She froze when she heard the door, then turned to look at me. Her expression did not change. Did not soften. Just remained cold and closed off.
"Let me help you pack," I said, moving toward her.
She held up a hand, stopping me in my tracks.
"Do not bother."
The words were quiet but final. Like a door slamming shut.
"Viya, please. Let me help. Let me do something."
She looked at me then. Really looked at me for the first time in a month. And what I saw in her eyes broke something inside me.
There was no love there. No warmth. Just pain and betrayal and exhaustion.
Tears gathered in her eyes, but her voice remained steady.
"You have used me enough, Armaan. What else is there left to take?"
"Viya—"
"Stop." Her voice cracked. "Just stop. I do not want to hear your excuses or your apologies or your explanations. Nothing you say will change what you did."
"Then let me show you. Let me prove that I love you. That what we have is real."
She laughed, but it was a broken, bitter sound.
"Real? None of it was real. You married me because of a prophecy. Because you needed a disposable wife for a year. Because I was convenient and stupid enough to believe you actually wanted me."
"That is not true anymore. It was never true. From the moment I met you—"
"Do not." Her hands were trembling as she gripped the edge of the bed. "Do not stand there and rewrite history. Do not pretend you loved me from the beginning when we both know you did not."
"I did not know what love was until I met you," I said desperately. "What I felt for Avija was nothing. What I feel for you is everything."
Tears were streaming down her face now.
"In my entire life, I thought I had finally found something real. A family. A person who genuinely loved me. Someone who chose me not out of obligation or pity but because they wanted me."
Her voice broke completely.
"But it was all a lie. All of it. You did not choose me. You were forced into this marriage just like I was. And everyone I trusted, everyone I thought cared about me, they all betrayed me. Usedme like I was nothing. Like I was trash to be thrown away when you were done with me."
"Viya, please—"
"I am leaving tomorrow," she said, cutting me off. Her voice had gone flat, emotionless. "Puneet is coming to pick me up. I am going to stay with him. And you will receive divorce papers within the week."
The words felt like bullets, each one finding its mark.
"No. Viya, no. Please do not do this. Please give me a chance to make this right."
"There is nothing to make right. You got what you wanted. You fulfilled the prophecy. You can marry Avija now like you planned all along."
"I do not want Avija! I want you! I love you!"
But she was not listening anymore. She turned away from me and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind her with a decisive click.
I stood there, staring at that closed door, my entire world crumbling around me.
