Page 5 of The Unwanted Husband
Isha glared at her cousin. “We spend enough time and we both have busy jobs so if we don’t meet—”
Her words were interrupted when she heard her phone ring in her purse. She reached for it and saw it was a number she didn’t recognize. The country code indicated the caller was from India. She hit the ignore button, suspecting it to be a spam call, which she received a handful every day.
She took a sip of her drink; somewhat glad Chandini had to attend to her daughter and the topic they were discussing didn’t get prolonged.
A moment later, she heard her aunt’s phone ring and something about the timing of how her aunt received a call right after she got one made her hackles go up. She kept her eyes on her aunt as she answered the call.
“Hi Ashok, it’s been a long time. How are you?” her aunt sounded cheerful.
Isha held her breath, wondering why Ashok, her sister-in-law’s brother, was calling her aunt.
The look on her aunt’s face made Isha’s heart nosedive into her stomach, and felt the blood drain from her face when she saw her aunt drop her phone and collapse on a nearby chair, weeping.
Flashes of moments when she was told her parents passed away played in front of her eyes and instincts told her it was something bad—very bad.
CHAPTER 2
One week later…
Isha sat on the couch in the living room staring at the swinging pendulum on the wall, lost in thought. She was still in a daze and could not remember anything about the flight she caught one week back, in a hurry after getting the call from Ashok about her brother and sister-in-law’s fatal accident.
Why was everything happening to her? First her parents and now her brother.
She wrapped her arms around her as the feeling of helplessness enveloped her. She felt all alone in the world again, just like she had twelve years ago when her parents passed away. She was grateful for her aunt who raised Isha as her own but she felt the void every moment. Now with her brother gone, it felt like she was left with no anchor in life.
Her aunt’s health suffered from hearing the news about her brother’s death and she could not travel with her.
“Monisha,” a male voice cut through her thoughts. She looked up to find Ashok standing by the door. She had not heard anyone address her by her full name in years, it felt odd. No one after her parents passed away.
“Is the lawyer here?” she asked.
He nodded and gestured to her, to follow him. She got up and felt weakness in her legs. She was still numb from the news of her brother passing away and was in no position to attend the reading of his will and trust details, right after the funeral so she asked for it to be pushed out. Nothing would change anyways. Her brother was not coming back nor her parents.
She followed Ashok to the office space in her brother’s house. Her eyes fell on the large picture on the wall, one of thelast pictures taken with her parents, the day her brother was going to college.
A lump started to form in her throat and she looked away from the picture to greet the lawyer. After brief introductions, Isha and Ashok sat across from the lawyer who took a few moments to lay out a few sets of sheets on the table in front of him.
The lawyer finally looked up at them and said, “Mr. Dev and Ms. Varma, you were listed as the primary persons on the will of the late Mr. & Mrs. Varma, your siblings.”
Isha suppressed the sob, batting away tears at the mention of Ravi and Sami. Her chest heaved and she kept her eyes downcast as the lawyer waited as if to let Isha gather herself.
Ashok gently tapped her shoulder and said, “If it is difficult for you, I will—”
“No,” she said and looked at the lawyer. “I’m fine. Please continue.”
The lawyer flipped through a few pages as she read out the assets that belonged to Isha’s brother and his wife. Then on to inheritance from Isha’s parents and none of the details mattered to her. She didn’t know why the reading of the will was so important and that the lawyer had specifically stated that Ashok and Isha be present in person.
“And now to the most important part of the will.” The lawyer’s words made Isha look up. She watched the lawyer put a piece of paper in front of her and Ashok.
“Mr. & Mrs. Varma’s wish is that you two hold joint custody of their twin children and raise them in this house.”
“What?” Isha was shocked. Her brother chose her to be one of the guardians to their children.
Her? The last person anyone should be trusting their children with.
Why would her brother choose her when he knew she had no ability to take care of kids?
The lawyer tapped her finger on the statement on the piece of paper placed before Isha. “Please refer to this section.”
