Love Happens With A Twist

1

Mumbai

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All her life, she wished for the love and presence of a mother. Her father remarried, but instead of marrying her mother's sister, he married a completely different person. They now reside in Delhi, except for her, because she has promised that unless her father calls her by himself to ask her to come live with him, she won't go. Days, months, and years passed, but her stepmother, who had totally brainwashed him to turn against her, ensured her father never called her.

She lives comfortably in Mumbai, along with her mother's sister, Lakshmi, at their home, where all of them once lived as a huge family that consisted of her grandfather, grandmother, and father, and where her mother lived all her life. Over the years, her passion of detesting her stepmother, who turned her father against her, increased. And every day, she wishes she would get the call that either she had died or she had separated from her father. A lot of times, she wonders what kind of spell she cast upon him because her father once saw the world in her, but now he doesn't even call to check up on her.

It was a Wednesday around 5:00 in the evening. The sun had cooled down, and she was in her office when a nurse dashed in very hastily and informed her about the emergency patient.

"Poonam ma'am," she kept the file of the patient, leaving it open while her eyes moved majestically to what it contained.

"Oh! She is at the end of a chronic liver disease."

"Yes! She has been puking blood since her arrival. They're currently preparing her for the surgery, and"

"Be quiet. Let me understand what medicines she was put through that got her to this stage." She started studying the file carefully because noise causes her distraction, and by the end, she spoke.

"We have to do a liver transplant. Prepare for that while I go to examine her for the surgery."

"Sure! I will immediately." She ventured out. After she left, she continued to go through the file, seeing the list of medications she was put under in the past, the appointments she had, the doctor's remarks, and her eyes then saw the name, "Shraddha," a name she hates with all her heart that made her remember her evil stepmother that ruined the beautiful relationship between her and her father.

"Let's just be professional, yaar!" She tried to convince herself, but her emotions always got the better of her. Her eyes again highlighted the address of the hospital the woman was from, which is Ladnun, and because of that, Ladnun being the village her stepmother was from, she threw the file on the floor and grabbed her keys from her glossy table with the intent of leaving the hospital.

Her anger towards her stepmother is something that will never vanish. She hates her. She hates her so much that comparing it with numbers makes it uncountable. For that reason, she told herself she wouldn't perform the surgery and also wished one day that her stepmother would be put in a position where her life would depend on her. Without hesitation, she would do the same and end her rather than save her, even if that would revoke her licence.

The nurse who was in her office moments ago showed up, still looking very worried, and informed her, "I've arranged everything. The patient has been taken to the theatre, and the other doctors are waiting for you."

"She is not the same Shraddha from Ladnun. This is a different person." She exhaled a long breath, saying it out loud in front of the nurse, who was already aware of her relationship with her stepmother.

"Poonam, even if she is the same Shraddha from Ladnun, at the moment, she is not your mother but your patient. And she should be your first priority. Learn to distinguish between personal feud and professional ethics."