The pages of the diary were soaked in pain. It had been 8 years without her and there hadn’t been a moment when he did not think of her. Of her death. Waking up every day and questioning fate. Why? How? Questions haunted him.
“Dad” whispered Maya with a slight knock on the door. Krish wiped his tears hastily and turned to open the door with a smile.
“Yes, love. I thought you were already sleeping” he said with a yawn, pretending to look sleepy.
“I was. But those dreams, they haunt me”
“Come here, sleep with me tonight. Even I was having a rough night”
“Mom? you were thinking of her?” asked Maya, raising her eyebrow in an arc just like her mother. Krish nodded lightly with a soft smile.
“You know dad, I often think of her but I just can’t remember. I wish I could experience her love just as you did.” she said, creeping into the bed. Krish ducked her under the blankets and gently kissed her on her forehead.
“Maya, she never left us. She is here. With us. Smiling and whispering I love you” he said, placing his warm hands on Maya’s eyes.
“Just close your eyes and feel her.”.
After a few moments, Maya whispered with a sob “Why do you cry then, daddy?”
Krish took a deep breath and replied in a low stuttering voice “Because I miss her.”
“But Maya, I have you. She left me this little princess to fill in her void. And now that I have you, I feel her”
“Goodnight father” replied Maya with a smile.
Krish gently tapped the little girl’s forehead, transferring her into a world of dreams. A world that exists not in real. A world of infinity. No limits to seize her and no chains to hold her. A world that haunts her but also caresses her. A world that existed in Tara’s diary. She wrote about each one of them. These dreams haunted her when she was pregnant. Krish had always resisted himself from touching her diaries after her death. He did not wanted to feel her so deeply again, now that she wasn’t there with him. But the mysterious letter had drained his mind. He could not let Maya know about the letter and the only place his restless heart could reside in was the diaries.
His mind paralyzed as he read them. All her feelings. Her dreams. Maya wasn’t ordinary. He had to believe the mysterious letter. Her fate was calling to her. Though he knew that this little girl of his would die being a legend, he would do everything to protect her. To protect her from suffering, and pain. To protect her from death. He would fight fate.
“I’ll protect you” he promised under his heavy breath and embraced sleep, tightly clutching the ancient locket that he found with the letter.