HYMNS OF UNWRITTEN SINS - 02🥀
PART 02:-
Aakhrit Roy Chowdhury on the way to be a cunning lawyer following his father's footsteps..
Tharushi Mollick becoming a philosopher aesthe girl to bring calmness in her chaos world...
CHAPTER 01-
That was the first sentence Tharushi read on her acceptance letter , a scholarship to one of the most prestigious colleges in South Sikkim. The train screeched to a halt like it disagreed with her choices. Tharushi stepped out first - a Philosophy major ready to dissect the world’s moral failures. Aakhrit followed - a Law student already drowning in his father’s expectations.
University gates loomed ahead tall, ancient, carved with words about justice and truth. Ironically, both of them were walking in with beautiful lies. Aakhrit’s hand found hers.Not hidden, not ashamed. He kissed her temple, the kind of intimacy that dared the world to watch. “We survived the dark in Dharamshala,” he whispered. “Daylight won’t scare us”. If only he knew. Someone was already watching. Someone whose shadow tasted like obsession. Someone who believed Tharushi belonged to him first.
HOSTEL ALLOTMENT
Hostels separated them for the first time in months. Rules, distance, daylit discipline.
Tharushi’s roommate - cheerful, nosy, already talking about crushes.
Aakhrit’s roommate - loud, careless, fascinated by girls and gossip.
They hated being apart already. Between orientation crowds and endless paperwork,
their fingertips kept searching for each other. When classes ended, he pinned her gently against a hallway pillar not possessive, just desperate. “I’m not used to loving you only in the dark,” he said. Her smile was soft. “Then let’s teach daylight how to keep our secrets” . Their foreheads touched. His thumb traced the corner of her mouth playfully, slow. Her breath hitched spice in silence.
They met at the old monastery stairs after their classes behind the campus , moonlight and stolen canvas of romance. He kissed her the moment she sat beside him ; hungry, careful, obsessed. “Tell me you’re happy,” he breathed against her lips. “I am,” she whispered. Almost. He didn’t notice the flicker of fear she tried to swallow. She didn’t notice the red laser dot moving across his backpack, someone watching from the shadows. The past hadn’t died in Dharamshala. It had simply followed the scent of her fear. Because some ruins demand a sequel and their story was never meant to end softly.
CHAPTER 02-
Tharushi liked the oldest corner of the Philosophy library , dusty shelves, wooden ladders, stained-glass windows swallowing sunlight. But today… she felt watched.Her new Philosophy professor, Dr. Aarav Kapoor , moved like a curiosity himself, young, unreadable eyes, a voice too calm to be trusted. He placed her assignment on the table:Your essay on forbidden desires…” . “It was good”. “Tell me: where did you learn , the desire is a sin?” . Her throat tightened. A flash of her mother crying at the police station.
Her father’s name was erased from the world. “I just write,” she whispered.“I don’t believe that,” he said softly. “People like you… you’ve seen something”. He leaned closer too close
and Aakhrit appeared behind her like a storm in human form. His hand slid to the back of her neck. Not rough. Just claiming.“Her inspiration,” he said, his lips brushing her ear,
“is none of your concern, sir.” A challenge, a promise, a warning. Dr. Kapoor’s smile didn’t move to his eyes. “Law students always think they own the truth”. “Be careful, Aakhrit. Truth owns us”.
In the hostel , around 8:30 pm , Tharush sat with her English classic literature assignment which was about the classic era of romance . Aakhrit texted : Library rooftop, now .His jaw was clenched, tie loosened, anger controlled only by wanting her. The moment she appeared…his hands cupped her waist, pulling her into him. “I don’t like how he looks at you,” he growled softly. Her fingers brushed his collar, steadying him. “Then look at me instead”. He did. His mouth met hers , sweet but starving, both surrendering and demanding. Her knees nearly gave out with the softness of his touch at her lower back.Spice in the shadows, spice with purpose. He kissed her breathless before whispering: “If anyone tries to take you from me…”, “I’ll make sure they regret existing”.His love was not gentle. It was a war and she had chosen the battlefield willingly. Below, campus lights flickered something or someone was watching.
CHAPTER 03-
Aakhrit’s fingers traced the bones of her knuckles, slow… reverent. The rooftop wind tangled her hair against his face. But when she closed her eyes. She didn’t see the rooftop. She saw a hospital corridor three winters ago.
