Sumanika ~ The Prince's Widowed Bride

28 ~ The Rebirth of Hope

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Suman POV

With my flushed cheeks, I looked back at the mirror to look at myself once more before heading back to the door. But my gaze deepened at the slight red bruise on my neck. My fingers felt it, rubbing over my skin in anticipation, making me inhale sharply with confusion.

This was not earlier.

Did something react?

I lowered my gaze to check my hands, legs, back, and shoulders, and there was no single bruise except this, making a memory immediately cloud my brain.

His lips were on my neck.

The intensity of his breath, the grip of his hands and the warm moisture between my legs, everything was too quick yet too slow. It felt as if we spent only a few moments together, but the visuals of my memory had captured every bit of the moment in thousands of images.

His swollen lips, lusty green eyes, the touch of his fingers on my core, everything was too much to handle.

"Suman!"

Daadisa's voice brought me out of my thoughts, and I gulped nervously, heading towards the door. I covered my head with the Dupatta, trying to hide the bright red mark with the hem of it.

Inhaling deeply to collect courage, I put my palms on the handle and opened the door.

Daadisa's eyes shifted from frustration to shock, followed by awe quickly.

Her eyes teared up, and he cupped my cheeks and kissed my forehead.

"You are looking breathtaking. Leave this soldier, let me find you a Prince,"

A wave of laughter ran through the attendees watching us, and my heart tightened with her words. The laugh was way out of sight. But I planted a smile on my face.

"Come with me,"

She said and took me out before asking me to sit on the couch.

I watched her bring the minimal jewellery for me. There was a beautiful smile on her lips. She sat beside me on the couch and forwarded her hand closer to hold my hand. Beginning with the bangles, she said.

"I know it did not work last time as you thought, but nothing is more beautiful than having hopes,"

I gulped silently and bit on my lips.

I knew hopes were good but could bring us immense pain, even more than the reality.

"Hopes are beautiful, Daadisa, but when they shatter, the world seems too large to escape. It feels like you are caged in a box and suffocated. It becomes too hard to trust again,"

I tried to say slowly, and she lifted her gaze to look at me.

"I know how it feels when hope dies. I was married to him, and my whole life, I spent time managing the Kingdom and politics, and he was busy with the same, too, until his last breath and when everything started settling down. The children got married, the grandchildren blessed our lives, and I thought that now we would spend our old age in peace; he left me alone,"

I lowered my gaze, hearing her. Her fingers were trembling due to weakness in her old age. But, the hope shined bright in her eyes.

"And, when I was recovering back from his loss and started to make my peace with life again, Raj left us,"

She said. Her eyes teared up this time, and I felt a lump forming in my throat. I held her hands gently, caressing slowly.

"But, sometimes, we are too occupied seeing the wildfire that we do not realise it will help new seeds to grow, new lives to begin, and new greenery to flourish our lives,"