Page 60 of Forged By Fate

Accept you love me, otherwise, divorce me.

What nonsense! I had no intention of doing either. Wait…what was I saying? Of course, I was going to divorce her because our wedding contract had an expiry date set out in very clear terms. Why was I even considering otherwise?

Strange, but when we drew up the contract, there was no clause suggesting what to do if we both wanted to stay married. Neither Sunaina nor I ever anticipated that possibility. But now, it was all I could think about.

Was she right? Was I…was I falling in love with my wife? And why did that possibility not terrify me as much as it should? It was the last thing I ever wanted, and yet, I was beginning towarm to the idea. Slightly. Only a little. I mean, I wasn’t head-over-heels in love or anything ridiculous like that.

Fine! I was willing to admit the possibility that I was maybe…a little in love with my wife. But only within the acceptable standards of sanity. Nothing too outrageous. Like I loved Sufi. Only with a lot of sexual attraction thrown in. There! I had found a decent middle ground that gave us both what we wanted without compromising everything I believed in. I hoped that was enough for Sunaina because this no-sex rule was proving to be very difficult, even for one night.

I craved Sunaina like an addict craved his next fix.

Fuck it! Why was I still here? I could just go home and tell her I loved her - within reason - and get on with the best part of the evening.

I raced to the door and threw it open, only to find Sufi standing on the other side, his hand raised to knock. But that wasn’t what worried me. It was the look in his eyes - shocked, and absolutely ravaged.

A cold hand clutched at my heart because I had seen that look many times before. I knew what it meant.

“Sue…” he began, licking his dry lips before he could get the words out.

My head began to reel and I thought I was about to pass out.

“Sue just had an accident, Mr C. She’s in hospital,” he said, his voice choked with tears.

A guttural cry rose out of my chest and rent the air.

And my last coherent thought before we raced to Sunaina’s side was that I was about to lose the only woman I had ever loved. And I was such a bastard that I hadn’t even told her how much I loved her.

We rushed into the ER and found a team of doctors waiting to brief us. The Chief Medical Officer, the chairman of the board, and the heads of almost all the departments were in attendance and were clamouring to talk all at once, but I had only one question for all of them.

“Where is my wife?”I roared.

They led me to her bay immediately, and my heart almost gave out at the sight of my beautiful Sunaina lying in that bed, covered in blood, with all those tubes connected to her.

“How is she doing?” I asked, keeping an eye on the monitor, hoping the steady beeps from all the machines meant she was still with us.

They briefed me as best as they could.

“It’s still too early to tell, Mr Chaudhry. She has a fractured pelvis, broken ribs, and a possible head injury. We’re checking to see if there’s any internal damage. As soon as she’s haemodynamically stable, we will take her into the OT.”

“What does mean?” I asked hoarsely. These were just words. They didn’t tell me if Sunaina would make it.

“She’s lost a lot of blood. We need to fix that before we begin to operate on her,” the surgeon explained in simple terms.

I thanked him and allowed Sufi to lead me out to the waiting room where I found Daima waiting for me. She looked as if she had aged ten years all of a sudden.

“How did this happen, beta?” she asked, bursting into tears after I briefed her on Sunaiana’s condition.

I let out a bitter laugh.

“All I can say is that I am cursed, Daima. I’m cursed never to have love in my life.”

“Don’t say that,” she said sharply. “Sunaina is still alive, isn’t she? My girl is a fighter, Viren. She will hold on. For your sake, if not for ours.”

“Boss, there’s some bad news,” said Sufi, who had been speaking to one of the doctors. “The chauffeur who was driving Sue’s car, Ramesh, just succumbed to his injuries.”

I closed my eyes in despair.

Would the tally of losses in my life never end? What kind of curse was this? Poor Ramesh had been serving our family for over forty years. He would be missed.

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