Page 219 of A King's Oath

“It must be late there in France… what? 2 am?”

“Hmm.”

“Why are you still awake? Or did you party too hard?”

There was no answering laugh he could muster at her attempt at a joke.

“I have a daughter, Rajmata.”

Silence.

“Can you repeat that, Samarth?”

“I…”

“Daughter?’

“Don’t repeat it there!”

“I am alone.”

“A daughter,” he blurted. “Mine. Exactly mine.”

A chuckle — “How…? Samarth, are you… did you drink or something?”

“No,” he sat up in bed. “I am sober. I… she is seven years old or eight. I didn’t exactly confirm but that’s the age she could be. She is so amazing. She can ride like a pro, she is already galloping ponies and can control without needing to hold the reigns. She knows how to open a door with a key on her own and she talks nonstop even if it is with a stranger…”

A sob strangled out of him.

“Samarth,” Rajmata’s voice broke. “Samarth.”

He gulped the tears that were clogging his throat and reached for the glass of water. He downed half the liquid and his chest expanded on a long, deep breath.

“Did you drink water?”

“Yes.”

“Now sit back and put on the light.”

“Why?”

“Do it.”

He rested on the headrest and switched on the bedside lamp. Rajmata’s call ended and he was staring at the blank screen for not even a fraction of a second before her FacetTime video call lit up his screen.

He swiped it right. Her side of the view was dark, some light illuminating the side of her face as she pushed her AirPods into her ears and walked to a bench seat in the garden. The light over it illuminated her. Her hair pushed behind her ears and her saree wrapped around her shoulders.

“Tell me everything from the beginning.”

“It’s a long story.”

“I’m listening.”

He nodded. Then braced himself to re-live everything.

“I met her in school in Saraswati Crest…”

He told her everything. Everything. The good and the bad, the pretty and the painful. About his oath and their first breakup. About meeting her again a decade later and reigniting their love in Paris. About thinking of leaving Nawanagar and moving away, planning a life together to do just that. And then finding out that Papa was gone.

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