SERENDIPITOUS|✓

Chapter 26

It was twelve at night and Radha was feeling sick. Not just physically but internally.

Yesterday's incident matched up with her sickness was doing wonders to her sadness. Her chest felt constricted trying to stop the tears and her breath grew ragged every time she did so.

The pendant was clutched inside her hand, the same pendant which she hadn't worn since she got to know that it was her father, who had got it for her.

It felt like a lot of baggage to her, taking that pendant with her felt like she was owing the thing to her father. She didn't want that. Didn't want to live on someone's money. She knew that he wasn't just somebody, he was her biological father but the truth was that he had moved on. He had a family now. A different family where Radha didn't feel needed at all, didn't want to be and this pendant, after that day, always felt like a weight on her neck. She wanted to give it back to him, she was glad that she didn't, though.

Because today she remembered why was the pendant so important to her. Why, before everything happened, she couldn't separate the thing from herself. She finally, finally, remembered about her dead mother. This pendant was a  souvenir from her mother, this was her love, the last thing that reminded Radha about how once she was lucky enough to have a mother beside her. This was her mother's happiness and she was glad she hadn't just thrown it away.

The edges of the pendant started embedding its shape inside her skin from where she was holding it tightly. It was as if she was trying to find any sign of her mother in that pendant, pressing it, searching in it, just looking at it.

She was curled up on her bed into a foetal shape trying to hold herself, trying to keep herself together.

Suddenly everything felt wrong.

The ache in her heart kept on growing and the tears inside her eyes didn't stop flowing. She wanted to go and see her friends but she was too tired to navigate around the house to find the staircase to her heaven.

The only option she was left with was to cry her pain away and that was exactly what she was doing.

Tear by tear she went through every memory she had with her mother, every memory her five-year-old brain had kept safe and sound. Every memory a little girl could preserve in her mind to relish some time in future, not having any idea that she won't be having her mother to share them with.

Suddenly a loud whimper escaped her lips remembering a particular moment and her hand immediately flew to her mouth in hopes to keep the noises to herself. The last thing she wanted was to disturb the lovely people around her, sleeping peacefully.

Apparently, her wishing didn't do much because the next thing she knew, the door of her room was being knocked once and then opened straight out.

She didn't need to turn and see that the person who entered was him because her breath instantly started to calm down just from his redolence, from his mere scent.

She felt her tears suddenly flowing at an extremely slow pace almost coming to a halt when she felt the mattress dip at the foot of her bed.

"Didn't know my snoring had the ability to make my favourite person cry," Krishn said with a light yet sad tone and the words sat inside Radha's heart and her lips twitched slightly.

Her hands didn't stop shaking though, neither did the pain in her chest lessened.

And so unsurprisingly the next thing that happened was a blanket being draped till her shoulders, covering her like a big cocoon, securing her from all sides, making her feel safe. Her free hand immediately fisted the blanket wrapping it even more safely around her.