Flashback: 3 Years Ago
Dharamshala District Hospital
Tharushi sat outside the ICU , her shoes soaked with melted snow, her hands stained with blood that wasn’t hers. Nurses whispered. “Her father… that case…Girls like her, shame will follow everywhere…” . She wrapped her arms around her small shivering body,trying not to hear anything, trying not to cry, trying not to remember the red sirens,the broken watch on her father’s wrist, the way they told her: “The court will decide if he deserves freedom” . Since then, she never trusted justice. She trusted silence.
Present day;
Aakhrit kissed the corner of her mouth , soft, grounding, here. “You’re shaking,” he whispered. She forced a laugh.“Just cold”. But he knew it wasn’t cold , it was something which mingled with their both past.
Aakhrit’s Flashback: 2 Years Ago
Emotions are for weakness, his father snapped. Aakhrit was seventeen, stared at the legal files and cases won at the cost of someone’s life. A crying family outside the door. His father didn't even blink. “A lawyer must not feel sorrow or love. We are meant to win. Nothing else”.
That night, while his father celebrated winning a case Aakhrit carved a promise on his own skin: If loving someone is a weakness, then let my weakness destroy me.
Present ; Rooftop Shadows
He touched her cheek, his thumb wiping a tear she didn’t notice falling.She looked at him really and saw a boy who hides knives behind smiles.His grip tightened, gentle but claiming, their foreheads , met his breath - a promise against her lips. There was still sweetness between them, but it tasted like danger now. Her phone vibrated again.
Unknown ID-
You promised forever once before. Why did you run? Her blood ran cold. She turned the screen away but Aakhrit saw the fear, and fear is the one thing he cannot forgive.
“Who is that?” His voice steel wrapped in fire. She hesitated. “A mistake from the past”.“No one gets to be your past,” he snapped,anger flickering like lightning.His hand slid to the back of her neck, his lips brushing her ear: “I need names,Tharushi”.“Because if someone wants you they go through me”. The wind rustled the prayer flags above them, as if warning: Love this fierce always attracts ghosts and theirs were just beginning to wake.
CHAPTER 04-
Mids in between~
Dr. Aarav kapoor -” She is the most fascinating philosopher: a sin pretending to be innocent “.
The first time Dr. Aarav Kapoor called her name , he said it like he knew her from ages and felt like he owned it. ”THARUSHI MOLLICK” , his voice slipped through the corridors - polite on the surface and poison underneath. She froze , his eyes too calm . Like he had been waiting for years for her to turn around.“You left Siliguri quickly,” he said, as if commenting on it like a thunderstorm after a rain. Her lungs forgot their purpose.Before she could mask the fear, Aakhrit appeared beside her, Protective, Territorial , Uninvited. “ She has class,” he said, stepping forward. Kapoor smiled slowly and said “You must be Aakhrit Roy Chowdhury, son of Advocate Abhimanyu Roy Chowdhury.” Aakhrit stiffened. Kapoor noticed. I enjoyed it.“I’ve been keeping an eye on both of you. Potential needs…guidance.”A chill slid down Tharushi’s spine. Kapoor’s fingers brushed a strand of hair from her shoulder too familiar, too rehearsed. “You’ll meet me in my office after school,” he said to her. “Alone.” It wasn’t a request. It was a claim. Aakhrit moved to intercept Kapoor’s gaze and cut him down like a verdict. “Careful”, Roy. Some students don’t know who their fathers really are.” Aakhrit’s fists curled. Tharushi’s heart cracked. Kapoor walked away, the echo of his footsteps whispering:“I never left”. And the world tilted into danger again.
CHAPTER 05-
The office smelled like old books, older secrets, and a trap disguised as trust. She sat across from him, spine straight, voice steady only on the outside. Kapoor slid a paper toward her. Her essay, the one she poured her soul into bleeding with red ink.
“Grade- C” “This isn’t your best,” he sighed. “I know you can do better, I've seen better.”He paused. “Or has Dharamshala made you… distracted?” Her fingers dug into her cardigan .“I didn’t come here to be judged unfairly,” she said.“Oh, but you did,” he replied. “That’s what university is.” He circled her like a hawk with patience.“You are extraordinary, Tharushi. But extraordinary girls attract dangerous attention.” He leaned in, breath too close.“You can trust me with everything, you’re trying to hide.” Her pulse hammered rebellion. “You know nothing about me.” His smile deepened victory disguised as kindness.“I know enough.
