Redemption(Struggle #3) (19 page)

I couldn’t say a word.
Grief occupied my mind and heart. I hated her for what she did to me, but at the last moment, I just wished that she would receive a calm ending.

“Is there anything
I can do for her, Doctor?”

“She gave us your and Mason’s name. We only contacted you as you were the first name she told us. Maybe you can bring Mason here
?” he asked.

“That
I will do.” Mason was already shocked by the news. But his presence was essential here. He cared for her more than I cared for her.

I called him
; he was already on the way, but his home was on the other side of the city,  so it would at least take him hour or more to get here.

“Can
I see her?” I asked the doctor. 

“Yes. You can even talk with her, but just don’t force her to talk too much. She is barely holding
on to her life.”

I sighed and entered her room. Samantha was lying down on the bed, with various needles inserted in her body along with a
n oxygen mask on her face. She looked much older than when I had seen her two days ago.

The
pupils of her eyes moved as she noticed me. She slowly lifted her hand and called me near. I went ahead. She removed her oxygen mask.

“No
, don’t do that. You need that.” I forced it back, but she again lifted it.

With a deep sound
, she spoke. “Don’t worry. I won’t die before meeting Mason.”

“I’m so sorry
, Samantha. I wish I could see you in better circumstances.”

She replied with a smile. My heart was shaken by just looking at her. Death was roaming over her and still
, she was smiling. “Don’t be, Nathan. I should be sorry for what I did. But at this moment, when I can see my life slipping away from my body, I don’t have any regrets or wishes. Just peace.”

I h
eld her hand in between my palms. She was warmer, but her hands were thinner than I remembered. She must have lost a lot of weight in treatment. “Don’t say anything, Samantha. You should rest.”

“I want to tell you one thing before
I say goodbye.”

“No
, Samantha, please no goodbyes,” I pleaded with her. I was afraid that I would cry in front of her. Not because she was my wife or I loved her back then, but because she reminded me of the good times we had spent together; when we were friends, best friends.

“Okay, no
goodbyes. Just a simple thing, Nathan.”

“Do you have to?”
I just wanted her to remain calm and live whatever moments were left with her.

“I
have to. No, I choose to. When I left you two days ago, I met Eva. I told her the truth, because I didn’t want your relationship to suffer because of me.” She paused to take a breath.

This
was a new shock for me. But I listened to her calmly.

“She not only listened to me, but when
I was walking alone she came with me to my hotel room. And we spent time together for a complete day. We got to know each other like sisters. We literally shared you, Nathan, with each other. And that’s been the best day for me in many years. I lived more than my entire life in that day.” She paused again.

What could
I say when I heard her. It was a totally different side of Eva that I was hearing about.

“She is very nice
, Nathan. And I’m happy that you are in good hands. She is a keeper; please listen to me and go back to her. Beg, plead, do anything, but get her back in your life. You can’t get another person like her. She is a gem.” She coughed hard. She was crying while saying all this. The words flew from her heart.

“I’ll try my best
, Samantha. Thanks for everything.” I kissed her forehead. A lone tear fell on her forehead. She deserved that. Finally, it was coming to me. Eva was the angel I was searching for my whole life. To get me up from this dump and motivate me to achieve new things.
What the heck I was thinking?
And in an instant, the road started looking beautiful. I was fool enough to let her go without a fight, but now I would fight till my last breath to get her back.
Yes, I’m going straight to her right now.

Chapter 28

Eva

Somebody was knocking on the door. I opened my eyes forcefully to look at my watch. It was only five a.m.
Who the hell is this? Terry? He must be Terry.

“Chloe, Terry is
outside. Can you please check?” I shouted from my room.

I waited for
a few seconds, but her reply didn’t follow. Not even a slight movement happened in the hall. So she wasn’t getting up to check who was outside.
Why do I always have to do this?
”Curse you, Chloe.” I shouted her name and walked out. I was just wearing a sleeveless t-shirt of Nathan’s and pajamas below.
If Terry is outside, I am coming and kicking your ass.
I was so irritated with her.

The bell rang again.

“Come on, can’t you wait a couple of minutes.” I opened the door and screamed. I thought Terry was there, but I was wrong. Nathan stood out alone in the dark. He was wearing shorts and a jacket.

“Nathan
, you?” I hadn’t expected him that early. I hadn’t expected him at all.

“Samantha is dead
, Eva.” he said in sorrow.

“Oh, I’m so sorry for her.”
I wanted to hug him, but I was a little skeptical about it.
What the heck.
I went ahead and hugged him tightly. “Would you like to come in?”

“
Nope. Would you come out for a minute? I need to talk to you now.” His voice sounded determined.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come in?”

“Nope.”

I closed the door behind me and started walking with him. The moment
I walked out, my body shivered because of the cold outside. I wrapped my hands around me.

Nathan saw it
, took off his jacket and wrapped it around me. He was just wearing a sleeveless shirt; I guess he was called in the middle of the night.

“
Samantha, I met her couple of days back. She looked pale and sick. She was actually on the verge of death, but when I spent time with her, I didn’t think that she would die so soon.”

“I’m sorry
, Nathan. When did it happen?”

“Couple of
hours ago.”

