Only two days remained.
Two days before everything would be decided for her.
Kashvi stood in front of the mirror of a bridal boutique, wrapped in fabric that felt heavier than chains. The saleswomen smiled. Complimented. Adjusted the dupatta on her shoulder.
"Perfect bride," one of them said.
Kashvi didn't respond.
Krish stood behind her, arms crossed, satisfied.
"This one," he said. "She'll wear this."
He didn't ask.
Kashvi nodded.
That was what frightened everyone the most.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
Ved's voice was low, controlled. They were standing near the parking area while Krish argued with the store manager about delivery timings.
Kashvi didn't look at Ved.
"I told you not to interfere," she said quietly.
Ved's jaw tightened.
"This isn't you."
She finally met his eyes. There was no anger in hers.
There was nothing.
"I'm tired, Ved," she said calmly. "Please. Just let it be."
Let it be.
Those words crushed him more than any accusation ever could.
Ved wanted to grab her hand. To pull her away. To shout.
But he didn't.
Because Kashvi had built a wall—and for the first time, she was keeping him out.
Krish returned, gripping Kashvi's wrist lightly but possessively.
"Come on," he said. "Next store."
She didn't protest.
She walked.
Krish mistook her obedience for surrender.
He leaned closer, his voice low and sharp.
"You see? This is how things should be. No arguments. No past. Just us."
Kashvi nodded again.
Inside her head, something else was unfolding.
Not panic.
Not fear.
A plan.
Every forced smile reminded her of five years ago.
Every command echoed old silences.
Every step closer to marriage felt like history repeating—only this time, she was watching it happen from outside her body.
Past trauma had taught her one thing very well:
When resistance fails—disappearance becomes survival.
And Kashvi had already decided what survival meant.
That night, she sat beside Kriday as he slept, tracing his tiny fingers with hers.
"Mumma," he murmured half-asleep. "Don't go."
Her throat tightened.
"I won't," she whispered.
But she didn't say where.
She kissed his forehead longer than usual. Memorized the warmth. The weight of him.
Then she stood up and walked to the balcony.
She stared at the city lights, eyes dry, mind frighteningly clear.
Krish thought the wedding would bind her.
Ved thought patience would save her.
No one realized—
Kashvi wasn't agreeing because she had lost.
She was agreeing because she had remembered who she was when everything broke the first time.
And this time—
She wasn't going to beg.
She wasn't going to fight.
She wasn't going to explain.
She was going to end it.
Completely.
Two days before the wedding, Kashvi had already chosen the moment that would shatter every illusion.
A moment that would change every life connected to hers.
And no one—not Krish, not Ved—
was prepared for what she was about to do.