Your father, The case. Siliguri. Why you ran, Why you fear being seen. Her bones turned cold. He lifted her chin gentle on the skin, violent on the soul. ‘’ Fix your grades” he whispered “ and stay away from the boys who want to break you”. His thumb brushed her lower lip “ And Tharushi…” his voice darkened. “If you tell anyone what happens here, your father won’t survive another scandal.” Her world collapsed and he admired the ruins. She stood, one step back, one breath stolen. “You can go now,” he said,already sure she'd return. Outside the office, she leaned against the wall, shaking. Aakhrit found her eyes wild, breathing sharp.“What did he do?” She opened her mouth and the truth clawed at her throat. But fear wins first. “Nothing,” she lied. Kapoor watched from his window upstairs smiling like he’d just made his first move in a game only he was winning. Yet.
CHAPTER 06-
The library clock struck 7:45 PM fifteen minutes past when Tharushi promised herself she would leave.But Aakhrit still hadn’t replied.Not to her Are you okay? Not to her I’m waiting. He always replied.
She tried focusing on the stack of books before her - The Moral Illusion but the words blurred into one line of anxiety: What if he’s slipping again? And this time, he won’t let me catch him. She texted again: If you need me, just say the word.Nothing.
Her chest tightened.
She closed her book and rushed out, boots tapping against old stone floors. The hallway smelled of rain and history and fear. Outside, the quad was nearly empty; lamp posts flickered like dying fireflies. Students whispered goodnights as they disappeared into hostel blocks. And then she found him.Aakhrit sitting on the cold concrete stairs behind the auditorium, elbows on knees, head bowed, chest heaving like he had run through ghosts. A faint gleam near his hand. A whiskey bottle. Not full. Not the first time.Tharushi’s heart dropped, “Aakhrit?” His head jerked up. The moment he saw her guilt drowned his anger. “You shouldn’t be here,” he muttered, voice low and jagged. “I promised you,” she said, stepping closer, “I’d always be here.” He laughed humorless. “Promises get people killed in my family.” Silence, Heavy, Unavoidable. Tharushi sat beside him, knees touching. He didn’t move away.She took the bottle .He let her. “Talk,” she demanded softly. His eyes lifted dark, turbulent, full of every storm he never let out. “My father called,” he breathed. “Said I’m an embarrassment. That I’ll never be the lawyer he is. That… I’m weak.” Tharushi’s hands trembled, not with fear, but rage. “Your father doesn’t know you,” she whispered. “He knows exactly what I am,” he spat. “A mistake he refuses to fix.” Tharushi cupped his face gently, like she was touching a wound. You’re not his failure, Aakhrit. You’re his fear. Because you think. Because you feel. That scares men like him.” His breath hitched,He leaned in foreheads touching. Desperation replacing oxygen.“I’m terrified you’ll leave,” he confessed. “One day you’ll realize you deserve…someone whole.” Her thumb brushed his lower lip, slow and sinful. “I’m not leaving.” She kissed him first, a quiet promise sealed in fire.It wasn’t gentle,It wasn’t pretty,It was necessary. Aakhrit pulled her onto his lap, fingers tangled in her hair, urgency burning through the cold night. His fear turned into devotion, pressed against her mouth, her throat, her pulse. Tharushi gasped the world, narrowing to their breaths, their hunger. But then…A light flickered in the hallway. Voices. They pulled apart just enough to breathe the same air. “Tomorrow,” he said, lips brushing her cheek, “I’ll tell you everything.” “And I’ll be there,” she promised. Their hands locked.He stood first then steadied her as if she might fall. Two damaged hearts begin to stitch each other back together under a sky that had always watched them break. Tonight wasn’t healing.But it was the first crack letting the light in.
