II walked out of the metro station feeling exhausted to the core. I hadn'tgot a seat today so I had to stand throughout my journey from Whitefield toKoramangala. I glance at my watch and it's still 5:00 PM. I'm almost four hoursearly today which means I can finally cook something edible for dinner.
With the newfound hope, I walked towards the auto stand when my phone started to cry in my handbag. I opened my purse and fished it out. An unknown fancy number flashed on my screen and I hesitated for a moment. Usually, I don't answer phone calls from unknown numbers but somehow I ended up talking myself into answering this one. What if I was getting a call from one of the companies I had applied to?
"I'm I talking to Miss Roohi Patel?" an intense sounding male voice asked me and I frowned,
"Yes; who is this?" I asked him.
"My name is Advocate Kabir Khan, is it a good time to talk?" He asked me and I had a feeling that I was talking to the kind of a person who would care if someone like me was having time to talk to him or not.
"I guess so, what is the matter?" I asked him awkwardly. I don't know why, but for some odd reason, I don't have a good feeling about this.
"Miss Patel I'm calling you on behalf of my client Miss Sneha Patel." the mention of my mother's name made me go stiff for a moment. The woman who hasn't bothered to contact me for like eighteen years all of a sudden gets a lawyer to call me out of the blue? You must be kidding me.
"Miss Patel, are you with me?" he asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. Oh God, did I zone out again? I tend to do that a lot.
"With all due respect Mr Khan, I have no interest in talking to her or about her. She had made it very clear that she has nothing to do with us years back. Thank you for calling, please do convey my message to her." I told him, making sure my tone was cold and yet polite.
She can't just appear out of the blue one day and expect me to behave like nothing happened. The truth is, she has screwed up big time and no, she's not getting away with it.
"Miss Patel, I can't do that." came his abrupt reply. I did not miss the hesitation in his voice and that's the only thing that stopped me from snapping mean things at him. You don't shoot the messenger after all.
He sighed heavily, "Miss Patel, your mother has passed away six months back." I felt like somebody just poured ice-cold water over my head and I did not understand what I was feeling. A part of me was heartbroken that I will never get a chance to see her again and the other part just didn't care.
For a minute I didn't know what to say. I had never really thought of her all my life, not even as a child. Most of my childhood was spent trying my best in saving my father from falling apart. After my mother had left him he was a mess. She had left him in pieces and I had spent a better half of my childhood putting those pieces together.
"How did it happen?" I asked him, my voice void of any emotions. He took his time answering, probably trying to frame his words carefully. "She overdosed on sleeping pills. Her maid found her body two days after her death."
I ran my fingers through my hair as I tried to process what he had just told me. My mother had committed suicide and I don't know what to think. I closed my eyes and took a deep calming breath. I wrapped my emotions into an invisible bag and hid it away in one of the hidden chests in my head. I had learnt this trick years back and believe it or not it did work.
"Why wasn't I informed about this earlier?" I asked him or more like demanded him. You don't wait six months to drop news like that.
He sighed, "It wasn't my place to tell you; plus I called you to discuss her Will with you?" bullshit, it is his place to tell me. I held myself back from saying that loud.
"Can you come to my office today? We can discuss this in person."
I glanced at my watch and it was barely 5:20 which gives me plenty of time to get this over with. I'm not expected to be home at least till 9:30 so I ask him to send me the address to his office.
It was past 6:30 by the time I reached Advocate Kabir Khan's office. I stepped into the elegant office building and my eyes went wide as I carefully studied my surroundings. it was now that I realised how out of place I look.
I look at my choice of clothing and let out a frustrating sight. I was wearing one of my oldest short Kurti with faded black jeans. I should have gone home and changed into something more presentable but for now, I don't have a choice.
The woman sitting behind the desk who I'm guessing to be his assistant looked at me with a scrunched nose. Do I look that bad? I walked up to her with my head held high, I have always been told never to let anybody make you feel small just because you come from the less fortunate side of society.
"Mr Khan asked me to see him here," I told her and she frowned.
"Your name?" she asked me, her tone crisp and professional.
"Roohi Patel,'' I told her, she gave me a weird look and looked me up and down like she did not believe me. "Are you a relative of Sneha Patel?" she asked me. "I'm her daughter." I replied honestly.
She frowned at me, "You don't look like her." She told me and I have no idea what she meant by that when everybody knows that I'm a mirror image of my mother. "Mr Khan is in a meeting with a client, he will see you in some time till then please take a seat." I didn't miss the change in her attitude towards me after I told her who I was.
I walked away from her desk wondering what sort of a life my mother had lived. I remember my late grandmother taunting me by blaming my mother for leaving Papa to go live with some rich guy but that was it. I used to believe that my grandmother used to only say all that crap to me because she could not bear the sight of her son's miserable life.
Sometimes I wish she had lived longer and seen him get better and finally start living a normal and not to mention a happy life. But fate has its way of making things work. I sat down on the black leather couch and picked up a copy of today's newspaper from the coffee table and began to browse through the headlines.
