SHANAYA'S POV :

The silence between us wasn't uncomfortable.

It was heavy.

Like all the unspoken words had tied themselves into knots in the space between us, waiting... waiting for someone to untangle them.

I held the blanket tighter around me. The cool air in the room felt warmer than the ache sitting in my chest.

Kabir sat beside me. Still. Silent. His presence grounding. His silence understanding.

"I don't know where to start," I whispered finally, my voice cracking under the weight of everything I still carried.

He turned toward me slowly. "Then don't," he said gently. "Just... talk to me. Like you used to. No pressure. Just... be here."

"I'm scared," I admitted, "of saying the wrong thing. Of hurting you more. Of hurting myself."

Kabir's jaw tensed, and then softened. "You've already said the right thing by being honest."

I looked down at my hands, the ones that had held Rohan's... and now held Kabir's heart. How cruel could fate be to place me here? How kind could love be to give me a second chance?

"I didn't mean to fall for you," I confessed. "I didn't plan it. I didn't even think I could feel anything again after him. But then... there you were. With your blue eyes and calm voice and unexpected kindness. And I didn't even realize when it started happening."

He exhaled, and I heard the tightness in his breath.

"I never expected to find someone like you either," he said quietly. "And definitely not like this. But... I can't ignore it either. I can't run from it."

I looked at him, my eyes stinging again. "I feel guilty, Kabir. All the time. For loving Rohan. For loving you. For being happy again. For breathing without him. What kind of person does that make me?"

He moved closer this time, lifting his hand to cup my cheek. "It makes you human, Shanaya. It makes you someone who's survived something most people wouldn't. You didn't stop loving him. You just learned how to breathe again."

"But... you're his brother," I choked out. "How can you still look at me the same way after knowing that?"

"Because when I look at you," he said, eyes not leaving mine, "I don't just see who you were to him. I see who you are now. I see you. All of you. And maybe that comes with pain, with questions, with grief... but it also comes with love."

I didn't realize I was crying again until his thumb brushed against my cheek, catching the tear.

"I don't want to lose you too," I whispered.

"You won't," he promised, voice firm. "Not unless you run from me."

I leaned into his touch, closed my eyes, and let the warmth of his presence settle something aching inside me.

"I think I'm falling for you, Kabir," I said, barely above a whisper.

"I already fell," he whispered back.

And in that moment, the past didn't disappear.

But the present?

It finally felt like a beginning.

---

The silence after our confessions wasn't hollow anymore.

It was full—of everything we had said and everything we had left unsaid. A stillness that carried weight, but no longer threatened to break me.

Kabir was still holding me. Still looking at me like I was something worth staying for.

And that alone felt like a miracle.

I drew in a shaky breath. "Do you think... do you think Rohan would hate me for this?"

Kabir didn't answer immediately. Instead, he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me against his chest again, his lips pressing to the crown of my head.

"No," he whispered. "I think he'd just want you to be okay."

I closed my eyes, letting myself believe that. Just for a second.

"But you're not just 'okay,' Shanaya," he added, softer now. "You're surviving. You're healing. And if loving me becomes a part of that healing... then maybe it's what he would've wanted."

A small sob escaped my lips—not of pain this time, but of fragile relief.

"I hate how complicated this is," I murmured. "How it feels like I'm always torn between guilt and grace. Between yesterday and tomorrow."

He pulled back just enough to look at me, and I saw it then—his own fear, his uncertainty, but above all, his fierce tenderness.

"You're allowed to feel both," he said. "This doesn't have to be clean. Love isn't. Grief sure as hell isn't. But I'm not going anywhere unless you tell me to."

I stared at him. "Even if I wake up tomorrow and I'm still not okay?"

"Then I'll wait for the day you are," he said. "And every day after."

And just like that...

The grief didn't vanish.

But it no longer felt like it had to be shouldered alone.

I reached for his hand again. This time, with a little more strength.

"Can we just... sit here?" I asked. "No more talking. Just be here."

He nodded. "Always."

And we did. We sat there as the minutes bled into hours, as my body leaned further into his, as my heart found rhythm again in the steady beat of his.

For the first time in a long, long time... I didn't feel like I was drowning.

Not because the storm had passed.

But because I finally had someone who was willing to swim through it with me.

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END OF THE CHAPTER.