𝐅𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 [𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡]

ＣＨＡＰＴＥＲ 48

"Didn't make it?" She whispered back her eyes darting into random directions. "Th-That's not.."

Denial was the first thing that came into her mind. "Are you that is my mother? That it was Pujita Ahuja?"

The nurse nodded. "she had her identification on her and they checked the car as well. The registration had her name on it and so did her driver's licence. We checked." The nurse murmured thoughtfully.

"We have to call you for body identification." She looked at Alia who was ready to deny every possibility of her mother dying. "do you wish to call someone else?"

Call who? A brother who was mainly a 12-year-old boy and show him his mother's dead body? Or call her in-laws who were never picking up the call especially when they were in need? Calling her mother's parents would not be an option as they would take half a day to reach here.

So call who?

Who to call and bestow this curse on?
Could she do it?

She nodded. Indicating to the nurse that she would do it, she had to gather the courage for it. The nurse nodded and took her somewhere else. it was not the operation theatre where her mother was taken before instead this was the morgue.

They had already shifted her mother, a cry escaped her. These people had already declared her death.

She followed the nurse as her entire body was shivering. But in her mind deep down she knew that it was just false hope. Something that was not true.

"Here," the nurse opened the door for her. A doctor stood inside and nodded at her with a small sympathetic smile on his face.

"Are you ready?" He asked as near a body that was covered with a white sheet.

Ready for what watch's my mother's dead body? Is that something is the child would ever be ready for?

She looked towards the direction of the only body kept. The doctor got the signal and moved forward. He slowed the distance and held the sheet in his hand, slowly unveiling it making Alia suck a breath in.

It was her.

Pujita Ahuja was lying on a metal stretcher with her hand bandaged, her arm and her neck. The rest was hidden by her clothes.

Alia stepped closer. Tears clouded her vision and a sob broke out.

It was her.

The harshest reality of all times.

"Mama.." she whispered as she bridged the distance in between them. No expressions on her mothers face. Not even a frown that was always on her face. She was always irritated by something.

It was like she was sleeping. She was, wasn't she?

She must be.

"Mama?" Alia touched her hand. More tears slipping as she felt the ice-cold touch. They were warm. Always.

"Mama, wake up.." she whispered hoarsely and rubbed her hands around her mother's, trying to keep them warm.

The cold won't be good for her.
"Mama," she whispered again. "Why?" A cry escaped her, she was barely keeping it together. "Please mama. No, wake up."

"I'm begging you, please. Please. Mama. I didn't know what to do." She cried her words barely making any sense. "I don't even know what to do after my graduation and you left me for life. That's not fair. You've got to come back." She whispered, sniffing frequently. Why couldn't her heart stop breathing? Why was she alive?

"You were supposed to outlive me, mama." She kissed her hand. "Please come back. Please. I'm begging you, mama." She cried.

Why was this happening? Why was that person in her life gone that was her support system for years. She taught Alia fighting for herself, taking a stand for herself.

"Mama, please." She cured breaking down in the morgue room. "Please mama. Mama, don't leave me alone. Please. I don't know what to do..please form back..you weren't supposed to go .. why couldn't I-I go...why you?"

She held her mother's hand and placed it on her chest. "Please..you said it. You said you'd never go.."

"Ma'am," the doctor spoke softly behind her. "You have identified her. We need to start with the procedures."

She turned to see him standing at the door. Had he left?

She turned to her mother and kept her hand down, slowly turned around to look at the doctor.

"She was in there for hours and here she is lying dead. What did you do.." she choked on her tears as she continued to ask, "if you could not even save her."

Alia knew that she was being ridiculous at the moment. There was no way that she could accuse a doctor of not treating her mother in the best way possible but right now she had let out the anger that she was feeling.

"I'm sorry ma'am," was all he said.
But that couldn't happen.

"She was a fighter, she could have fought.."

The doctor smiled sadly, "Sometimes, the pain is too much and we let go."
She looked back at her mother.

Half of her family was gone in a blink of an eye.