Regret Of Life

“Nat…… Nat….. help…. Help.” I heard her screaming while looking around frantically. Nathan wanted to go to her immediately and pulled her in his embrace to make her feel safe but his feet were completely struck in thick mud, and he felt like drowning deeper with every passing second.

“Don’t panic, Cynthia…. Don’t panic… I am coming,” he yelled at the top of his lungs while trying hard to pull himself out of the pool of mud, and his attempts were futile. His feet were mired in thick, unyielding mud, preventing him from reaching her.

She was sitting on the ground, completely out of strength. Her eyelids were heavy, but she forced them to stay open. “I am coming to you, love… I am coming to you… ju… just don’t sleep,” Nathan yelled when he saw exhaustion taking over her mind and body.

At the same time, some howling dark shadows started approaching her. “Don’t you dare touch her.” Nathan roared at them, threatening them in the process, but all of them snickered while showing their dirty teeth. He couldn’t see a thing making their faces but their teeth and their sinister smiles.

“Nathan…. Why… why di… did you leave me alone? Wh… why did you kill me?” Cynthia asked him in an exhausting tone, filled with sorrow and heartbreak. He shook his head frantically, denying the accusation.

“I am sorry. I didn’t mean to…. I never meant to.” Nathan pleaded to her while digging his nails in the mud to get out of it, but he couldn’t.

“Remember…. It’s you who asked us to hurt her.” One of those shadows mocked him while laughing sinisterly.

He felt suffocated and helpless now. He panicked once again when he saw her body drowning under the water. She lost her strength and now was lying on the ground.

There was no light in her eyes now. She was now looking at him with dead eyes. Those shadows started circling right over her head, and a shadow kept on squeezing my neck. “Leave her…. Leave her,” he yelled once again, but nothing came out of his throat.

Suddenly they all started howling over her, making my heart stop beating due to dreadful anticipation. Her body started convulsing in front of me. “Cynthia.” Nathan screamed at the top of my lungs in fear….. fear of losing her for real….

“You want me dead, Nathan, and see…. I am dead now.” She said to Nathan in a cold voice, her face now covered with blood, making her already lifeless face completely lifeless.

“Cynthia.”

Nathan bolted upright, gasping for air, his chest heaving with laboured breathing. The whole room was drowned in the darkness. He hastily moved towards the nightstand and switched on the night lamp.

His gaze fell on her photo, resting at the top of the nightstand as soon as the faint glow of nightlamp destroyed the horror of darkness. He whimpered in pain while looking at her beautiful smile, pain and regret filling his gaze.

Her smile that had filled his cold and detached life with some warmth and care was now confined in that photo frame, a cruel reminder of what he had lost. He took the photo and clutched it tightly against his chest. “I am sorry.”

He whimpered aloud, tears streaming down again. “Please come back….. please come back to me.”

He wailed, pleaded once again, but no one was there to listen to his painful pleas now.

In the morning, at the breakfast table:-

Nathan’s P.O.V.

“I have asked Nancy to be your female companion tonight.” My hand stopped and the coffee in my hand paused right on my lips.

I looked at my mother coldly who had a nonchalant expression on her face while enjoying her breakfast.

“I don’t need her. Theo will go with me.” I replied to her coldly and sipped the coffee.

She immediately threw her fork and knife on the plate in front of her and glared at me. “For how long you will mourn her death, Nathan?” she yelled at me, but I didn’t pay attention to her tantrums.

It had become a routine start of our day, and now I was sick of it. I decided to move out to have some peace in my life.

“I am doing for your well-being, Nathan. Why can’t you understand my worry?” she yelled at me again angrily this time when I didn’t reply to her.

“You don’t need to worry about me, mom. I am happy with my routine, and I don’t need any woman beside me to make me happy.” I replied to her this time in a casual voice and finished my coffee.

“Why are you so stubborn? Nancy has waited for you so long. Grasp the happiness when it is within your reach, Nathan, or else you will regret ignoring it.” She tried to make me understand her intentions, but once again, I refused to listen to her.

I took my phone and wallet from the table and glanced at her coldly. “Why didn’t you say this when I was chasing an illusion, leaving my happiness to live in despair?”

Her wrinkled face in worry immediately turned stiff while she stared at me blankly. I scoffed aloud while looking at her mockingly.

“Why didn’t you stop me when I was making the mistake that my father did? I always lost someone dear to me whenever you interfere in my life, Mom. So, please, do me a favour and stop interfering in my life.”

This was the harshest jab that I gave to her almost every morning when she brought up this topic.

Her eyes widened in shock, and hurt, but I chose not to pay attention to her. I walked towards the exit. I had an important meeting to attend in the next an hour. I had no intention to stay here and play the same blaming game with her once again.

“Nathan.” She called me in a cracked tone, and I stopped in the middle of the door. My body stiffened, but I didn’t look back at her.

“For how long you will blame me for what happened back then, son? I am your mother. I only want to see you happy. What am I doing wrong by wanting to see you smile again?” she asked me in a cracked tone, filled with heartache and hurt.

“You are my mother, mom. That’s why I never took any action against you for what happened back then. You tried to do something that you despised the most, and I paid the price of my own stupidity. Leave me alone now so that we can live the rest of our lives in harmony.”

“Stop trying to bring Nancy back in my life, Mom. That chapter of my life ended the day she left me.” I added, my voice still stern, devoid of any emotion.

“But you love her, Nathan.” She argued and I stopped once again. “You are wrong, mom. I loved her, and that was in the past. Cynthia is my present and she is the only one for me in my future too.”

I resumed my walk but stopped abruptly when I saw her standing right in front of me at the entrance of the mansion.

My jaw clenched and I thrust my hands in my pant pockets. Her sea green eyes were now filled with hurt and tears, but she brought this upon herself. I moved my gaze from her and resumed my walk at a steady pace.

It seemed that I can’t live my mother under the same roof anymore. “Nathan.” She called me in a soft voice when I was about to cross past her. I stopped, but didn’t look at her.

There was a time when her voice brought peace to my troubled life, but now, her voice was like a sharp pointed knife, stabbing my heart mercilessly.

“Don’t covet for what doesn’t belong to you, Nancy. I forgave you once for stirring trouble between me and Cynthia. But this doesn’t mean that I will always be lenient towards you. Stop when you still have chance to amend,” I said to her in a cold tone, but I made sure that she got my warning loud and clear.

I didn’t stop and strode out of the mansion in long strides this time.

I got in my car waiting in the lobby and closed my eyes while taking a long breath.

“Mr. Silva is in the city, and he will be attending the auction tonight, Mr. Lombart.” My assistant, Chris, who was on the driving seat right now informed me while started driving the car away.

"Inform Freya that she is attending the event with me tonight and prepare the accessories for her." I instructed him in a calm tone while opening my laptop.

I narrowed my eyes on the photo attached to a news link, and my heart skipped a beat. “Find out everything related to this news.” I yelled at Chris, still looking at the photo now stilled on the screen of my laptop.