Part 3

Rudra POV 

I watched Maher walk away from me again.

It was as if I was in a trance, unable to move, watching her retreating figure fade into the distance. My mind was spinning, trying to process everything that had just happened—her dance, the emotion, the broken chandelier, our accidental fall. But it was her departure that hit me the hardest.

I had made a mistake. She wasn't supposed to be here, at least not in this way. She was never supposed to see me like this, so... trapped in a place that didn't feel right. And I was never supposed to hurt her again.

I excused myself from the group, slipping quietly out of the room. I didn't know what I was doing exactly, but all I knew was that I needed to find her.

I moved through the halls, my mind still racing. My feet carried me instinctively towards the garden. I had no idea what I was going to say, but I knew I couldn't leave things as they were.

And then, I saw her.

She was sitting on the swing, her back turned to me, eyes lost in the moonlight. The soft glow of the moon illuminated her features, making her look even more distant. She was motionless, her body slightly swaying with the breeze, as if she were part of the night itself—untouchable, unreachable.

I felt my chest tighten as I approached her, the weight of everything pressing down on me.

Without a word, I knelt in front of her, my hands trembling slightly as I reached for her feet. She looked down at me in surprise, her eyes flickering with confusion, and then, her expression softened, just the smallest bit.

I held the gel I had brought with me, the one I thought could soothe her injury from the fall earlier. But as I started applying it gently to her ankle, I realized this gesture—this small act of caring—wasn't going to heal the wound I had caused her.

She drew in a sharp breath as I rubbed the gel in, but her voice, when she finally spoke, was soft, almost too quiet to hear.

"I'm feeling pain," she said, her voice tinged with sorrow, "but not there." She pointed to her ankle where I was applying the gel, then gently placed her hand over her chest. "Here."

The simple motion of her hand over her heart shattered something inside me. It wasn't the physical pain I could try to fix. It wasn't the bruise I could rub away. It was something deeper, something I had caused without even meaning to.

I stopped what I was doing and looked up at her, searching her face for answers I wasn't sure I'd find.

"Mehar," I whispered her name, barely above the rustle of the leaves in the quiet night.

She didn't look at me. Her gaze was fixed on the moon, her eyes distant again, as if the sky was more real than the pain she was carrying inside her.

"Why are you here, Rudra?" Her voice was steady now, but I could hear the ache in it, the question that had been lingering between us for so long.

I couldn't bring myself to say anything at first. What could I say? What could I possibly offer her?

"I... I don't know," I said finally, my voice hoarse. "I never wanted to hurt you, Mehar. You have to know that."

She shook her head slowly, as if my words couldn't reach her anymore. "You don't even know what you've done, do you? You're about to marry someone else, but I... I'm still here, stuck in the past. You don't get to fix that with a gesture like this."

I let out a shaky breath. "I never meant for things to be this way. I never wanted to leave you. It wasn't supposed to happen like this."

"I know," she whispered. "But here we are."

The silence stretched between us, a weight that neither of us could lift. The moon hung above us, indifferent to the mess we were both in.

I gently let go of her ankle and moved to sit beside her on the swing, keeping a respectful distance. The air around us was thick with unspoken words. And even though I wanted to say everything I had been holding in for so long, I couldn't bring myself to do it. The distance between us was too great, and no words would bridge that gap.

For a long while, we sat there, neither of us moving, just looking at the moon.

And in that stillness, I realized—some things can't be fixed. Some wounds just run too deep.

I wanted to reach out to her, but I knew better than to force it. There was nothing I could do to take away her pain. I could never fix what had been broken between us.

All I could do was sit beside her and share in the silence, as she stared at the moon, and I, at her.

We sat there in silence, the soft rustle of leaves in the wind the only sound between us. Mehar's gaze remained fixed on the moon, and I couldn't help but wonder if she was lost in the same memories I was. The weight of the moment was suffocating, but I didn't know how to make it better. There were no words that could undo the hurt, no apology that could erase the past. I just sat beside her, feeling helpless.

After what felt like an eternity, I finally spoke.

"Mehar... why didn't you tell me about Isha?"

The question was blunt, but I couldn't hold it in any longer. There were so many things I didn't understand. So many things that had never made sense. The way Isha came into the picture so suddenly, the way things shifted when she appeared in our lives. And then, of course, why Mehar had never told me.

