Ruhi’s POV
I woke up to white.White walls. White sheets. The steady, mechanical sound of something keeping track of me when I didn’t want to be tracked at all. My head throbbed dull, deep, like a reminder that I was still here.
I felt it before I saw them.Aayansh on one side. Rishabh bhai on the other.Their voices reached me like they were coming from underwater.“Ruhi…”I didnt look at them
Both of them leaned forward instantly, relief flickering across their faces.“How are you feeling?” Rishabh bhai asked gently.
I didn’t answer.
Aayansh’s hand found mine, warm, familiar. Too familiar.“Ruuh,” he said softly. “Please say something.”
I stared at the ceiling instead.Words pressed against my throat, heavy and sharp but if I let even one out, I knew everything would spill. Anger. Hurt. Questions no one wanted to answer.
So I stayed quiet.Not because I had nothing to say.Because I had too much.The doctor came in later, checked my vitals, asked routine questions. I nodded when required. Shook my head when needed.Minimal. Controlled.
“She’s physically stable,” the doctor said finally. “We can discharge her. But no stress. Absolutely none.”
I almost laughed at that.Stress wasn’t something you switched off.It followed you home.
The drive back was silent.No music. No conversation.Aayansh drove, his grip on the steering wheel tight, like he was afraid the car might slip out of his control the way everything else had.
Rishabh bhai sat beside me in the back, close enough to be comforting if comfort was what I wanted.
I watched the city pass by the window.Shops. Signals. People living normal lives.
No one knew that something inside me had cracked open and refused to close.No one knew that the file still burned in my memory.Or that every time I closed my eyes, I heard his voice again.
Your father’s accident wasn’t an accident.When we reached home, Avni bhabhi rushed forward.
“Ruhi”
I walked past her. Then my family was speaking asking about if im ok what happen i didnt reply i just walked past them towards my room
Not rudely. Not angrily.Just… past.
My feet carried me upstairs on their own. Familiar steps. Familiar walls.None of it felt like mine anymore.
I went straight to my room and closed the door.Softly.Not a slam.
I leaned against it for a second, breathing shallowly, then walked to the bed and sat down.The room was quiet.Too quiet.That’s when I realized something that scared me more than the man in the mask.
I wasn’t afraid anymore.I was numb.And numbness wasn’t healing.It was preparation.I curled up on the bed, staring at nothing.
Outside my door, I could sense them hesitating, whispering, unsure of what to do next.For the first time, their presence didn’t make me feel safe.
It made me feel alone.Because somewhere between the hospital bed and this room, I had stopped trusting the silence they wrapped around me.And I knew If they didn’t speak soon…I would
I stayed on my bed.Half an hour passed. Maybe more.I didn’t sleep. I didn’t move.
I just stared at the ceiling, counting nothing, thinking nothing and yet feeling everything all at once.
My mind felt… blank. Not calm. Just empty in the way something feels after it’s been scraped raw.
I could feel her returning.The old me.
The quiet one. The one who stayed silent not because she had nothing to say, but because she never knew how to say it. The one who questioned her own thoughts, her own place, her own existence.
For a moment, it scared me.Because I had worked so hard to leave her behind.But then I realized something.
This wasn’t the same silence.Before, my quiet came from confusion. From not knowing who I was or what I wanted.
This time, it came from clarity.I knew exactly what I wanted.
I turned my head slightly, my gaze still unfocused.
My father.The accident.The lies wrapped around it for years, disguised as protection.
And the man who had looked me in the eye and said it wasn’t an accident at all.
Something hardened inside my chest not anger, not hatred.Resolve.
I didn’t want chaos. I didn’t want revenge fueled by emotion.I wanted justice.
I wanted the person who caused that accident, the person who stole my father from me to be exposed. To be punished. Properly. Legally. Publicly.
No matter who they were.No matter how close they stood to me.
A slow breath left my lungs.The old me was back, yes.
But she wasn’t weak anymore.
She was quiet because she was thinking.Planning.
And this time, I wasn’t going to let anyone decide the truth for me.
Not Aayansh. Not Rishabh bhai. Not family. Not fear.
I finally closed my eyes.Not to escape.But to gather strength.Because once I stood up again…I wouldn’t stop until the truth did the same
Then I heard a knock on my door.
I didn’t reply. I didn’t even blink.The door opened anyway.
“Ruuh…” Aayansh’s voice called softly.I didn’t turn. I didn’t look at him.
I stayed exactly where I was lying on my back, eyes fixed on the ceiling like it held answers I wasn’t ready to face.
He came closer and sat on the edge of the bed.“Ruuh,” he said again.Still, I said nothing.
He took my hand and gently made me sit up. My body followed, but my mind stayed somewhere far away. I stared straight ahead at the wall, unfocused, distant.
He reached for my face, cupping it carefully, forcing me to look at him.And I did.
But there was nothing in my eyes.
No spark. No warmth. No familiar adoration that used to live there so naturally.Just blankness.Hollowness.
It startled him that I could see it. His brows knit together, his grip tightening just a little, like he was afraid I’d slip away if he loosened it.
“Ruuh, listen to me,” he said calmly, carefully, as if raising his voice might shatter something fragile between us.
