We walk towards the living room and she turns into my arms and kisses my lips. “Take care of yourself,” she says. I hold her face and kiss her properly. I don’t want her to go. My home, my life, my world, everything is going to be vacant without her.

Leo takes her small bag and holds the door open for her.

Aaliya walks up to Mike and gives him a peck on the cheek. “Thank you for everything.”

An embarrassed blush creeps up his cheeks.

“Keep him safe, please,” she tells him.

“On my life, Ma’am,” Mike replies.

And then, with a last look at me, she steps into the waiting elevator. A tear rolls down her cheek as the doors shut on her.

Damien

THE LATE AFTERNOON sun shines on my face through the huge glass windows of my father’s study in my London mansion. The haunting memories of this place are far too many to count. Growing up, these rooms were my father’s sacred sanctum and always off-limits to me. As a child, I was only called to the study to get a scolding for some transgression that David had imagined I’d done against him or to lecture me on my wild ways as I grew older. My father never raised his hand on me, but words can be cruel and the memory of his harsh words has haunted me till this day. Once I was old enough and no longer dependent on him, I happily ignored most of his summons.

And now, I sit here, in his chair, in his study, as lord of everything. I laugh aloud at the incongruity of it. Fuck! God has a sense of humor, after all!

This is the first time I’m visiting the London mansion since the charity auction ball. It’s been a week since Aaliya left and I’ve nothing to do this weekend. Nothing is the same without her. I was so complete one minute and now there’s this huge gaping hole.

She came like a storm into my life, destroying the gloom, taking away my misery and filling my soul with happiness. Her laughter echoes in my house, her fragrance lingers on my sheets, even her red shawl lies where she left it, draped on a chair in my bedroom.

You are my journey and you are my destination. All my roads will always lead up to you.

Her words continue to resonate inside me. They sound familiar, like I have heard them a million times, like I have spoken them myself. But that doesn’t make any sense to me and no matter how hard I pressurize my brain into remembering, nothing surfaces. My headspace is blank and now my heart is empty too without her.

We speak on the phone or video chat several times a day. Everything is stable at her end and she promises to return soon.