CHAPTER 07-
The rain didn’t stop the next morning but Aakhrit did show up. Hair wet, Shirt half-buttoned. Eyes swollen from the storm inside him, not the one outside. He slid into the seat next to her in a seminar of human behavioral lecture . Didn’t speak. Just brushed his knuckle against hers under the wooden desk , a silent apology. Tharushi turned her hand and interlaced their fingers. Later, he exhaled like he’d been holding his breath for years. “My father… isn’t just any lawyer,” he began. She nodded, waiting.Tharushi turned her hand and interlaced their fingers. “He defended the man who murdered my mother.” The world stilled. Tharushi’s body froze, every instinct wanting to protect him from something already done. Aakhrit forced a twisted smile. “Said justice isn’t about feelings. Said she should’ve chosen better men.” His voice cracked. “She didn’t choose him either,” he whispered. Tharushi’s hand flew to his cheek and he leaned into her palm like it was the first soft thing he’d felt in years. “You are not his legacy,” she breathed. “You’re hers.” His throat bobbed. “Sometimes I think I’m the leftover evidence of her pain.” “No,” she shook her head fiercely. “You're proof she survived long enough to love.” That undid him.He kissed her right there in the corner of the law building corridor like he needed her oxygen to stay alive. A kiss that tasted like grief. And belonging. And ruined destinies rewritten in real time. They didn’t need to say anything else. They just held on.
CHAPTER 08-
That night, Tharushi couldn’t breathe. Not because Aakhrit’s pain scared her but because she recognized it. Her own ghost smiled from inside her ribs. She walked to the Philosophy Wing terrace, freezing wind slapping her skin, reminding her she existed. She heard footsteps. Aakhrit’s jacket draped around her shoulders before she could protest. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, chin resting on her temple. “You comforted me,” he murmured. “Let me do the same.” Her lips parted but the words wouldn’t come. How could she tell him the truth? That her scholarship wasn’t just merit . It was escape.That the scars on her heart weren’t from heartbreak but survival. That someone she trusted once taught her fear in the shape of love. Her hands shook. Aakhrit noticed.“Tharushi… what happened to you?” The question echoed too close, too raw. She stepped forward, breaking his embrace. “You don’t want to know,” she whispered. “I want to know you,” he corrected. She looked at him, eyes full of storms she had caged for years. “I can’t be your light if I’m also learning to survive my darkness.” Aakhrit stepped closer, thumb brushing the edge of her lip , not a kiss this time, a promise. “Then we walk in the dark together.” Tharushi closed her eyes, letting the warmth of him replace every winter she’d buried. But the past never stays quiet. Her phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number:
You really thought you could run away?
I know where you are.
— A.
Her blood turned to ice. For the first time, she let Aakhrit see her fear. And he pulled her close like he’d fight Heaven and Hell for her.
CHAPTER 09 –
The message had been traced.The next day was chaotic. Police officers in the dean’s office. Hushed whispers following, Tharushi down hallways. Aakhrit was walking beside her like a shield.
Aryan Sinha
Her ex.
The boy who once held her heart.Then broke it with fists instead of love. He had found her. “You’re safe with me,” Aakhrit said again and again.
But safety felt like a myth. In the cafeteria, everyone stared. Rumors spread like wild flames:“Scholarship fraud.” “Her past is criminal.” “She's in trouble.” Tharushi kept her head high but her throat burned. Aakhrit slammed his tray down beside her, fury untamed. “One more word and I’ll—”, “Aakhrit.” Her voice strained. “Don’t make me someone you have to defend.” “You are someone I will always defend,” he shot back.Their eyes locked anger, fear, love tangled like wildfire. He took her chin between his fingers carefully but claiming.
“You are mine to protect,” he whispered. Her heart stuttered fast, reckless. She leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to his jaw. “You don’t heal trauma by fighting,” she said.“No,” his eyes darkened, “but you heal love by staying.” She swallowed hard. She was falling.Not into terror, but into him. And that was the scariest part.
CHAPTER 10 –
The hallway was silent except for the stutter of the last tube-light. Tharushi stood frozen, hands gripping her notebook as if the paper could shield her.
Aakhrit found her staring at a locked door like a ghost waiting behind it.
“Hey,” he breathed, stepping closer. “You missed dinner.”
Her lips parted, but no sound came.
He sensed the tremor in her fingertips and didn’t ask questions. He simply took her hand slow, open, letting her pull away if she wished and guided her into an empty seminar hall.
Desks covered in chalk dust. A single window half-broken. Yet somehow being here with him felt safer than a crowded room.
“Read for me,” he said, placing Nietzsche in front of her.
She tried. But the line made her voice falter: “Some eyes chase love.
Some… chase fear.”Her breath hitched.
Aakhrit closed the book gently.
