"I'm not packing," Reha said, voice trembling, but her spine refusing to bend. "I'm not going anywhere, Ved. This is our world... Ved, what are you doing?"
He didn't respond right away.
He stepped closer, slow, calculated, until he was standing right in front of her. She could feel his breath, but not his warmth. His eyes held no emotion.
He raised his finger and placed it gently over her lips."Shhh... You don't get it, do you?" he whispered.
Then, like a switch flipping off every trace of tenderness in him, his voice hardened.
"There's nothing here for you to pack. Nothing in this house ever truly belonged to you. So shut up and sit there."
Her eyes flooded with unshed tears. They sat at the edge, waiting, pleading to fall, but she held them back. She wouldn't cry. Not for someone trying so hard to make her feel like she was nothing.
Minutes later, the sound of tires on gravel broke the silence.
One of Ved's guards arrived with the car.
No words.
Reha walked out with him. She didn't ask questions this time. Her heart felt too bruised, her voice too fragile.
They got into the car. The same car that once brought her here against her will. The same car where, somewhere between fear and fury, she had first noticed him looking at her like she was more than just a pawn.
But today?
Today, Ved didn't even look at her.
Not once.
He stared outside the window, as if she didn't exist. As if the last few weeks hadn't happened. As if the moments where they'd whispered in the dark and laughed like reckless teenagers meant nothing at all.
Reha sat beside him, frozen. Her hands clutched tightly in her lap. Her mind screamed for answers, but her lips stayed sealed.
She wanted to say: Why are you doing this? Why are you acting like you didn't beg for me in silence? Didn't hold me like you'd fall apart if I left?
But she said nothing.
The mansion came into view. Familiar. Haunted. Only this time, he didn't take her to his room. He didn't hold her hand, didn't walk with her through the hallway like she was his.
Instead, Ved led her down that dark corridor again.
The same one from the first day. The same locked room. The same cold floor and lifeless walls.
He stopped at the door. He opened it. Reha looked inside. The single bed. The bare walls. No warmth. No comfort. No sign of the life they had lived, even briefly.
She turned to him, eyes searching for even a flicker of emotion.
"You're putting me back in here?" she asked quietly, almost like she was asking a stranger.
Ved didn't say a word.
He didn't need to.
He just looked at her, blank, unreadable, and then turned away.
The door closed softly behind her.
And just like that, she was back where she started.
Except this time, it hurt more. Because now she knew what it felt like to be loved. And now, she was being forced to forget.
Reha sat there the entire day, waiting, hoping that Ved would return. Every time she heard footsteps outside the locked door, her heart would jump. She'd get up instantly, thinking, "It must be him." But it never was.
The evening passed. The night settled. And with it, her hope quietly faded.
Then, suddenly, the door creaked open. A soft slice of light cut through the darkness, and in that light… stood Ved.
But Reha didn't turn around. She stood facing the wall, her back to him, her body stiff. Or maybe… maybe she was just hiding her tears.
Ved held a plate in his hand. He said quietly, "Here, eat something."
Her voice came back cold, "I'm not hungry."
Ved walked further in. "Reha, you didn't eat anything yesterday either. Please, have a little."
Reha turned her face slightly, still not facing him. "Why? Why do you care? Who even are you, Ved?"
Ved snapped. "REHAA!"
At that, she turned. Finally, their eyes met. For the first time since yesterday… in pain, in rage, in everything unsaid—they looked at each other.
Ved couldn't hold her gaze. He looked down. But Reha could read him—his silence, his eyes, the tremble he tried to hide.
She stepped a little closer, eyes filled with tears, and said softly but surely, "You love me, Ved."
He clenched his jaw. "Shut up, Reha."
She moved even closer. Her voice rose with each word. "You do. I fucking knew it. You love me. You love me."
And in that moment, the lie he had been trying so hard to maintain started cracking. Because nothing, not distance, not coldness, not even hate, could mask the truth screaming in his eyes.
Just then, Ved's phone rang."Hello, sir. He has gone now."
"Are you sure you've checked?"
"Yes, sir."
Ved ended the call, turned to Reha, and without saying anything, held her hand. She didn't resist. She trusted him, completely. Without a word, she followed him back to his room.
Once inside, Ved didn't speak. He simply gestured for her to sit. After being locked in darkness for so long, the silence felt oddly comforting.