She turned to look at me, her eyes softer now, as if she could sense the confusion that had been growing inside me. I saw something flicker in her expression—sadness, maybe, or exhaustion. The truth was clearly a heavy burden to carry. But she finally spoke.

"She's not my biological sister," Mehar said quietly, the words slipping out like a secret she had been holding for too long.

I froze, completely caught off guard by the revelation. "What?"

She nodded, her eyes meeting mine briefly before returning to the moon. "She's not my sister. Not by blood. Not the way you think."

My mind raced as I processed what she was saying. Isha had never seemed anything but... well, her sister. How could I not have seen it? How could I have been so blind?

Mehar continued, her voice growing distant, like she was reliving a memory. "A few weeks after we... broke up," she started, "my father came home one day with Isha."

I swallowed hard, trying to piece things together. "Wait, your father? But Isha..."

She cut me off with a sad smile. "I know. Isha doesn't look like she belongs in our family. But she does. Just not the way you think."

I leaned forward slightly, trying to understand. "What do you mean? I don't get it. Why didn't you ever tell me this? I thought—"

She held up her hand, stopping me. "Let me finish."

I nodded, my heart pounding in my chest.

"My father... he told me that he owed a debt. A long time ago, he had promised Isha's parents that he would take care of her, if anything ever happened to them. And then, a few weeks after we broke up... her parents died. She was alone. No family left, nothing. So, my father decided to adopt her. He couldn't break the promise he'd made to them, even after all these years."

The words hung in the air like a weight, and I could feel the ground shifting beneath me. Isha wasn't even part of her family by blood. She was a responsibility. A promise.

That explained so much. The strange dynamics I had always felt between Mehar and Isha now had context. The unspoken tension. The way Mehar seemed distant whenever Isha was around. It wasn't because of jealousy, or competition, but something deeper. Something out of her control.

"But why didn't you ever tell me?" I asked again, this time with more understanding. "Why keep this from me?"

Mehar let out a quiet sigh. "Because it didn't matter anymore, Rudra. You and I... we were already drifting apart. There was no point in telling you. Isha's presence in my life was complicated enough without adding more confusion to everything else."

Her words hit me like a punch to the gut. She was right. We were already falling apart when all of this had started. The cracks had already begun to show before Isha entered the picture, but I'd never noticed.

"I thought you were hiding something from me... something about her," I admitted, my voice shaky. "But I didn't know it was this. I didn't understand."

Mehar glanced at me then, her gaze softening just a fraction. "I wasn't hiding anything from you, Rudra. I just... I didn't want to make it harder for either of us. There were so many things already between us, things I couldn't fix. So, I kept it to myself."

I nodded slowly, feeling the weight of her words sink in. I didn't know how to feel about all of this. I couldn't blame her for keeping it to herself. But at the same time, I realized how much of our relationship had been built on things left unsaid.

I had been so focused on what I wanted, on the future I thought we were supposed to have, that I never stopped to ask her about the things that had shaped her. The things she was carrying. The things I could never understand unless she told me.

I stood up slowly, my heart heavy with regret. "I wish I'd known, Mehar. I wish I'd understood."

She didn't respond immediately, her eyes still fixed on the moon. But I saw the subtle way her shoulders slumped, like the weight of the past few minutes had taken its toll on her.

Finally, she spoke, her voice barely above a whisper. "Me too, Rudra. But what's done is done. The past... we can't change it."

She was right. We couldn't change the past. And no matter how much I wanted to fix things, no matter how much I wished I had known sooner, I couldn't go back and undo what had already happened.

I looked at her for a long moment, feeling the silence stretch between us again. There was so much left unsaid, so much left unresolved. But for now, in this moment, I didn't know what to do with any of it.

"I'm sorry," I said quietly, the words feeling inadequate. "I really am."

Mehar didn't look at me, but she nodded, as if accepting my apology in the way it was meant. There was no anger in her, no bitterness—just resignation.

"I know," she said softly. "I know."

And with that, we sat there, the silence between us heavy but peaceful. The night stretched on, and all I could do was wonder if the damage had already been done—or if there was even a chance for anything to ever be the same again.

Hey Guys ,

This chapter is almost 2000 words and I hope you like it. 

I know this is a bit early to ask but still I would like to ask what are  your thoughts on Rudra ??

If there is any Grammatical error please do tell me .

Thank you