I noticed two men dressed in expensive suits walk out of the closed office and the assistant stood up to greet them. The older man flirted with her for a bit and then followed the younger man whose face I hadn't seen properly as I was hiding my face behind the newspaper, but I did get a whiff of his strong yet amazing cologne.
Rolling my eyes at my stupidity I put away the newspaper knowing that next was my turn. "Miss Patel, you can go in now." the assistant told me and I nodded. I stood up from my seat and straightened my clothes. I walked towards the wooden door and taking a deep calming breath I pushed the door and stepped in.
"May I come in, Sir?" I asked as I stepped into the office. A middle-aged good looking man sat behind the Mahogany desk staring intently at me. His lips curled into a polite smile as our eyes met, "Come in Miss Patel, my name is Kabir Khan, we spoke on the phone earlier," he said as he stood up to his feet to greet me, offering me his hand. I took his offered hand and firmly shook it.
I sat down on the plush leather chair in front of him as he watched me with keen eyes. Analysing me, probably judging me by my clothes but I stayed my ground. "What is it that could not be discussed on the phone, Mr Khan?" I asked him, my voice surprisingly stern and confident.
"Call me Kabir," he said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. He was a good looking man, probably as old as my mother or maybe a little older. He had thick jet black hair with a dash of grey here and there. He had a well sculpted face and I can bet that he may have been quite a hunk during his time.
He studied my face for a long minute and I started to feel uncomfortable in my seat. "You look so much like her, she would have been so thrilled to see you in person." he told me with a weird look in his eyes. I frowned at him, who is he talking about again? "Sneha, I mean your mother. You look exactly like her."
"I know; can we just get to the point, I have to reach home before 8:30," I told him. Honestly, I have no deadlines but he does not have to know that. He smiled like what I said amused him but he did not comment on it.
"Roohi; I hope I can call you that?" I nodded and he continued. "Roohi, Sneha was one of my good friends and yet she never mentioned you until..." he trailed out hesitantly and I know what he meant. I did not miss the look in his eyes when he spoke about my mother, you know the kind of a look you have for someone you love?
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, he looked pained as he spoke, "Sneha was a good friend. I had known her for years; I never thought she was the kind of a woman who would resort to suicide, but I won't lie to you by saying that she didn't show signs. My wife was her therapist and she had once told me that Sneha had more skeletons in her closet then anyone can ever imagine."
I was about to cut in and ask him to get to the point but something told me that the man wanted somebody to hear him out so I let him continue. "...I think you were one of her greatest regrets..." auch, "...Leaving her only child behind was the most difficult thing for her to do." I wanted to laugh at that.
"First of all, if she regretted abandoning me so much, why didn't she just pick up her phone and call me?"
He sighed. "Your mother was a complicated person Roohi. Plus she was involved with a lot of wrong people. So I think it was for the best that she kept you away."
I let out a frustrated sigh there was no point in debating over it, "Look, Sir, if you called me here to give me a talk on how miserable my mother was, then you are wasting both of our time. My mother never wanted me and I've lived with it all my life. Please don't make it difficult for me."
His eyes softened as he carefully studied my face, "Look, I'm sorry if I was being insensitive. The reason I called you here is to discuss your mother's will, and let me tell you, your mother has left quite a fortune for you." he told me with a glint of sarcasm in his voice. Was the mention of money supposed to make me feel better, if yes then it certainly did.
I squared my back and the corner of his mouth curled. He leaned over his table and picked up a green file lying on the desk. He unwrapped the ties and took out a set of legal documents. He gave me an expectant look and for some odd reason, I felt anxious. Was it the anticipation to know what she had left me or the curiosity to know what sort of a life she had lived I don't know.
"Are we waiting for someone?" I asked him as he simply sat there with the documents in his hand. He chuckled, "If you are wondering if there are any other heirs then your answer is no, it's just you." That was not what I was thinking, but it was good to know that I was her only child.
"What sort of life did she live?" I asked him, unable to hold my curiosity any more. He looked taken aback by my question, but he got over it almost immediately. "Nothing that any ordinary girl didn't dream of," he replied with a grin.
I smiled at him, "Did she marry again?" I asked him.
He shook his head, "She didn't believe in marriages; or at least that's what she used to keep telling all of us. But she was seriously involved with this older gentleman. One of my clients to be precise; in fact, it was through him that I had met her."
"Was he married?" I asked him and regretted it almost immediately.
He smiled at me, "What do you think?" I didn't go to answer it. I didn't want to hear it out loud that my mother was a home wrecker. Was he the only man she had been with or were there more? Was he the reason why she had left us? a part of me doesn't want to know.
"Why isn't my Dad here?" I asked him, "don't you think he's supposed to be here considering that he's my father and her husband?"
"Your parents were divorced a long time back, Roohi. From what I know your mother had cut all ties with him. And it's you whose name is on the will and not his." I didn't go to comment on it. I have a feeling that he has already heard enough of him and I can bet not good things. He cleared his throat, dragging me out my thoughts and I know that in a matter of minutes my entire life was going to turn completely upside down.