Fatal Attraction

Part 24

Dr. Maya Singh was more than shocked when she came to face the fact that Daksh Malhotra had demanded to get treatment only by her and not just demanded. He had almost threatened to get his way.

"But I have an appointment with Neerja. If I reschedule it, it would cause inconvenience to others who have booked an appointment!"

"Madam, Mr. Malhotra had told he was ready to wait. I had been regularly checking up on him. He is just fine. Fit for discharge, actually. You could go to your session, and I would inform him. I am sure he wouldn't have a problem," said the nurse.

Asmita gave a defeated sigh. Her plan had failed.

"Fine, I will go to him after the session. I will try to make it fast too," she said. She walked through the door into the lobby after the nurse nodded understandingly at her.

"How could he think he could have his way after eight long years? And forcing me to attend to him like that. He just proved that he would never change."

She walked into the elevator and pressed the button to reach her desired floor.

Glaring at the closed doors for a second to vent her anger, Asmita felt the storms come back to her. She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around her forearms. The sound of the elevator showing that they had reached the desired floor made her open her eyes, take a deep breath and walk into the cabin right opposite to the elevator, knowing that she was the first patient Neerja was going to attend for the day and she would not mind it.

"Good morning, Asmita. How do you feel today?" asked Dr. Neerja Basu from her seat as Asmita walked in.

"I am asking myself the same thing, Neerja. He is back. And so are the flashes. He is in depression because of guilt and I don't know to feel about it. A part of me says he deserves it for playing with lives of many. A part of me feels pity for him and a part of me just wants to stay angry with him. And there is this other part which is in deep pain, seeing him and reliving memories. I just don't know what to do!"

She allowed the brine to slide down her cheeks.

"I believe a long session is on its way. Take your seat," Neerja said.

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After an hour,

Asmita walked out just as she walked in. For anyone observing her, she would appear completed nonchalant and composed, but for someone understanding her, she would appear as the earth devastated by a storm which passed. The session, not unusually, was stressful for her and it tested years of her training.

She recalled she had to attend to her patient, the reason for her anguish, and wondered if she could hold herself together throughout the meeting. Neerja had told her to let it out, because it was prime time she vented her anger on the person responsible for it.

Asmita walks into the room assigned to Daksh after taking in a deep breath. Daksh, who was reading the newspaper, looked up at her and immediately jumped to his feet.

"Good morning!" he said. He smiled, unable to hold his smile, to see his plan succeed.

"Mr. Malhotra, would you need a code of conduct lesson? We do not accept our patients demanding for a doctor when there's already one assigned," she said.

Daksh's expressions hardened, listening to her words. "I wanted to talk to you and you wouldn't if I asked you the straight way. So, I had to go the crooked way."

"Fine, what do you want to talk?" she questioned, much to his surprise.

"Are you happy in your marriage with Vikas? Why did you even marry him? You were married to me, hell, you still are."

His voice rose by an octave.

"My personal life with my husband is none of your business, Mr. Malhotra. However, yes, we are very happy and are enjoying nuptial bliss. And mind your words. I was never married to you. Neither was our marriage ever registered, nor was it by my complete consent. Either ways, it holds no importance."

Asmita's words brought back the passion which had left his life along with her. He spent eight years of his life without colors and without feelings. Just plain white like his life was. But Asmita's argument of never being his wife had brought back the intensity which she had once ignited herself.

Daksh took a step towards her and said, "Don't you dare deny the truth, Asmita. I refuse to believe that you are married to Vikas. You are acting. You are still my wife. Still mine. Only Mine."

She gulped her nervousness away as he inched closer to her. "I was never yours to begin with, Mr. Malhotra. You had forced me to be yours. But hearts need to unite and hands need to be won with love, not bound and forced by obsession. You wrecked havoc in my life. You used my weakness against me. And I am not an object to belong to you. I belong to myself and the right of addressing me as 'wife' belongs to Vikas Singh only."

His eyes glistened with tears. "You could have punished me or did whatever you wanted. But you went and married someone else? How could you? Was it so easy to forget the seven vows you took with me? Was it so easy to forget all the moments we spent together?"

Asmita was shaking from within, hearing Daksh's words. She tried to hold herself, but she knew she would not last too long. But her experience as a therapist was refusing her the control she needed.

"Yes. How could you expect me to remember and live with one of the worst memories of my life, Mr. Malhotra?"

Daksh banged his palms against the wall beside her head, terrifying Asmita. Tears finally flowed down her eyes, melting Daksh's anger along with her facade.

"Was it so easy it forget my passion for you? Was it so easy to forget my love for you?" he whispered painfully, leaning close to her.

"You never loved me. You were obsessed for me," she muttered, looking away from him.

"Let me show you my love then," he said, pressing his lips on her exposed neck. The mere touch of his lips on her skin raged fire on her senses and took her back in the time.

"NAHI! NAHI! Leave me!" she screamed, her eyes in a deep daze, much to Daksh's surprise.

"Asmita! ASMITA! What's wrong with you?" Daksh pulled her towards him and patted her cheeks to make her more conscious of herself when Asmita frantically started pushing him away from her.

"Don't touch me! Leave me! Please leave me, Sir!" she begged while Daksh felt his world stopping as she addressed him as 'Sir'. He had read enough about panic attacks and flashes to know that he pulled back her into the past, into one of the worst mistakes he ever committed in life and one of the darkest memories of her life.

"Asmita, calm down! I will not touch you... Asm.. Dr. Singh, please calm down," he pleaded while gently making her get seated on the patient's bed, but she continued her struggle of fighting him recklessly and subconsciously.

"What happened?" asked Neerja, as she walked in with concerned expressions which soon got transformed into that of shock.

"Who are you?" questioned Daksh.

"I am Dr. Neerja Basu. Dr. Singh's therapist from whom she is taking counseling from the past eight years," she answered, eyeing Daksh with an emotion which could be closely associated with that of anger.

It was Daksh's turn to be shocked. Asmita was taking counseling? It fueled his own guilt as he received in the shock and collapsed to his knees.

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Daksh = Deplorable, Despicable, Delusional.