Chapter 46: LOVE REKINDLED

Call it destiny or just plain coincidence. Their fates were perching above them, smiling and murmuring amongst themselves: "Let"s see how it goes this time ... "
Audrey and Dmitri's eyes met and instantly locked in a similar way as the day they met for the first time five years earlier.
"I want to talk to you in private. Can you please walk down to the reception lobby with me ?" Audrey asked gently as she walked up to Dmitri's table where he was sitting.
"Yeah ! Sure !" a shocked Dmitri replied as he got up from his chair and started to move out of the cafeteria with Audrey.
"How are you, Audrey ?" asked Dmitri as he resisted the intense urge to just hold her in his arms and never let her go.
"Sorry to say but I'm good ! You're asking this question to get a feeling of accomplishment, which of course you'll not get, of how you had broken up with me and I'm still surviving after that blow," Audrey replied.
"No Audrey, I just wanted to know how have you been all these past years, nothing else" Dmitri sincerely clarified.
"I'm quite stable now physically and mentally, from where you left me. I've grappled with the very real pain of rejection on top of mourning a lost love and a baby," Audrey confessed.
"Glad to know that you have moved on in life," Dmitri replied.
"Stop these sugar coated talks. I've not called you in this reception lobby on a date ! I want the answers to the questions which have destroyed my peace of mind over the years. Why did you cheat on me ? I felt hurt and would like to talk about it," Audrey questioned as they sat on the chair in the lobby area.
"Audrey, let's talk about the present moment. We both have moved on in our life, so there's no use discussing the past events," Dmitri said as he wished in his heart for time would stop and he wanted to live in that moment for eternity.
"Why should we not discuss the past when it still overshadows my present to this date ? You treated me like a doormat and just walked over me. I need all the answers from you and I'll not let you go like before when you left me in my unconscious state," a teary eyed Audrey urged in that tense moment who felt like a fool for becoming a supporting character in his story.
"How did you give yourself permission to betray my trust and give a damn to my love for you. Where did I fail you ? I've spent sleepless nights in search of these answers," Audrey said so as to gain deeper insight into his morals and values.
"Try to understand that we had a relationship but at present we don't. So I want you to just continue with your journey in life and career. It's better to leave the past in the past !" Dmitri replied who himself was wrestling with the memories of every moment of the beautiful past that they shared.
"I've invested a lot in our relationship, but it doesn't mean you can start treating me like crap. Why did you leave me alone on the hospital bed ?" Audrey asked.
"Because I was transferred to this new hospital and I had to leave urgently to save my job," Dmitri replied.
"Did you not think about me at all before leaving, that too without informing me, when I was delivering our baby ?" Audrey asked who felt hurt in a million ways by Dmitri's insensitivity at that moment.
"I just told you that I had to leave urgently after your surgery and I thought you would understand that we couldn't be together and I had my career aspirations," Dmitri answered, his heart crumbling with every word and mind screaming to stop the torture.
"Indeed ! I understand you quite well now. It"s your biological nature to be with as many females as possible. Once you have seen me naked several times, it becomes a commonplace," Audrey said in disgust. "It didn"t matter if I had loved you. You just became accustomed to my body and wanted to experience something different – different lips, different body types. Only those men are monogamous who realize that love and friendship are more important than getting laid and of course you're not one of them," Audrey added to infuriate Dmitri in order to force him to expel the truth.
Audrey remembered her discussion on Dmitri with Rachel where they reached to the conclusion that cheating in her case wasn't in a black-and-white way and instead think of it as points on a spectrum, with leaving her on one end and a full-blown, top-secret baby affair on the other.
Although it felt like a punch in the gut, still she tried to understand exactly why and how the cheating had happened.
From there she could decide if it seemed like it was a good person making a bad choice or a lost person likely to make a string of bad choices.
"I need to go. Someone is waiting for me ! I'm not free right now and have answered enough of your questions. I don't have time to take any more questions, the answers to which will lead to nowhere," Dmitri said as he stood for going away with a heavy heart, full of remorse at the thought of separation.
"Oh I know, who is waiting for you. I'm also keen on meeting her," Audrey said as she opened her purse to retrieve the newspaper having her photo with Melody.
"I've seen you happily enjoying life with Hazel and our daughter at the birthday party," Audrey said as she confronted him with the evidence of what she had saw with her own eyes.
"What you saw was an illusion of your own eyes. There is no truth in that. I don't need to explain anything to you if you're caught in your own web of lies that your mind is creating," Dmitri brushed her off.
"Often, non committed men who cheat can"t quite explain their motivation. They just find themselves compelled to bust out of their day-to-day routine in search of something new. It"s a primitive instinct that dates back to their role as a hunter-gatherer – only this time, they"re hunting and gathering new women. And I was a fool to be one of them," Audrey argued.
"Audrey, you don't trust our love anymore," Dmitri blurted out the truth of his love and realized the same after the arrow was shot.
"Dmitri, I want to know the truth. Moving forward for me also means taking a hard look at our relationship and, instead of blaming you, I want to know why you did what you did to me," Audrey compelled him to be truthful.
"When was this photo clicked," Dmitri was taken aback after seeing the photo as all his friend circle had been so busy like him since the day of the fundraising event that no one had got a chance to discuss this pic with him.
"This was clicked on the day of the fundraising event. Now, you can't hide my daughter from me. Just read the caption of the pic, even the universe is screaming to let me know the truth which you can not deny," Audrey said as Dmitri read the article.
