R A Y A A N

The moment Arvi’s footsteps vanished from the lobby, something inside me cracked. Not a small, clean break but a violent, splitting rupture, as if years of buried rage had clawed their way to the surface.

I stood frozen, fists clenched, her words still echoing in the hollow cave of my chest. "Stay the fuck out of my way."

The glass table in front of me shattered before I even registered my hands moving. My fist sliced through it like it had been begging for destruction. Shards skittered across the marble floor, some embedding in my skin. I didn’t care.

“Advik!” I barked, my voice shaking the suite walls.

He rushed in, startled. “Sir?”

“The damn keys! Now.”

Without a word, he handed them over. I snatched them from his hand and stormed out, fury thundering in every step. My jaw clenched, teeth grinding like gears misfiring. That girl. That woman. She still had the power to rip the ground out from under me.

I saw her.

There she was.

Walking like a ghost through the shadows outside the estate, sobbing so hard her shoulders shook with every breath. Alone. Vulnerable. And still so damn stubborn.

I slammed the brakes. The car screeched to a halt beside her. The door flung open.

“Get in, Arvi.” My voice was rough, almost unrecognizable.

She stumbled back like I was a monster.

“No!” she screamed, eyes wide. “Don’t come near me! Leave me alone, Rayaan! I don’t want to see your face!”

“Arvi, stop it. Just get in the damn car.”

“I SAID NO!”

She turned away, and that was it. I got out, rounded the car, grabbed her wrist gently, but firmly.

“Let go of me!” she shrieked, hitting my chest with her free hand.

I didn’t flinch.

“ENOUGH. You’re coming with me.”

I pulled her toward the passenger seat. She fought me with everything she had, crying, screaming, trying to wriggle out of my grasp. But I wasn’t letting go this time. Not again.

She was still sobbing when I slammed the door shut, got into the driver’s side, and turned the engine back on.

She pressed against the door, face wet and broken. “Please... please don’t take me anywhere. Just let me go. I don’t want to go.”

I picked up my phone, dialed Advik.

“Book three tickets to Mumbai. Tomorrow morning. First flight.

Arvi’s breath caught. “No... NO! I’m not going anywhere with you!”

She clawed at the door, like the very air inside the car was suffocating her. Her cries tore through me, ripped open every part of me that had tried to move on.

But I didn’t respond. I just drove.

She went quiet as the car turned a corner. Then I pulled up in front of a small, two story building. Her breathing slowed, then stilled. She stared at the entrance, stunned.

She turned to me, lips trembling. “How... how do you know this place?”

I got out, walked to her side, opened the door.

“Come inside,” I said quietly.

She stepped out, shaken. Her voice was barely a whisper. “Rayaan, how the hell do you know where I live?”

We stood outside her apartment door. I turned to her, looking her straight in the eyes.

“Because I never left you, Arvi.”

She blinked.

I hold her hand and she let me, We entered inside.

I took a breath. “lets start from the start.”

It was me. It was always me. The man who sent Rahul to help you when no one else would? That was me. The anonymous account that paid your rent for the first three months in Shimla when you were too broken to work, That was me who arranged best doctors to treat you in your 9 months yes, That was me who said SAVE ARVI, I watched every damn thing, I held my daughter in my arms before you, I heard her cry before you, I saw her before you, I sent sofi to you to take care of you, Sofi is private investigator, I increased your Damm salary in that company THAT WAS ME, who send gifts to my daughter on her birthday's through Sofi, Every thing that was happening with you was not the miracle or with the help of Rahul & Sofi IT WAS ME.”

She staggered back like the words had slapped her.

“I kept my distance because I was angry. Furious. But never not once did I abandon you. I couldn't. Even when I hated you, I couldn’t unlove you.”

Her knees buckled a little, and she leaned against the wall.

“I watched you walk out of that house five years ago with blood on your hands and grief in your eyes. I wanted to stop you. God, I wanted to hold you. But I couldn’t breathe. I was drowning, Arvi. And my mother… she blamed you so loud, I started hearing her voice in my own head.”

Her lips parted in disbelief. “Why...Why did you do all this ?”

“I just needed to know you’d survive. That you wouldn’t... give up.”

Tears streamed down her face, silent, steady.

I stepped closer. “Every day I told myself, if you’re alive and breathing, that’s enough. But it wasn’t. Because every time I tried to sleep, I saw your face. Every time I looked at Vanisha’s photograph, I heard your screams.”

Arvi’s voice cracked. “Then why didn't you stopped me?”

“I was angry, hurt.” I said, and I meant it. “I swear to you, Arvi. I never stop thinking about you, I told everyone I hate you but deep down I was dying to be with you.”

Her jaw trembled.

She stared at me, eyes wide with disbelief.

“You think I’m here to take something from you? Arvi, I’ve been bleeding for five years because I gave you up once. I am not losing you again. Not like this.”

She turned away, crying, but I reached for her hand.

“You told me I let them break you. You were right. I did. But I wanted that, I wanted you to stay away from them, That condition was not right they told you are responsible, they were hurt and I dont want them to hurt you more.”

And then I added, “I know you were hurt broken too, thats why I didn't stop you, I want you to be away from them from me.”

“They try to find you, but I didn't let them to reach you.”

“I stayed away from Oberoi Mansion . Kyun ki waha tum nahi thi.”

The silence between us now wasn’t the angry kind.

It was the kind that held history. Pain. Love. A thousand words neither of us had dared to speak in five years.

And for the first time, she didn’t push my hand away.

She held it.

Tightly.

Like maybe, just maybe she still remembered how we once fit.

Her hand in mine felt like a piece of the past slipping back into place. Not perfectly. Not painlessly. But real.

