'Daddy?' her soft voice echoed in my study.
'Yes?' I replied back as my daughter came into the dark room.
'I'm having nightmares...'
'Come here,' I spread out my hands and her little figure ran into them. She clutched my shirt and dug her little head into my chest. 'You know, your mom wasn't scared off easily by nightmares'
Your mom...
'But Mommy's not here anymore... she left us...'
Tears formed into my eyes as the harsh, cruel truth confronted me. I was taking too long to grasp the fact... but how could I believe that the one who I wished to live forever had left me midway? How was I to believe that she wouldn't be there when I would be in need of her? How can I live without the mere fact that she was there beside me, after nightfall and before dawn? Why had been God so cruel to me that he had taken away my life? I lived, but only for the little girl that she had left with me to remember her.
Mishti.
She was a spitting image of the one who I loved with my life once. The same chocolate brown eyes, the same pink cheeks... the curly brown hair... the same 'dusht danav' statements she voiced that Geet had once said.
'Mishti...' I heard the voice.
I looked up to the door to greet the knowing figure that appeared before my eyes every night.
'She's sleeping...' I whispered as I noticed a light snore escape Mishti's soft lips.
'You've been the best daddy,' the almost translucent figure spoke.
'You could have been a better mom...'
'I wished to... but did I have a choice?'
'I miss you.' Tears streamed down my face.
'And I love you... so much...' she strode over my side with a blink of an eye.
'Stay.' I ordered.
'I will always,' she whispered in my ear and gently laid her hand on my heart. 'I'm in here, remember?'
The feel of her warm hands against my skin was painful... knowing that it was happening all in my head and I would never touch her again, I would never press my lips against hers, I would never embrace her into my arms... I closed my eyes and opened in a second, she had disappeared. The hugs, the kisses, the touches, the promises, everything was gone. I was left alone with a similar feeling of loneliness... I touched Mishti's soft cheeks and placed a soft kiss against it.
'Come back...'
'Maan Singh Khurana!' Geet said, her face glowing red.
'Yes, my sweetheart,' I said as I walked over to her and placed a soft gentle kiss on her lips.
'This isn't done for! You promised!' she whined...
'I'm sorry, it's work, and it's been taking almost all of my time...'
'Yes, let it take away your time and we'd be left with none...' she said.
'Don't say that' I said, lowering my gaze and meeting hers. 'We'll always be there together... remember?'
'Promise me...' she said, her eyes watering up.
'I promise with my life, that I'd be there with you... until our last breath...'
'I promise too...'
How easily we had promised and how brutally it had ended.
Geet and Maan.
Maan and Geet.
But in the end, I was left alone.
I knew since it was fate, I would not be able to do anything about it.
But it was painful to be helpless in front of death.
It was painful to be able to do nothing.
It was painful wanting to end your life but not wanting to leave that little gift alone in this world that she had left me with.
Geet had left me in a fix.
Mishti... I would never want her to be an orphan.
The sound of the raindrops was inaudible now.
I turned off the only lamp illuminating the room and cradled Mishti in my arms walking over to the bedroom that was where Geet had once held me close, where we had once spent our time bickering together and where once she had said her last goodbyes.
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