SHANAYA'S POV :

Two months.

Two months since the world had come to a complete stop.

Two months since the love of my life left me without a goodbye.

Two months of breathing but not really living.

I didn't cry. Not once. Not when I saw his pale body lying lifeless. Not when they lit the pyre. Not when I held his mother while she sobbed into my chest, her screams haunting the wind. I didn't flinch. I didn't move. I didn't feel.

I was a shell. An echo of the girl who once believed love was her greatest gift.

People came and went. Yash brought my favorite ice cream. Isha would braid my hair and talk about random gossip just to keep my mind occupied. Veer tried to joke like he always did. Ranveer sat in silence, holding my hand while watching TV, hoping just his presence would pull me back. Varun sent playlists of our old favorite songs. But nothing worked.

I stopped eating. Talking. Feeling.

I fainted twice. Once on the bathroom floor. Another time in the middle of a conversation. Both times I ended up in the hospital. Everyone panicked. But I didn't care. I didn't even open my eyes when I was conscious again. What was the point?

They all stopped asking what I needed. They started just being there. But even their love... felt like background noise.

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Until Kartik.

Until that one afternoon.

We were in his room. The one Rohan used to crash in after late-night movies. The one that still had that picture of us all from our school framed on the shelf. The silence between us was heavy, but it wasn't uncomfortable. Kartik was reading something, maybe pretending to not be worried sick about me. I was curled up in the corner, wearing Rohan's old hoodie.

Then he said it.

"Shanu..."

My head didn't lift.

"There's something... something Rohan left for you."

I slowly turned to him.

He opened his drawer, pulled out a small wooden box with his name carved on top. Inside were letters. Notes. Gifts. Trinkets. Things Rohan had collected for me.

"I didn't know when to give these," Kartik whispered, "but I think... it's time."

My trembling hands reached into the box and pulled out the one that had my name written in that painfully familiar handwriting.

To my love, if I'm not around anymore...

I opened it.

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Rohan's Letter

My Shanaya,

If you're reading this, it means I'm no longer there. And I'm so sorry.

I fought, I swear I did. Every breath, every hour, I fought to stay, to keep the promise I made — to never leave you. But sometimes love, even the strongest kind, has to surrender to fate.

I don't want you to cry. I don't want you to drown in guilt, pain, or memories. Because I lived the best years of my life with you. Even if it was short — you made my time on Earth heaven.

You were my first love. My only love. My peace. My chaos. My best friend. My home.

But now... I want you to live. Not just breathe. Not just exist. LIVE, Shanaya. Dance. Laugh. Travel. Fall in love again. Please, fall in love again. With someone who looks at you like you're made of stardust and fireflies. With someone who holds your broken pieces and makes art out of them.

Don't feel guilty. You owe me nothing. But if you ever think of me, I want it to be with a smile. Not tears.

And when you feel alone, remember — I never left. I'm the whisper in the wind. The warmth in your coffee. The 11:11 wish you made.

I'll always watch over you baby. Always.

Whenever you'll need me , i'll be there for you.  

I'm in everything you love. Because I will always love you.

Yours forever,

Ro.

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The letter slipped from my trembling hands and floated to the floor, just like my world had two months ago. But this time... something cracked open inside me. Something I'd sealed tightly shut, afraid if I ever let it out, it would drown me.

But it was drowning me anyway.

I gasped for air as if his words had punched the breath out of me.

I let out a sob, then another, and then—

The dam burst.

"Kartik..." I choked, barely able to say his name as I lunged forward, clutching onto him like my life depended on it. He caught me in his arms instantly, and I collapsed into him, screaming.

Raw. Loud. Unfiltered.

Screaming the kind of scream that can only come from the soul — a scream that had been trapped in my chest for 62 days.

I sobbed like a child. I howled like my heart was physically breaking all over again. And maybe it was. Because for the first time, I was feeling everything.

Every memory with Rohan came crashing down — the fights, the kisses, the hospital, the way his hand gripped mine even in a coma. His eyes. God, those eyes.

The weight of two months' worth of numbness, pain, regret, grief — it suffocated me until all I could do was cry it out.

Kartik didn't say a word.

He just held me. Let me ruin his shirt with tears and screams. Let me fall apart completely.

He didn't try to stop me. He didn't try to fix it.

He just let me be broken.

And somehow, in that... I felt safe.

I don't know how long it was — seven hours maybe, maybe more — but eventually, I stopped. Not because I was okay. I wasn't. But I was... empty. Exhausted. Hollow in a new way. But lighter. Just a little.

I rested my head against Kartik's shoulder, and we sat in silence, the soft hum of his AC the only sound in the room.

"I miss him," I whispered.

"I know," he said softly.

"I don't think I'll ever stop missing him."

"You don't have to," he replied, brushing my hair back. "Loving someone and learning to live without them can exist together, Shanaya."

I let those words soak in. Because maybe I didn't have to let go of Rohan. Maybe I just had to... carry him differently now.

He wasn't here.

But he was everywhere.

Kartik reached over and picked up the letter again. He folded it gently and placed it in the box along with the rest of the things Rohan had left for me. A keychain he bought on our first trip. A small framed photo of us. Little sticky notes of random things he wrote me.

"I think he knew," I said after a long pause.

"Knew what?"

"That I wasn't going to be okay without him."

Kartik nodded, eyes glistening. "That's why he left this for you. Because he loved you that much."

"But why do I feel like I'm falling apart ?" 

"Because you're holding on too tightly." He responded.

"Holding on to what ?"

"A version of yourself that is meant to change."

"But if i change...Who will I be?"

"You'll still be you , just a lighter version of yourself. Without all the weight you were never meant to carry."

"But , kartik...It still hurts."

"I Know" he says gently "I Know baby"

"But why does love always hurt me??"

"Because you think love is something you must earn."

my breathing stopped. "Isn't it??"

"No," he says softly. "Love is not a reward. It's not something you deserve or don't deserve. It's the essence of what you are. And the moment you'll stop chasing it outside , you'll find it within yourself."

I closed my eyes and whispered, "I want to try, Kartik."

"Try what?"

"To live again."

He smiled gently, pulling me closer. "Then we'll do it together. One day at a time."

I didn't respond. But for the first time in two months, I felt something flicker in my chest.

Hope.

It was faint. Fragile.

But it was there.

And Rohan's voice echoed in my heart—

"Live, Shanaya. Please, live."

I looked out the window at the moon, and for the first time in a long time, I didn't feel alone.

He was here.

In my grief.

In my healing.

In my heart.

Forever.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE :

This chapter wasn't just written with words — it was written with everything I had in my heart.

Grief is such a complicated, ugly, suffocating thing. And Shanaya's pain, her silence, her eventual breakdown — it's the kind of heartbreak that not everyone can understand... unless they've lived it. To love someone so deeply and then lose them so suddenly — without warning, without a goodbye — that kind of wound doesn't heal. It just becomes a part of you.

Rohan's letter wasn't just a note. It was his final embrace. His final attempt at holding Shanaya together when he physically couldn't anymore. And Kartik... he was the brother everyone deserves. The one who stays, even when there are no words to say.

If you cried reading this — good. That means you felt. That means you connected. And that's all I've ever wanted this story to do.

This chapter is for everyone who's ever lost someone and wondered how the world dared to keep moving.

I hope it reminds you:

You are not alone.

And it's okay to grieve.

It's okay to scream.

And eventually... it's okay to heal.

SEE YOU ALL IN THE NEXT CHAPTER.

SHOWER THIS STORY WITH COMMENTS AND VOTES XXXX

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