with her blabbering.
“Daddy, do you know? Mummy doesn't let me play with Camilla. I want to play with my little sister. Mummy is still mad at me.”
Gabrielle calling the baby ‘sister’ irked him and he put her down and scolded her, “your mother is absolutely right. You should concentrate on your studies. So better go to your room and study.”
Her father's changed demeanor flinched Gabrielle and she ran to her room with tears in her eyes.
“Robert,” Isabelle said with a sigh. She was about to lecture him when the maid came with Isabelle's phone in her hand. Isabelle looked at the screen and said to Robert, “Robert please hold her na. I want to take this call.”
Reluctantly, Robert held Camilla in his hand. Little Camilla sucked on her thumb and looked at Robert with a glint in her eyes. Robert kept on staring at her arms, her face, analyzing how her features matched to her father. But to his dismay, he was not the father.
“Robert dear!” Marina said, who was observing them.
Robert turned to his mother in law and said in a relieved tone, "Thank God, Mum, You are here. Take this baby. I can't even see her face." Saying this, Robert shoved the baby into Marina's arms.