When Shresth texted me that evening, I felt a tiny flicker of trust return.
"I need to tell you something," I wrote, "But only if you promise me one thing—don't tell Priyanka. Don't tell Vidya. This stays between us. If you break that, I won't be able to trust you again."
"I promise" he replied instantly. "Just tell me what's going on."
I took a deep breath. My hands were literally shaking as I began typing. I told him how Priyanka and Prem had been saying things about him behind his back—warning me, persuading me to back away. I told him how Priyanka kept insisting that I deserved better, that I was putting him on a pedestal.
And yes—I sent him screen recordings. Not everything. Just a few. One of Priyanka's voice messages where she said:
"Shresth doesn't deserve the kind of attention you give him. You've made him a god, Charu. Like he's incapable of being wrong."
When he heard that, instead of being surprised or even offended, he laughed.
"Send me more, madam. This is entertaining."
I hesitated. "You have time, but I don't. My parents are around."
He replied, "Okay, take your time. I'll finish my work and wait."
But what "work" was he talking about?
That very night, Shresth was texting Priyanka. Mocking. Laughing. Gloating.
"You did my job better than expected. It was a little exaggerated—but still, well done."
That was the moment the entire puzzle began fitting together.
He had planted Priyanka to manipulate me—to break me down gently by using my closest friend.
I didn't know this yet.
But the next morning—15th September—everything came crashing down.
By sheer coincidence, Prem had left his Instagram account logged in on my phone. And that morning, notifications started popping up.
A voice message from Priyanka.
I shouldn't have listened. I really shouldn't have.
But curiosity… pain… suspicion—they made me press play.
"Hey Prem… Charu sent the group recordings to Shresth. I'm shocked. Like seriously? She knew these were private, and still she sent them to someone she's known for a month?"
Then another one. This time, even more devastating:
"Shresth had called me out of nowhere. He told me to manipulate her. To tell her there's no point waiting. To convince her that she deserves someone better."
And she did. She really did all of that.
Not because she thought it.
But because he asked her to.
I felt like I couldn't breathe. It wasn't just betrayal.
It was planned betrayal.
I remembered how just a few days ago, I had admitted to Priyanka that I had spoken to Shresth and sent him a single voice message of hers.
She had calmly replied, "Why did you?"
I told her, "I knew what I could send and what not. It wasn't harmful."
But now that I knew the full truth?
I wasn't just shocked—I was hurt to the point of collapse.
My hands were trembling as I scrolled through more messages.
Priyanka had texted Prem:
"Please tell me Charu doesn't still have your account. If she does, change your password. I don't want her to see this."
Too late.
What she said next stuck with me:
"I didn't expect Charu to send our group chats outside. She should've known I was only doing what Shresth asked me to do. He's my friend too."
But here's what I kept asking myself: Why didn't she tell me? Why didn't she just say, "Hey, Shresth asked me to say this, don't take it personally"?
I thought Priyanka was being genuine.
That she was protecting me.
That she was watching me spiral and trying to pull me back.
But it turns out she was just playing a part.
That entire day, I was in emotional ruins.
I sat on the sofa, surrounded by my parents' voices talking about business, unaware that their daughter was quietly breaking down right in front of them.
I tried not to cry. I really did. But the tears came, unstoppable.
I called Shikha, my long-distance friend—the only person who hadn't been touched by this storm.
She had heard the early stages of my story, heard the voice notes Shresth had sent me before.
Back then, she had said:
"He sounds like a rare guy, Charu. Not many talk the way he talks. He's a green flag."
Because he talked like that every single time, every time, I was sad he motivated me, he always supported me, though being a very practical person, I saw that care in his eyes and that flicker in his voice, everyone noticed that.
But this time… she was silent for a long time.
Then she finally said:
"This isn't right. This isn't what real love feels like."
That broke me.
I told her, "I'm deactivating my account. If you need to talk to me, call. I can't take any more notifications."
And I did. I deactivated my main ID.
But Prem's account was still logged in.
They noticed.
And they knew.
Hours passed.
I tried to distract myself, but nothing worked. The more I thought about it, the more it hurt.
Then around 1:30 PM, I picked up my phone and texted Shresth:
"We need to talk. It's important."
He replied after some time:
"I just got back. I'm free now. Tell me."
I said:
"Call me. Now. I need to clarify a few things."
He said he would.
And I waited.
You don't know what I felt at that moment, exactly if I would say Dumb and unwanted, I felt that way, and this wasn't the actual truth, Deep down how knew they all tried helping me, Priyanka said so many times, I couldn't see you like this Charu, but I was not ready to listen at that point may be I was not in love with Shresth but he had become my habit, my home , a safe place I could return, and most importantly, I trusted him and he broke that trust, atleast it was shaken at that moment
But still waited.
Heart pounding. Hands cold.
What happened next was not what I expected.
Not even close.
Those moments still horrify me some times because I thought of spending years with this guy and it was ending in a month, with someone I was talking daily to and meet almost meeting him couple of times a week, waiting for him, after school, him waiting for me so that we could just say hi to each other. What expectations we had from each other I don't know but we made it so so so complicated that we were tangled in this match and just couldn't get out of it.