Marital Love

Chapter 18 : Emergency

He placed his palm over his mouth to stop himself from crying. Preeti's mother still sat silently lost in some deep thinking.

"Maa... Are you okay? Don't worry he'll be fine...Hmm." Preeti said lowering herself to face her mother.

"Are you assuring me or yourself Preeu?" she asked, her voice void of any energy.

"I-I don't know Maa... It's.... How? Why this sudden?"

"He's not feeling good since a few days bachha. He's suffering alone from inside. He's very happy that you married someone like Akhil. But staying away from you is getting harder day by day."

"Why didn't you tell me this? Didn't I ask you people last time I called whether you all are okay?"

The doctor came out of the emergency room.
"How's my father doctor?" Vivaan rushed towards him.

"Can't say anything right now. He's having a severe attack. He's heart rate is also fluctuating. Excuse me. " The doctor left leaving behind a shock stricken Vivaan Preeti and their mother.

Sushma weeped heavily. Vivaan tried to console her whilst trying to control the sea, ready to leave his eyes any moment. Whereas Preeti stepped back.

The panic growing inside her. She distanced herself standing at the corner where her family can't see her. She was shivering. The fear of losing someone again, the cold memories of the past were again threatening her mind.

She can't be weak in front of her mother and brother. They needed her. She had to be strong. But her anxiety was sinking her down the memory lane.

"Akhil!!" her heart cried. She needed him. The person she could confine in. The arms she could be vulnerable in.

Whilst she dealt with the rising panic inside her she felt familiar pair of arms, warm and comforting holding her from behind. They balanced her, as she was about to collapse.

The tears she was holding back now slipped down her eyes as soon as she was engulfed by his familiar warmth. One by one they fell slowly at first but then started pouring as if rain.

"Shh... Calm down." came Akhil's comforting voice.

"I-Im scared. I don't want to loose him."

"He'll be fine Jaan. Kuch nahi hoga unhe."
[Nothing would happen to him]

"Promise?"

"Hmm...." He made her face him. She digged her face in his test and let her pain flow out.

Another doctor came out from the emergency room. Akhil and Preeti moved towards him.
"How's he?" Akhil asked.

"He's fine now. I must say he's quite a fighter. At this age, such a severe heart attack. It's very rare that people survive it."

Preeti clenched Akhil's hand. Hearing the pain her father had to go through clenched her heart.

"We'll shift him to the private ward. He'll probably stay unconscious for the next 8-10 hours. We'll keep monitoring his heart rate time to time. " the doctor excused himself.

-

Looking at the condition of her family through the glass door of the room, where her father lay on the bed and her mother and brother seated on each side Preeti felt miserable.

Akhil placed his hand over her shoulder.

"I feel like a pathetic child. I should've looked after him. But I was so busy with my schedule I didn't even visit him once in this month. I-I'm...." Preeti was about to loose her balance but Akhil held her firmly.