“Don’t you want to be there?”
I sympathized with him. From the moment I knew about her cancer, all my worries and anger for her vanished. I had gotten to know the real her.

“Mason is there. He will take care of everything. I
have something important to talk to you and that’s why I came here.”

I gasped hard.
I prayed he didn’t come to fight with me or end our relationship. If that happened I would die without him for sure. I just wanted him to be truthful with me.

“I
have something to confess to you, which may hurt your deepest feelings, but I’ve no other choice. I’m going to spit everything out that I’d hidden from you,” he said in agony.

Fear crawled u
p my spine.
Is he here to break up with me? Please, God, don’t do this to me.
I felt like I was showered by cold water in the middle of the winter.
What did he want to tell me that would hurt me so much? I will die without you, Nathan. Please don’t do this.

“You know that
I lied to you about the matches.”

“Hmm.”

“And I lied to you many times.”

“About what?”
I asked in shock.
Is there anything more I don’t know about?

“
I never told you my true financial situation.”

I felt relaxed. It wasn’t something dire or worse
, I thought.

“I was completely broke few days
ago. Partly due to my foolish decisions before meeting you. And part due to your mother.”

“My mother?”
I knew it, but I had to let him continue.

“Yes. I’m sorry to tell you this, but your mother ha
s tried a lot of things to separate us. And one of her tricks was to put pressure on me for our apartment. She is on the board of director sat the bank where I have a mortgage.” He took a pause. We were walking towards the river shore that I loved so much.

“
To save our marriage, I decided to participate in these matches. If it wasn’t for the matches, I would have lost the apartment.”

“But you could have told me this earlier and we could have sorted it out easily.”
I spoke with my heart. I just wanted him to be open with me. If we were going to be married, there would be no hiding again.

“I know.
I understood that a bit too late. But then time was flying away already. I’m not saying that you should forgive me for what I did. But I want you to give our marriage a chance. I would do anything and everything for you.” He stopped and held my hands in between his palms.

I’d hugged him and said
‘yes’ a thousand times in my mind already. But I had something to be taken care of before agreeing to that. “Can you wait for the answer for few hours?”

“Eva,
I beg you, but please don’t say no.” A tear rolled down his cheek. That was unheard of; I had never seen him crying before. His heart was talking to me with his tears.

“For
just a few hours Nathan. I promise something good will happen.” I was now in the mood to stretch this little further.

“Okay.” He looked a bit disappointed, but
I decided to go with the act.

We walked on the shore for almost an hour without saying a word to each other.
I just wanted to enjoy his presence. Though we were separated for only a few days, it felt like months, if not years. He was always such a joy to be around. When my clock ticked six a.m., I decided to go. “Can you wait here for a couple of hours? I have some things to settle before I answer you.”

“Okay. I’ll wait here.”

“And thanks for telling me the truth.” I thanked God as well for putting some sense in him.

I changed into
a pair of jeans and a tank top. I drove straight to Mom’s hotel.

When
I knocked on her door, she opened it immediately. She was all ready ready to go somewhere.

“Eva
, what are you doing here, and so early?”

“I came to talk
about something, Mom.”

“That’s good. It seems that poor Nathan couldn’t provide you
with enough for the shopping. Anyway, I have a meeting with a Japanese client and we will talk after an hour. You can sit yourself in the room till then.”

“I don’t care
about your meeting, mom. I want to talk to you now and you are not going anywhere.” I forcefully made her sit on the couch.

“What is the meaning of this? You can’t behave like this. I’m your mother and owner of the biggest apparel
company in the country.”

“You are nothing but a sick person
to me.”

She looked shocked by my sentence. She
hadn’t expected me to say anything like that. I was always a shy cat in front of her.

“What do you mean by that
, Eva?”

“I’m even sick of calling you my mother now.
I got to know everything about you. The worst part is that you did it against your own daughter.” Her face turned dark in shame. She opened her mouth to say something, but I didn’t want to hear her. “Did you ever think of me as your daughter? Or was I always just a pawn in the game of chess?. Now I wonder how much influence, or should I say bad aura, of you affected my brother.”

“Eva.” Her voice was shaking.

“Don’t say a single word, Mother. From this moment, I’m out of your life and if you try to manipulate me one more time, we will meet in court. And believe me, I have your genes and I can destroy your life in ways you could never think of. I’m not letting you ruin my life like this. Don’t even bother to call me or meet me.” My anger was flushing through my veins. I had never ever imagined she could do this to me, to her own daughter.

Tears started flowing down her cheeks, but
I didn’t care what she thought anymore. I had wanted to confront her from the day Mason told me everything, but I waited for Nathan to come back to me. That wait built a vengeance inside me and I had to take it out on her.

“One more thing. Nathan and
I are married, and if you try to come in between us or manipulate anything around us, I promise you, I’ll tear you down in front of the world. You wouldn’t like that at all,” I warned her and walked out of the hotel room.

With a heavy h
eart, I got down on the elevator. It was painful to confront my own mom, but she had crossed the line. I was okay that she resisted our relationship; everybody can have different opinions. But she went too far and tried to destroy Nathan, which I couldn’t accept at any cost. No one could harm my Nathan while I was alive.