Maybe it was all a dream. Maybe his life was meant to be left incomplete.
As he cuddled the picture of his children, his knees were collapsing. His face had a smile, one that lasted until his funeral.
“Nick… Dan… take over this company. I- I can’t do it anymore.”
His last words were never passed on to the only two remaining Johnsons.
The picture in his arms was broken down the middle. The crack disoriented Zayn’s and Cassandra’s faces through the crack. They weren’t to particular about discarding the photo frame. No one was alive afterall.
Yet, Nick reads the paper left on the desk of his father before his passing. It was as if Framton Johnson knew he was going to die of a heart attack.
They say, Death never knocks on the door. But it does show its signs of arrival.
Nick was forced to marry the woman he had an affair with. To claim the rights over the baby and not to get caught up in a scandal. For the best of everyone, Dan was sent away to Canada and Nick was never allowed to meet him.
How could he even think of it? He was given so much, so much of work to handle. He even forgot that he was someone’s brother and someone’s son.
He also forgot… that he had a family of his own.
His wife, one who never showed him her face and the child whose face he’d never seen.
The child was named Zayn to honor the bravery, the nerve of Zayn of the past to betray his own brothers and run after Cassandra, leaving everything behind himself like she did.
The first anniversary of Framton’s death was never celebrated. It was as if Nick did not want to accept his father’s death.
However, one year later, he gets a news from his security guard.
There was someone from the known list of Nick and Dan, a mutual friend who passed away.
He was flabbergasted, thinking who would exist as friends outside of the Johnsons.
A man and woman, noble looking and old. They sat on the couch while grieving for their daughter.
“Sir…”
“Mr. Johnson…” the mother and father of the daughter stand up. Nick was having a hard time recognising who they were. Until they revealed the name of their late daughter.
“We are the parents of Ravine Renaldi.” They reveal. At once, Nick’s eyes bulge out of his skull.
He remembers it was Alex’s girlfriend that he all forgot about.
“My daughter… she suicided two days back. Yesterday was her funeral. Somehow the letter did not go to you, sir. We grieve for your family and all those who have died. Our daughter loved your brother to hell. Maybe that was why she couldn’t live without him. Everyday was hell for her, she would moan his name at night. Scream and writhe from the pain in her heart…” the mother kept saying.
For the first time after his father passed away, Nick shed a tear of guilt.
How did he forget about Ravine?
He was regretting, he held himself guilty.
If only he would have known what she was going through and gave her support from his side, maybe- just maybe she would have been alive.
In a karmic perspective, suicide is the worst way of dying and is the most punishable offense. Not only your body perishes along with time, suicide also grants immortality for the soul who cannot attain peace ever in their next lifetimes.
Perhaps that was the reason why Ravine was born the way she was in her next lifetime.
Abused, used and beaten by her own parents, everyday. She could have end her life again by suicide, but God granted her strength to not die.
Was that even a boon? It was the worst type of a curse.
Rather than ending her suffering, her sins made her endure all the pain for a whole lifetime.
If not, the following lifetimes as well.
How cruel was the entire system of life. And we all think just the world is cruel. God was a cruel person too, once upon a time.
The baring of so many people around his passing away in the saddest ways possible messed with Nick’s mind. He loathed the world, he loathed living.
He loathed surviving.
Why was he and Dan the only remaining ones amongst this cursed family? Why didn’t they all die? He missed Louis, his brother who was the previous CEO of Johnson group.
He missed his father, the founder of Johnson group.
He missed his lover from his brother who gave his body solace through the pressured times of their brother’s and sister’s passing.
He loved all of them.
He too smiles over the glass of scotch.
Then, his wife enters his room. She’s never seen such a workaholic nor a neat and tidy man in her entire life. His table was so well organised and he knew where his things were kept.
She was feeding her five month old baby boy Zayn Johnson.
She only says one thing, and leaves.
“Let all the poison flow out of your heart, Nick. If you want to feel better about the guilt, do something worse to suppress your guilt that exists.” She says and leaves.
However, it backfires.
He does something worse, by ignoring his own family.
Her world came crashing down when she realized what he was doing. Even she, from her side begins ignoring him. They never got a chance to settle their scores. The only positive thing as an outcome from their marriage was that Zayn never got to witness his parents fight.
Fights exists between people who love each other.
But they never loved each other. Not even a speck of compassion existed between them.
The fascinating thing about Nick and his display wife was they never even hated each other. It was like two strangers living under the same roof.
For thirty-five years straight.