A broken sob escaped her throat even as she tried to stop it.
How could he do this to me?
Even as hot tears spilled down her cheeks, a part of her still waited.
She waited for a knock, his voice—something, anything that would prove he was joking and didn’t mean any of it.
But the room remained silent.
And he did not come.
CHAPTER 47
Yamini woke up on the floor the next morning.
The marble was cold beneath her, and for a moment she didn't understand why. Then she remembered.
Her robe had twisted around her legs sometime in the night. Her face felt tight, the skin around her eyes stiff from crying. The room was grey with early light.
She sat up slowly.
The connecting door was still closed. She didn't look at it for long.
Her bed remained untouched, the sheets still tucked the way Savita made them each morning. She hadn't slept in this room in over a month.
She got up and walked to it anyway, sitting on the edge of the mattress.
For a long time, she didn't move.
She thought about the scarf on his chair. The book on his desk. Her hairbrush beside his razor. All the small things she had let migrate into his life because he had never asked her to take them back.
She thought about how she had believed that meant something.
It didn’t.
She looked outside the window and stared blankly.
She thought of her first marriage.
Marrying Rahul had been a rebellion. A door she'd run through without fully believing in what was on the other side. Some part of her had always been braced for it to fail.
But she had stayed longer than she should have for all the wrong reasons.
This marriage had started the same way. A challenge. A contract. Another door she didn't fully believe in.
She had thought she could walk away in three years. Except somewhere along the way, without deciding to, she had fallen in love.
Bharat Jogra had wanted her to.
He spent months letting her fall. He gave her meaningful things. Took her to the frozen lake. To the cabin. Spent time with her in the palace. Let her believe in a future with his eyes in their child's face.
But last night, he had told her none of it was real.
He had taken revenge in the cruelest way possible.
Yamini continued staring.
At some point, when the grey light turned to gold, she slowly stood up.