I looked at her not just her face, but all of her. The way her shoulders still held the weight of years gone by. The way her eyes, even filled with tears, searched mine like they were desperate for truth.

And she deserved it. Every inch of it.

“I came to Shimla on purpose,” I said, my voice low, thick. “It wasn’t a coincidence. It wasn’t fate or chance or whatever people romanticize in stories.”

She frowned, eyes narrowing. “What do you mean?”

I stepped closer, the truth finally clawing its way out. “It was all planned, Arvi. I knew exactly where you were. I’ve always known. I made sure you ended up here. I wanted you to come to me... eventually. On your terms. But not too far. Not too lost.”

Her breath caught. “You… what?”

“I needed to see you survive without needing me. I needed to know that you could still stand on your own. But not without me watching from afar. I was always right there, just beyond reach.”

Her hand trembled in mine.

“I chose Shimla because I knew you’d choose it. Quiet, cold, tucked far enough from the world to breathe but not disappear. I had people here before you arrived. I bought this building six months before you moved in.”

“what?” she gasped.

“I had Rahul offer you the job. I had Sofi pose as your landlady at first. She reported back to me every week. Then stopped because I couldn’t bear to hear your pain second hand anymore. I needed you to find your feet, Arvi. But I couldn’t bear to be completely gone either.”

She was speechless.

I ran a hand through my hair. “I watched from a distance for five years. Five fucking years, Arvi. Watching you grow. Watching you heal. Hoping. Praying. Waiting for the day you’d look back.”

“Why?” she whispered.

“Because I couldn’t live with losing you twice.”

Tears welled in her eyes again, but she didn’t look away.

I stepped even closer, barely a breath between us now.

“You think this is about guilt, or control, or ego? No. I planned it all because I couldn’t bear the idea of a world where we never crossed paths again. I waited... because I had to believe you’d still have a place for me in your story.”

Her voice was raw, trembling. “And if I didn’t?”

“Then I would’ve still stayed in Shimla,” I said softly. “In silence. In shadows. But at least I’d be near you.”

She looked at me for a long, long time.

And this time, when she spoke, her voice didn’t shake.

“Then start over.”

I nodded.

This time, I wasn’t letting go.

And before I could respond, she stepped into me and wrapped her arms around my chest, burying her face against me like she was trying to melt into my bones.

I froze for half a second.

Then I held her.

Tight.

Like I’d been waiting my whole life just to feel her heartbeat against mine again.

My arms locked around her, like I could shield her from every storm that had ever touched her. Her body trembled in my hold, tears soaking through my shirt, and it shattered me this strong, fiery woman in my arms again, breaking so softly.

I dipped my face into her hair and whispered the only thing that had stayed unspoken for too damn long.

“I love you, Arvi.”

She sobbed.

Like her soul had been holding that sound in for five years.

Her fists curled into my back, gripping my shirt like she didn’t trust the world not to pull us apart again.

Then, like a spark lit in the middle of grief, she lifted her face.

And our lips found each other.

There was no hesitation. No doubt. Just a fierce, aching kiss like two people trying to breathe each other back to life. Her hands cupped my jaw, my fingers tangled in her hair, and for a moment, the world outside us didn’t exist.

Only us.

Only this.

Only everything we had lost, colliding in one breathless, desperate kiss.

When we finally broke apart, gasping, foreheads pressed together, I held her face between my palms.

“My Vanisha…” My voice broke, thick with emotion. “She waited for me long enough.”

Arvi's eyes widened.

And then she collapsed in sobs against my chest, like my words had unlocked something unbearable inside her. She wept for the little girl we lost. For the years we let pain speak louder than love. For everything we never got to say until now.

And I held her.

Because this time, I wasn’t going anywhere.

“She misses you every day,” Arvi whispered, her voice barely holding itself together. “She asks for her dad, Rayaan. She asks where you are.”

That shattered something inside me again.

I looked at her, really looked. Her eyes weren’t accusing. Just... tired. Carrying the weight of five years I should’ve been there for.

“I know,” I said softly, the words scraping out of my throat. “I see her. Every year. Every birthday, every drawing she makes in school that Sofi sends me. I’ve seen it all, Arvi.”

She stared at me, frozen.

I stepped closer, placing my palm gently on her cheek. “There will be no more distance between us now. No more silence. No more running.”

She blinked fast, tears threatening again.

“Because we’re both healed now,” I whispered. “Maybe not fully. Maybe still scarred. But healed enough to find our way back.”

I swallowed hard, the guilt heavy and metallic in my mouth. “I stayed away from my own daughter… from you… because I was drowning.”

She tilted her head, eyes narrowing just slightly.

“In guilt,” I confessed. “Guilt for not protecting my sister. I watched her. My baby sister. And all I could think about you, I didnt stopped you because I was too broken.”

I turned away for a second, breathing in deep. My voice cracked when I continued.

“But the truth?” I looked at her again. “The truth is I wasn’t just mourning Vanisha. I was running from the pain of losing you. I hated you because it was easier than hating myself.”

She stared at me, stunned, silent.

“I broke when she died,” I whispered. “But I shattered when you walked out that door.”

And then I stepped closer, holding her hand.

“I’m done punishing myself. I’m done punishing you.”

I looked into her eyes with everything I had left.

“It’s time we go home.”

A/N

Chapter 59 updated on Scroll Stack.

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Let’s be honest,

Rayaan was also right in his place. He lost his sister, someone he deeply loved and protected. His anger, his distance, his silence they all stem from a place of unbearable pain.

As much as we hurt for Arvi, we can’t ignore the storm Rayaan’s been living with. This chapter marks a turning point not just in their story, but in the way we begin to understand both sides of the heartbreak.

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