Page 227 of A King's Oath

SAMARTH

Hi

He texted, hoping her number was still the same. Her phone lit up in the dark room and he prayed she would respond. She read it, then locked her phone, taking her eyes back to the movie.

Samarth had nothing to lose at this point except 50 minutes. Now 49. So he opened his phone and went all in.

SAMARTH

I wanted you to move on

I wanted you to forget me and make your life elsewhere. Unlike last time when you quietly went and swore your life to only our memories. Ava I was weak and helpless and ashamed after all the promises I made to you that no longer remained in my power to fulfil. There is nothing I can say now to justify what I did then. Hukum told me that day that I will be able to regret what I was doing but not be able to repent it. Those words haven’t stopped ringing in my ears since the moment my eyes fell on you both.

Blue ticks began to appear. He kept typing without looking up.

SAMARTH

I have spent the last eight years in your memories, cut off from any news or relation that could bind me to you because then I would hear you got married, had kids, made a family… and then even thinking about you would become wrong. I have spent my life in your memories and I am so so sorry that you had to do the same without any fault of yours except that you loved a man like me. When I look at our daughter I see the happiest child I ever saw, happier than even Sharan. You did this all on your own and I cannot begin to imagine what it must have been like. And how effortless you would have made it look while doing it with everything and more inside you. You are right, I was never as bright as they made me out to be. But one thing I know, that I have lived is — life without one parent is not as easy as it looks, even with all the luxuries of the world. Lucky for her, she hasn’t seen her father to think about him walking away. But it will crop up someday.

You asked me once long ago if I ever missed my mother. I said I didn’t. That was true. I did not miss her but I missed a mother. I didn’t realise it until very recently. Parts of my unfinished childhood, parts of my life have begun to fall into place and I am among the lucky few in the world who get that. I don’t want our daughter to spend a lifetime before she experiences the fullness that she deserves.

Blue tick.

SAMARTH

It is already a lifetime too long.

He glanced up and she was staring at him with a capital WTF! on her face. That was a good sign. He went back down to his phone and checked. He had written a lot. He went ahead and typed one last message, hoping for something. A little something.

SAMARTH

THE END >> 10 mark essay

No response. Disheartened, he glanced up again and she was watching the movie, her phone still unlocked and lit in her hand. As soon as her phone vibrated, she looked down. Was it a silent snort or did he imagine it? Her thumbs began to type and his heart rate picked up. Almost instantly his phone vibrated.

AVA

So what do I do?

His heart rate remained up as he typed.

SAMARTH

Give me a chance. One last, final chance. You have no reason to but I am still begging you. I am unable to give you any good reason or argument so I am begging you. Let me into your life and our daughter’s life. Let me show you that I mean what I wrote. I want us to have what we once dreamed of. I want to give you what I couldn’t for the last eight years. If you will take it, I want to give you everything. Let our daughter get to know me. Let me get to know her and learn to be afather. Let me learn to be your partner again. I will go at your pace, do what you want me to do, be where you want me to be. You make the rules, I will follow. Say run and I’ll ask how fast.

AVA

Nice. When is Nawanagar expecting their rawal saheb back?

His eyes whirled up to hers. They were currently trained on him. She went back to typing.

AVA

The happy family will have an end date, no?

Give me that end date

His jaw tightened.

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