She smiled. “You answer carefully.”
He gave no reply.
His patience had run out hours ago. Fear, exhaustion, helplessness, everything sat too close to the surface. One push and it would tear free. She was an elder. A stranger he had chosen to help. Not someone to bear the weight of what burned inside him.
So he stayed silent.
Besides, people her age often asked questions. Perhaps other people's affairs interested them more. Under any other circumstance, he might even have answered politely.
Tonight, he had nothing left in him that resembled polite conversation.
She spoke again. “A man does not drive like this unless his heart is carrying grief.”
The words settled heavily between them.
“Where exactly am I taking you?”
“Not far. Past the old milk depot. Near the stone arch.”
He followed her directions. Right turn. Straight. Another turn. The city thinned. Fewer lights. Older houses. Neem trees pressing close to narrow lanes.
“You have lost someone.” She probed again.
His fingers tightened on the wheel.
“Left or right?” His voice flattened.
“To the right.”
He took the turn without looking at her. Headlights swept across empty streets. For a while, only the sound of the engine filled the car.
Her voice returned, softer now. “The one you lost matters very much.”
Abhinav shut his eyes for a second.
Enough.
He had no strength left to deflect a conversation that kept circling the same wound. And some part of him understood that older people recognized grief because they had experienced more ups and downs in life.
“My wife disappeared.”
The word slipped out of him. Not fiancée. Not would-be bride. Wife.
Because that truth had already taken root inside him. Fire rituals had not happened, vows had not been spoken, yet none of it changed what she had become to him.
“Eight hours ago.” His jaw locked. “Police are searching. Everyone is searching.”
Speaking it aloud made the nightmare heavier. More real.
His hand moved to the phone beside him. He unlocked it with fingers that no longer felt steady.
Meera’s photograph lit the screen. Morning light across her face. That soft smile she wore when she forgot the world.
“Have you seen her? Anywhere today?”
He held the phone toward her. The woman studied the image. Recognition softened her expression.
“Ah.”