“Who taught you,” he whispered, “that being wanted is a threat?”
She didn’t answer. Couldn’t.
He leaned in forehead barely brushing hers, the space between them a loaded, fragile universe. Something popped outside.
A camera flash. They both turned but shadows had swallowed whoever watched.
CHAPTER 11 -
Next day, at class-
Professor Aarav Kapoor always chose topics that cut deeper than skin.
“Love: Possession or Liberation?”
Tharushi argued for liberation with soft fury.
Raayan strutted through the “possession” stance like pride was love’s only proof.
“Some people don’t want freedom,” he said loudly. “They want control.”
Aakhrit’s eyes sharpened.
Not violence, precision.
Later, Raayan cornered Tharushi beside the water cooler.
“You like protectors, don’t you?” he smirked.
Aakhrit appeared behind him quiet as a blade unsheathed.
“Keep your theories in class,” he said, voice low. “Or find new teeth.”
Library stacks.
Fingers grazing shelves then grazing fingertips.She flinched.
Flashback lightning behind her eyes. He stepped away immediately.
No questions, no anger, only respect. “If you want me close,” he said, voice trembling with restraint,
“you pull me.” Her fingers curled into his shirt. She pulled. The kiss was brief, accidental, breathtaking.Then a book slammed behind them. Someone didn’t want them hidden.
CHAPTER 12 –-
Thunder swallowed the city.
Hostel corridors turned into tunnels of shadow. A bang on her door. Laughter echoing down the hall. A hand grabbing her wrist in memory , “No—” she gasped, collapsing to the floor. Her trembling fingers hit call. Aakhrit arrived drenched, chest heaving.
“You’re safe,” he whispered, kneeling, gathering her hair away from her wet cheeks.
Words spilled stuttering, broken pieces:
“He—he cornered me. And then they said I… wanted it. I was fourteen. They believed him. Not me. So I left.”
His fists curled.
But when he touched her, it was only to wrap his jacket around her shoulders.
“You owe silence to no one,” he said. “Not anymore.”
Outside, someone watched through raindrop-blurred glass.
A small red light blinked once.
Recording.
CHAPTER 13 –
Screenshots spread.
“Scholarship girl knows how to earn it” Her stomach twisted.
Aakhrit found her in the canteen washroom, washing her hands again and again like she could scrub away the words.
He took her hands wet, shaking and kissed the place she pressed the hardest.
“You deserve softness,” he murmured.
He kissed her slow, grounding, until she remembered she had a heartbeat. Someone’s reflection blurred in the mirror behind them.
Too still.Too near.
CHAPTER 14 –
Aakhrit tore the notice off immediately.
Tharushi’s face- Red ink screaming: “LIAR.”
He flipped the page.
Saw a faint carved signature:
~A
That night, he searched the student records and found him.
Aryan Sinha
Same school & same department,
He felt the earth tilt.
He closed the file and made one decision:Tharushi would not face this alone ever again.
CHAPTER 15 —
Fireworks crowned the sky.
Tharushi laughed breathlessly as Aakhrit pulled her closer on the rooftop. The cold made her lips numb or maybe it was the way he said her name like a promise:
“Tharushi.”
Their mouths met no trembling, no fear ,only warmth and hunger.Hands found places memory once banned.Before the countdown hit zero,she whispered against his lips:
“Don’t stop.”
Far below, a camera zoomed.
A message typed:
“She forgot who touched her first.I’ll remind her.”
Send.
CHAPTER 16 –
Aryan smiled like he owned the world when he “accidentally” brushed her shoulder in the corridor.
“I missed you,” he murmured.
Her heartbeat stuttered old terror rising like smoke.
Aakhrit stepped between them, taller, colder.
“You ever speak to her again,
I take your tongue.”
Aryan’s grin widened. As if the warning was a challenge.
CHAPTER 17 –
She told Aakhrit everything.
Every detail she once hid in locked rooms of her mind.
The panic.
The silence.
The attempt to disappear forever.
He held her unflinchingly, kissing away each tear.
“I’m not scared of your past,” he whispered.
“I’m only scared of you facing it alone.”
She kissed him back deeper, desperate, gripping him like he was the only thing real.
“Do I stop?” he breathed.
“No.”Her answer was fire.
CHAPTER 18 —
He didn’t break laws.
He made them work.
