But I Don't Hate You!

She looked through the window of her room. The room opened to the woods, beyond which the city hustled. The woods seemed serene to her, and living alone only spelled 'peace'. She was not like this. She was nowhere near being so self-consumed, but she had almost no choice back then.

As she made herself breakfast that morning, she looked at the calendar that hung beside the fridge. It was his birthday. Tears rose up to her eyes; she had tucked them inside for too long now. His voice echoed in her ears, even today. His face gleamed in front of her eyes, even today. She couldn't help but live with the memories of their love. He hadn't died, he only left her.

"Arnav, stop disturbing me, will you?" she would chuckle.

"You are too beautiful to not be disturbed," he'd say.

All of those memories still mock her. She had believed the marriage would last. She had believed he would always love her the way he did. She was so wrong. It took just another woman and just another's love, for Arnav, to leave her. To leave her midway, somewhere from where she'd definitely be lost, he knew.

"So this is all it has come to, Arnav? All the times you said you loved me, this is all it circles up to?" she couldn't hold herself back.

"I am sorry, Nihi. I have loved you every time I said. But I couldn't help falling for Tanishka. I feel for her, more than I feel for you," he tumbled over his own words.

"You don't feel for two people, at the same time, Arnav. Either it is she or I," she struggled through her words.

"Tanishka."

The moment those words left his mouth, Nihi's world came crashing down. She still remembers how that night had been for her.

But time heals everything, they say. It took her two years of hell to stand up again, on her own feet this time.

She hadn't stopped loving him. She only believed he was dead.