She hasn't opened her eyes. Still trapped somewhere between this world and the next, but inside her - a war was raging.
She saw flashes of hands grabbing her, of screaming silently, of falling, and of someone's voice... soft, steady.... reading her poetry.
She didn't know him, but that voice became her anchor. A reason not to let go.
Ayansh sat by her side as always. He noticed her fingers curl slowly, almost like she was reaching out . His heart skipped a beat. "Are you...there?" he whispered.
He leaned in, unsure it was his imagination. But then - a tear slid from the corner of her closed eye.
She was in pain. She was still here and she was trying.
The doctor called it " progress. "
Ayansh called it a miracle.
He didn't even know her name. He didn't need to, what he saw was a girl who had been broken - but hadn't surrendered.
Ayansh was falling for someone who hadn't even spoke to him.
Back home, in the house that once echoed with Nitya's laughter, there was only silence. A heavy, crushing silence. Her mother had stopped wearing colors. Her father - who once trusted Ritik blindly - had withdrawn into guilt .
And her younger brother still asked,
" Why did didi stop calling me ? "
They had trusted the wrong person, blamed the right one. And now... they had nothing.
The guilt, once buried under Ritik's lies, was slowly bleeding through.
But they didn't know the full truth yet.
Not yet.
And somewhere in the same city,
Ritik stood by his window - suddenly breathless, something felt wrong, unsettled.
As if the girl he'd tried to erase...
Was coming back.