X

My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is A Reader's Take, where everyday I will be picking out a novel title corresponding to that day's letter and write my post based on it. To make it more challenging, I have decided to write a serial story. The novel I have selected for today is 'X'

Leave Me Never

Chapter 24

(Find the series index here)

Sameer didn't try to run away when Jason confronted him on Ayaan’s behalf. If anything, he was happy to surrender. He had thought he had escaped when he had run away from home and to the city of Jaipur. But he couldn't have been more wrong. He could have cheated Kayra and Ayaan but he couldn't escape from the clutches of Karma. Karma had indeed come back to ruin his life, just like he had ruined Kayra’s.

When he had come to Jaipur after his mother's death, he started working in a small cloth shop. He had wanted to lie low and change cities often but fate had different plans. He had succeeded in his plan for the first two years but then fate had intervened as a charming neighbor in Delhi. He had fallen for her and though he had tried to brush it off as a minor crush, he couldn't. Her innocence and her beauty had drawn him right in and just like the moth drawn by fire he had walked in willingly, surrendering to her charms. It wasn't easy to convince her though; but he had been persistent.

Finally after a year, she had agreed and they had married. Sameer was so smitten that he had almost forgotten about the heinous crime he had committed. But Karma hadn't. When he had thought his life couldn't get any better, everything had come crashing down. History had repeated itself and this time the victim was his wife. Some other Sameer had done what he had done to Kayra years ago. His wife, who wasn't as strong as Kayra hadn't survived the brutality. She had committed suicide. Sameer was furious with the one who was responsible for all this but then he remembered that he too had done the same thing once. To say Sameer was devastated was an understatement.

He was guilty beyond words. He knew it was Karma that was getting back at him like this. His wife had paid the price for his mistake. He wanted to go fall at Kayra’s feet and beg for her forgiveness but he wasn't sure that she would ever forgive him. No matter what he did, that wouldn't be enough. He had spent the past one year grieving the death of his wife and the sin he had committed when Jason found him in Delhi. He had surrendered willingly. He didn't want to live without the love of his life and accepting his fault was the only way he could think of to do a little justice to her.

To be continued...

About today's novel: X is the 24th novel of Kinsey Millhone series by Sue Grafton. It is a series which has the books with titles starting from A to Z, just like our A to Z Challenge. Read more about the featured book here.

PS: Linking this post to A to Z Challenge 2015. If you are participating too, please leave a link to your blog in the comments, so that I can visit you :)

Until the next post,

Keep Smiling :)

Love,

Swathi :)