The Night

This story was written by me for a story writing competition in my office.

Nah. i didnt win anything. Here Goes.

That night has been etched in my memory forever, after all it was the night which changed my life forever...

It was the night when the plan that I had made for months was executed. Today he was lying dead in his house, soaked in perspiration from the tussle.
I had finally killed him. He had to pay for his sins.
With these thoughts I went back to almost a year ago when I had discovered that I was going to be a mother. It was the happiest day of my life. He was very elated when I broke the news to him. He had already started thinking of names for his son. He had always wanted a son. Mom kept a pooja on the auspicious day of Basant Panchmi, the day after my second ultrasound was due. I was very excited on the day. I was looking forward to be able to hear the heartbeats for the first time. But Dr Khurana's face was telling a different story.
We were told that the baby was deformed, my baby was deformed. And for the betterment of the baby we had to terminate the pregnancy.
I was shattered but his support was what took me through it.

Then one day suddenly I picked up the phone and heard talk on the other line with his good friend Anil. Incidentally his wife was expecting and he was giving anil some advice about getting a son. That's when it all made sense to me. It made sense that Dr Khurana was a cheat. That my baby wasn’t deformed. She was an angel whose only fault was being fathered by a man who could not think beyond a son. Who arranged for her to be killed by a lie in case the ultrasound told that we were going to have a daughter.

I hung up the phone and decided that he will pay for my daughter’s blood, for our family's pain, for the heartbreak I went through when I realized I was married to a monster.

That night I made all of his favorite foods in dinner. After all it would be his 'Last Supper'. I mixed a sedative in his food. He ate a stomachful. Enough to paralyze his body but not enough to affect his brain. Then I told him that I knew, I knew it all. I knew the real face behind the loving husband and caring father. I saw the expression change on his face. I knew the time had come. To let him breathe his last few breaths. And I did what I had to do.

As I sit in the police lockup I remember how calm I was when I took an auto and went to the police station to confess.

I remember each and every moment of that fateful night.
And I Remember Deepika - The daughter I never had.