At the cemetery,
Ira cried in front of her father's and brother's graves, "It's all my fault… if I had just supported Ash back then… if I had not been so harsh to him… if we were just closer as siblings should be… if I didn't call dad…" There were many regrets. Fixing one could have stopped the chain. She blamed herself for her dad's death, as well. If she had prevented the call, her dad wouldn't be distracted, crash into the divider and leave her.
"It's all my fault.."
There was severe pain in her heart. Her heartstrings were being pulled as she recalled her brother's words in his suicide note. It broke her.
Her mother hugged her tightly, comfortingly rubbed her daughter's back then said, "It's not your fault. Your brother's life was destined to be not long." Both cried for what they felt like an eternity.
The very day where both of her father and brother died was her worst memory of her life. She never felt so… isolated and helpless. She didn't know what to do.
She lost her dad, her hero and her support. With him behind her, she would even fight a fearless lion, but without him, she feared the world.
Ashay was like a part of herself that she lost. He was younger than her by seven years, almost like a baby. He was always so mischievous, but he only listened to his big sister.
She remembered the time when the kid would jump to hug her. There were also times, and he only ate from her hands, he even ate whatever she fed him, even the spicy and sour ones. She followed him with a video cam everywhere. She made him wear her frocks and makeups.
He came to her whenever he needed money. Even when their dad limited his pocket money, he pleaded to her.
She was a mother, a teacher, and a friend to him.
Where did that bond go?
How can a sister not know that her brother was depressed?
She sat alone, looking at the two headstones that sat side by side, having familiar names engraved on them.
The rain still hadn't let out that time. Ira was soaked, and her clothes were thin. She was cold, but this coldness gave her solace and comfort.
She walked to the direction of her home, but once she was at the door, she couldn't bear to enter. No one was there in the big house, empty and cold. Until it was in the middle of the night, she sat on the ground with little strength, not having eaten anything in days.
She cried on the stoop of her house. Her cries were so painful that she couldn't breathe, tears flowing down.
On the next day, her company and her house all were auctioned. This result was inevitable. They already lost everything. Ira finally gave up. All the money and the house was gone. They now rented a small apartment in the suburbs of the city.
James Louis reached out to help them. Having been betrayed once, Ira would be a fool if she believed him again. She guessed that he would gain something in return by helping them, but what she found out was so repulsive that she could have never imagined. James was not just a cold, manipulative, and calculative bastard, he was rotten to the bones. A disgusting man.
Ira thought that at least Clara loved Ashay. But just after a month of her brother's death, she remarried. A woman who was hysterically crying, mourning so sorrowfully for her deceased husband, was now happily married.
The shock was too hard to digest.