I didn’t respond.Instead, I pushed his hands away.
Not forcefully.Just… final.
I turned away from him and lay down on my side, my back facing him, retreating into myself.
He didn’t argue. He didn’t call my name again.After a moment, I felt the mattress dip.
He lay down beside me and wrapped his arms around me from behind, pulling me into his embrace. It was familiar. Protective. Warm.
I didn’t resist.I didn’t respond either.I just stayed still, staring into nothing.Then I closed my eyes.
And that’s when it happened.
Tears slipped out silently, soaking into the pillow. Once they started, they didn’t stop. I cried without making a sound, without knowing why exactly grief, anger, betrayal, exhaustion… it was all tangled together.
His hold around me tightened.Like he was holding on for both of us.
I cried until my chest hurt. Until my thoughts blurred. Until the weight of everything finally became too heavy to carry while awake.
And somewhere in his arms, surrounded by silence and unsaid words…I fell asleep.
Aayansh’s POV
The drive home from the hospital felt longer than it ever should have.
Ruhi sat quietly. Not the peaceful kind of silence, this one was sharp, brittle. The kind that cuts if you touch it wrong.
The whole ride she was looking outside. Didn’t ask where we were going, even though she knew. Didn’t argue. Didn’t cry.She just sat there.
And that scared me more than her screaming ever could.
I kept my hands tight on the steering wheel, knuckles white, eyes fixed on the road, because every time I glanced at her, something inside my chest twisted painfully.
She felt… gone.Not physically. But like she’d stepped somewhere I couldn’t follow.
Rishabh sat in the back, just as quiet. The three of us were trapped in a silence heavy with everything we weren’t saying.
When we reached home, Ruhi stepped out of the car without a word and walked straight inside. No hesitation. No pause to look back.I watched her disappear up the stairs.
And I knew she wasn’t running away.She was retreating.
That night, every sound in the house felt louder than usual. Footsteps. Doors. Even my own breathing felt intrusive.
We all stood outside her room. No one crossed that line.
Not because we were afraid of Ruhi but because we were afraid of what even one wrong word could do to her right now. She was fragile in a way that didn’t show on the surface. Like glass that looked solid until it shattered.
Rishabh finally spoke, his voice low but firm. “Everyone… go.”
They hesitated. Avni bhabhi looked like she wanted to argue, to insist on staying, but one look at Rishabh’s face stopped her. One by one, they left. Slow steps. Reluctant glances back at the closed door.
Soon, it was just me and Rishabh.The corridor felt too quiet.
He stood there staring at the door, as if he expected it to open on its own. His hands were clenched, jaw tight, eyes darker than I’d ever seen them.
“I’m scared,” he said suddenly.
I turned to him.
“The old Ruhi is back,” he continued, his voice rough. “The same Ruhi after Hiten chachu died.”
My chest tightened.
“She stopped smiling back then,” he said. “Stopped talking. She isolated herself from everyone. She looked present but she wasn’t really there.” He swallowed. “It took years for her to come back from that.”
I knew exactly what he meant.That quiet, distant Ruhi the one who carried pain so silently that people mistook it for strength.
“You’re not going in?” I asked quietly.
He shook his head, eyes never leaving the door. “I can’t. I don’t know how to face her.”
He let out a broken breath.“The last time… I promised myself I would always protect her. No matter what.” His voice cracked. “And now I’m one of the reasons she’s hurting.”
Those words hit me harder than I expected.Because they were mine too.
We stood there like that ,two men who loved her, both failing her in different ways, neither knowing how to fix what had already been done.No words left to say.
After a while, Rishabh turned away. He didn’t look at me when he spoke. “Stay with her,” he said softly. “She needs someone.”
Then he walked away.I stayed.Alone in front of a closed door.
Wondering how love when mixed with fear and silence could hurt the person it was meant to protect the most.
I stood outside her room for a long moment before knocking.
No answer.
I went in anyway.She was lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling like it had stolen her thoughts. I called her name once. Twice.
Nothing.
When she finally looked at me I almost wished she hadn’t.Because her eyes… they weren’t angry.They were empty.That was worse.
Anger could be fought. Emptiness meant something had broken.
When she pushed my hands away, I felt it like a physical blow. Not because it hurt my pride but because she didn’t even look at me while doing it.
She didn’t need to.She had already decided to shut me out.
So I lay beside her instead, pulled her into my arms, and held her like that was the only thing keeping her tethered to me.
When her body started shaking, when her silent tears soaked into the pillow, I held her tighter.
And for the first time in a long time…I felt helpless.
I had protected her from threats. From enemies. From danger.
But I hadn’t protected her from the truth. And now the cost of that choice was lying right there crying herself to sleep in my arms.
I pressed my forehead to the back of her head, eyes burning.
I should have told her. I should have trusted her. I should have known that silence would hurt her more than honesty ever could.
She eventually fell asleep.
But I didn’t.
I stayed awake, staring into the dark, listening to her breathing, realizing something I hadn’t allowed myself to admit until now
I wasn’t just afraid of losing her to the man stalking her.
I was afraid I was already losing her to my own decisions.
And that fear?That one… I didn’t know how to fight.
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