The discovery of this secret rocked even the most stable mind of Dmitri. Revelation brought out his raw and intense emotions. But once the initial shock had worn off, he knew it was time for some serious talk.
"Let us go to my home and talk as this isn't the right place for discussing such personal matters," Dmitri explained, although he still couldn't decipher how this serendipity could happen, as they lived in different towns and she returned for an event to the same town out of the whole wide world to meet him and her daughter !
"I understand that no one will prefer to discuss their personal matters in their workplace," Audrey replied, being sensitive enough to create unwanted drama.
"That is why I'm telling you to come with me," Dmitri reinforced.
"I don't mind coming with you but I hope your wife will not have any issues with you spending time with your ex," Audrey taunted.
"You worry about your partner ! I'm not married or dating anyone !! I'm very much single because I choose to be," Dmitri replied before he let a flood of memories wash over him. He did not even know the marital or dating status of his love, Audrey, who was a successful model now.
The breakup and what followed dogged them both in different ways, but led to the lives they each had now. They knew nothing about each other"s present status in life, so there were too many apprehensions.
Audrey called Rachel to inform her about going with Dmitri. Eventually, the call wrapped up and they started going, neither one of them knowing exactly what would happen from there.
"You didn't answer my question about your partner," Dmitri asked as they sat in his car.
"I have no partner. To me there's no expiration date to love ! I've loved only once and my love is for real !!" Audrey replied.
To Dmitri their life was like a page-turning novel where they were longing for a happy ending. But there seemed to be no happy ending- just two souls with a shared love that the years had not dampened.
"Where is our daughter ?" Audrey asked.
"She's in the daycare right now," Dmitri replied.
"Can we take her along ?" Audrey asked, who longed to take her daughter in her arms. "What is her name ?" she further asked, hoping against hope that Dmitri still loved and remembered their dreams. "Is it Melody ?"
"Yes, her name is Melody," Dmitri replied as he felt the same urge to hold Audrey's hands while driving as he used to three years back.
"Audrey, let's go home and talk this issue out as there are so many things I feel like you should know now. It's high time, I tell you the truth and you can decide for yourself how you plan to move ahead," Dmitri revealed. "We can bring Melody later, once we're done with these serious discussions," he assured.
"Sounds right !" Audrey said as they reached home.
"Would you like to have something to drink or eat, Audrey," Dmitri asked.
Seeing Audrey in his house seemed like a beautiful dream. But, the dream of getting back together didn't match the reality as there was so much emotional upheaval that their lost love encompassed.
"No thanks ! I would only like to know the truth of the whole matter for which I"ve waited all these years," Audrey replied as she sat on the sofa. "Just tell me where did it go wrong ? Why did you punish me by taking my baby away from me ?" she demanded.
"Audrey, the truth is, it went wrong before it even began," Dmitri replied.
"Dmitri talk straight ! I want to know everything," Audrey said.
"Fine ! Stay strong to listen to this drama of our life which unfolded in the most obscure way without your knowledge. Everything can catch up and hit you at once, so be prepared," Dmitri said.
Audrey nodded and silently urged him to continue.
"It all began when you were admitted in the hospital during your second trimester of pregnancy," Dmitri said.
"Yes, I remember quite clearly. It was because of some kind of food poisoning," Audrey said as she recalled the incident.
"No, you're mistaken here. It wasn't any food poisoning. Rather, it was a case of administering light medication to cause a miscarriage," Dmitri revealed.
"How did you know ? Who could have done that to me ? I had no enemies," a shocked Audrey replied.
"Don't forget, I'm a doctor and I only treated you for that issue. The test reports which I received of your blood sample confirmed my doubts. Before I could get it investigated, your dad walked in my hospital cabin and threatened me," Dmitri confessed.
"My dad ? Threatened ? What ? And why ?" Audrey screamed.
"Your dad admitted to administering you with that medicine and threatened that if I don't leave you then he will kill our baby and will also not shy away from killing you, if I don't promise him," Dmitri said with a heavy heart as he remembered that fateful day.
"Promise what," Audrey asked who was by now extremely disturbed about her parents' deeds.
"He forced me to promise him that I'll take the baby away as soon as you gave birth. He asked me to never return or stay near you, otherwise he was capable of sending our baby to the orphanage like me or kill the baby and frame me in the crime, sending me to jail or worse, even kill you as an honour killing," Dmitri revealed. "In these circumstances, I felt it was better to save your life and our baby's. So, I relocated to the faraway place possible and brought up our daughter singlehandedly, balancing my career in the best possible way that I could," he explained, his anguish reflecting in his breaking voice.
The roller coaster of emotions that Audrey went through after hearing the truth was overwhelming. The high feeling of betrayal from her parents swept her off her feet.
"I never knew my parents would stoop that low !" Audrey gritted out.
"I don"t think either of us had good tools of experience and expertise in that issue against your powerful dad, or knew exactly what to do at that time. But I bet your parents knew how to keep us away and they succeeded also for these three years," Dmitri said.
"I'm just tired of everything, even of the echoes from the past. There isn't anything in my life but echoes- echoes of lost hopes, dreams and joys. They are mocking at my heart which believed everything that my parents said," Audrey revealed her distressing feelings.
"I don"t believe this is only your issue. It"s our issue together as we both have suffered but separately. So we'll figure this out," Dmitri promised.