I leaned my head back against the cold marble wall, a ghost of a laugh, dry, hollow which is rattling up from my chest. The room swayed gently, as if it were breathing without me. Darkness frayed the edges of my vision, turning the moonlight into something soft and distant.
I looked at you.
Not at the idol.
Not at the space between us.
At you.
"Ego?" I whispered. The word tasted like copper on my tongue. "You think I'm sitting here, withering away, because of a bank account? To prove that I'm rich?"
My hand shook so violently that I had to press it flat against the floor to stop it. Inch by inch, I crawled closer, silk brushing stone, until I could feel the faint warmth of your body, proof that you were still here.
"Listen to me, Manu," I said, my voice unraveling into something raw and torn. "I have spent my entire life surrounded by people who love my shadow. They love the CEO. They love the signature that changes their lives. They love what I do."
My breath stuttered.
"They are all hollow. Every one of them. No one has ever looked at me and seen nothing."
I lifted my hand toward your face, stopping just short of touching you, afraid that if I did, the moment would shatter.
"But you…" My voice cracked. "You didn't look at my money. You didn't look at my body. You looked through me. At something else. And for the first time in my life, I felt invisible."
A single tear slipped free, cutting through the dust and pallor on my cheek.
"I don't want to have you like a trophy." I whispered. "I want you because you are the only real thing I have ever found. The only person who isn't for sale."
My breath trembled.
"My ego died the moment you slapped me. My wealth died the moment I locked that door. I don't want to be the CEO anymore." My voice softened into something painfully small. "I want to be the woman who is enough to make you stop chanting her name… just for one second."
My strength finally abandoned me. I folded forward, my forehead resting against your knee. The contact was light, fragile like a question rather than a demand.
"If this was about ego," I murmured, barely audible now, "I would have shattered that idol and replaced it with a diamond. But I didn't."
I swallowed.
"I'm sitting here starving because I would rather die as an ansh of your Goddess than live another day as a queen in a world where you don't care if I breathe."
The silence pressed in, heavy and sacred.
"The truth?" I whispered. "I am terrified, Manu. Terrified that if I let you go, I'll go back to being a ghost."
My fingers curled weakly against the floor.
"I want you to save me. Not from the firm. Not from the money. But from the silence." My voice dissolved into a plea. "Please… realize this. I'm not fighting you anymore."
I exhaled, shallow and shaking.
"I'm drowning."
At last, I lifted my eyes to where your shadow met mine.
"And you're the only one who can see the water."