His Triantafyllo

CHAPTER 73

" I burned so long so quiet you must have wondered if I loved you back. I did, I did, I do."

- Annelyse Gelman, from "The Pillowcase" in Everyone I Love is a Stranger to Someone
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THIRD PERSON'S POV
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"Leo found me there."

This was again a surprise to Xander. Her story was pitiful and it was nice that Leo found her again. He admit he felt bad on hearing her story but it didn't do much to melt his cold heart. He was here for his Triantáfyllo and he's only concerned about her.

Maybe people will call him a heartless bastard and he's alright with that. But the only person who matters to him is his wife so he was patiently listening to her trying to find when will she finally tell him the cure to the poison currently infiltrating his wife's body.

"What happened after that?" He asked.

"The day after we reached here, Aakash had already given me poison. He convinced my parents that we are going on a vacation but only I knew the truth. He asked me to take a walk around the city not knowing that I had already spent my two precious years here. That day I ran into Leo. He was changed. He was much different than how I knew him. My Leo had changed so much. His eyes held coldness, his face was hard. It was almost like some other person was in front of me. And quite surprisingly we met at the same place where we first me, the university gate. I went there to relive some precious memories and found him there. On seeing him, I immediately turned around but he being amazing he, had already looked towards me and grabbed my hand to stop me from leaving. I had initially wanted to leave on seeing him because I knew I was going to die soon. I had already hurt him a lot so I didn't want to hurt him even more. But seeing his hopefully eyes, I couldn't say no. I decided to spend my last day on this earth with him, with my love. Maybe it was destiny's way to have a little mercy on me. Because I never almost watched news, I didn't know that his father died only a year after I left him. I felt so bad, my heart clenched into pain on hearing his broken voice and I cursed myself for not being able to do anything for him. I knew Leo had no one else for him other than his dad and now he lost him too. It must have been heartbreaking for him, he must have felt so lonely and I couldn't even imagine in how much despair he must have been at that time. I hated myself so much at that moment. If only......if only I hadn't listened to my parents, if only I had tried to convince them, if only I wasn't so afraid of disappointing them....maybe Leo and I could have been together. Maybe our lives wouldn't have turned out to be such a disaster."

"Seeing his teary eyes, I wanted to hug him, to console him, to tell him not to worry and assure him that I'm there with him. But how could I have given him false hope knowing I was going to die that night. I knew about the poison they have given me. I heard it's name from Aakash's mouth when I found out about him trying to kill me. So I did what many would, I searched about that poison only to curse my life more as I got to know there was no antidote for thallium infected persons. Such a luck I have." A bitter smile came past ger lips.

She wiped away her tears and clenched her teeth to stop herself from crying more.
"I thought I would die but my Leo saved me. From all I can remember, I think I had fainted that night, had vomitted a lot of blood and Leo had rushed me to hospital immediately. The doctors tried to find out the reason and when they were unable to do that, Doctor Mike was called."

"I heard he was among one of the best doctors in the country. And I thank God that he came quickly or I don't know what could have had happened. He was the one who traced the poison in my body and immediately started its treatment. At that time, though the poisoner's poison was banned but it wasn't rare to see people infected by it. It was still easily available around that time and the mafia that dominated the city during that time used thallium quite frequently. So it wasn't a surprise to the hospital that I was infected by it."