Chapter 6 : Payback time

4 years ago

MsChanadlerBong

@MsChanadlerBong

It had been three months since Aron had been kidnapped and  yet I couldn't take the event out of my mind. Every day I woke with a fear that someone would take my son away and I wouldn't be able to find him. 

God and I haven't been in good terms since a long time. But, the recent events made me thankful towards him. Not that I had forgiven him. I can never forgive him for what he took away from me years ago. Small miracles wouldn't help pay the price.

Aron started going to school a week after the incident. It didn't take him long to forget about it and move on with his routine. I wish I could say the same for myself. I called his teacher every day to check in on Aron. She probably thought I was paranoid however, having your son kidnapped and almost losing him forever kept your senses alert. And I was always on alarm. As if any moment someone would come and take my son away. Viren visited Aron more frequently than before. It wouldn't be lie if I said that the incident shook him too. Recently the visits had been limited and instead phone calls replaced them. He gave excuses about being busy at work. As long as he kept a tab on Aron's well being, his business was not my matter of interest. All I cared about was my son. I smiled as Aron chose that particular moment to turn around and look at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint, one that I recognised really well.

"Aron, baby what did you do?" I asked him and he just giggled in reply. It didn't take a genius to guess that he had done something naughty. 

"Momma, I made the wall colorful!" He exclaimed happily as if he had done a great work. I face panned before heading towards him to look at my picasso's art. Walking nearer to the wall, I saw a small portion of the white wall filled with scribbles of coloured lines and patterns. There were faces and pictures that included houses and cars. 

"Aron! What did you do?" I gave him a stern look, trying hard not to laugh. His smile disappeared and he looked at me with worry in his eyes. "Your granny will give you some." I continued.  I had come to my mother's cafe to help her after work with Aron. Since her cashier was out on holiday I thought she could use some help but I turned out to be more of an hindrance than a help. I took my eyes off Aron for one moment and he managed to make paintings on the wall.

"What to do momma?" Aron asked innocently. He looked scared of my mother. The truth was that she would never scold him for anything. But I couldn't let him know that. Parents should always have a fallback to scare their kids and keep them disciplined. Some people used monsters, some people used God, some used Santa Claus. I just used my mother. Even thou they both loved each other and cared about each other a lot, Aron was scared of her. Thank you, me.  I shook my head and looked around. There weren't much people in the cafe, just a couple busy with each other in the corner and a young guy engrossed on his phone. I could use some time off and help the little guy clean up his mess.

"Come on baby, let's clean this up." I volunteered in and he jumped happily. We both used a cloth to erase the markings from the wall. Just as we finished we saw a parade going on outside from the cafe's window.

The king had announced his heir, the crown prince of Malikrazi. Even though it was a known fact that the eldest son of the king was his only successor, people still acted surprised at the announcement as though they had expected their name to be chosen. Celebrations had been going on since then and there were parades to honour the crown Prince Adwait. People had their face painted, t shirts printed with the Prince Adwait and his wife's pictures and what not. Firecrackers could be heard every now and then. Me and Aron had joined one of such parade too. While Aron had enjoyed it a lot I was worried about losing him in the crowd all the time. It was fun for the first week but now it had become a nuisance. It was a big news but it was high time people got over it. 

Thinking about royal family also made me think about him. The person who I was thankful to the most. The one who haunted my dreams many times. Sometimes he became a sweet person, helping me around, like my fairy godmother and other times he was this angry person who kept demanding that I owed him. Neitherless I didn't understand his guest appearances in my dreams. As I stared at the huge poster of the crown prince, I realised that he looked nothing like his brother. I sighed trying to distract myself from the thoughts of the runaway prince. 

As if on signal, my phone chose to ring in that exact moment. It was an unknown number and I hesitated for a bit before picking up. From the other side a silky smooth female voice answered, "Hello ma'am I am calling from the Rika Cooperations! I wanted to talk to you about the loan you have taken from us."

I gave a moment to process the information. I did have  loans, a lot of them and from various banks but never did I take loan from any company. Even thou the name sounded familiar, it didn't ring any bell. "I'm sorry I don't think I have taken any loans from your company. You probably contacted the wrong person."

"Oh but you did take a loan." A voice replied and it didn't belong to the female from earlier. I could recognize the voice anywhere. A chill went down my spine as I realised who was calling and what the loan meant. 

"Its time to pay your loan back, love." The voice continued and I could hear his smirk along with his arrogance. Before I could reply, the phone went dead and all I could hear was his voice calling out in mind. Its payback time. How will I pay him back? What would I need to do? Such questions haunted every inch of my existence.