Screenshots, Videos, Testimonies.
Her voice : the strongest weapon.
Aryan sneered in the parking lot: “You think people will believe your new story?”
Tharushi stepped forward.
“They finally will,” she said
and her voice didn’t shake this time.
CHAPTER 19 —
Under a ceiling of judgemental eyes…Aryan lied, again. But this time, Raayan spoke up.
“I saw him near her hostel. Twice.” Shock. Whispers. Finally a doubt shifted in the right direction. Tharushi stood. No trembling, No shame.
“Consent once ignored is violence.Consent twice ignored is a crime and I refuse to be silent again.”
Aryan was suspended , his mask cracked , he stared at her like a curse.
CHAPTER 20 —
But predators don’t surrender quietly. Aryan broke his restrictions and cornered her on a dark path behind the library.
“You owe me,” he hissed, grabbing her wrist.
“No,” Aakhrit growled behind him.
This time, he didn’t hold back.
Concrete scraped knuckles.
Rage found mercy only where the law demanded.
Police sirens cut the night - Aryan was dragged away, spitting threats.
Tharushi collapsed into Aakhrit’s arms not from fear, but release.
“You saved me,” she whispered.
“No,” he said, touching his forehead to hers,
voice rough with love,
“You saved yourself.”
She kissed him; fierce, claiming. He lifted her, her legs around his waist and they stumbled into his room, breaths tangled, hands wandering.
No hesitation.
No shaking.
No shadows left to hide in.
The night didn’t feel stolen anymore.
It felt earned.
CHAPTER 21 —
Tharushi stared at the dinner table in her hostel common room. The campus was quiet; most students had gone home for the break. Aakhrit joined her, removing his jacket, his jaw tight. “Have you ever talked to your parents?” he asked, voice low, almost a whisper. She laughed bitterly, tracing the scratches on the table. “Only when I need to feel small again.”
Her father had been cold, her mother distracted, both more interested in appearances than her trauma. The scholarship had been her escape, not their pride.
Aakhrit nodded, and for the first time, she saw shadows cross his eyes. “I know what it’s like to feel like you’re living someone else’s life.”
His father, a famous lawyer, had demanded perfection - grades, reputation, control over every choice. He had followed law not out of passion, but duty. Any mistake would mean disgrace. For a long minute, they sat together, sharing silence. Two broken pieces of glass, edges touching, finally reflecting the same moonlight.
And for the first time, both wondered if anyone outside these mountains would ever understand them.
CHAPTER 22 —
Aakhrit found an old envelope in his desk; a letter from his father, meant to scold him for “messing up his future.”
He ripped it open, scanning the words he had tried to ignore for years. Lines about expectations, shame, and disappointment.
Tharushi watched quietly, her own pain mirrored. “I… never felt like I could be myself with him,” Aakhrit admitted. “Not once. He only taught me to win, not to feel.”
Tharushi, trembling, whispered back, “My mother… She left me letters, but never delivered them. Always saying, ‘One day you’ll understand.’ I never did. Only felt abandoned.”
For the first time, they shared real secrets, without teasing, without sparks, just truth.
He reached for her hand. “We’re allowed to be messy,” he said. “We’re allowed to be human.” She smiled, faint but real. Their hands intertwined like a promise: broken, but unbroken together.
CHAPTER 23 -
The snow draped the campus in quiet white, softening the edges of the world but doing nothing to soften Tharushi’s chest, which felt like it carried the weight of years.
In her hands were letters she had written as a child , letters to a father who had never read them. Each one was a small plea, a confession, a hope that he might see her, truly see her, for once.
Aakhrit stood beside her, silent, letting her hold the past in her hands. “You don’t have to do this alone,” he murmured. She shook her head, voice trembling. “I need him to hear me. Not for him. For me. For the little girl who bled inside and left pieces behind, wondering if she mattered.”Her thoughts drifted to the ICU, years ago, the cold antiseptic smell, the beeping machines, the terror that had made her hands shake. Blood — her father’s, her own — a literal and figurative mark she had carried in silence. The memory had haunted her every step, but now she was ready to confront it. Aakhrit’s thumb brushed her knuckles, grounding her. “You’ve survived it all. You’ll survive this too.” She inhaled and stepped toward the past she had long avoided, letters clutched like armor.
CHAPTER 24 —
The hospital room smelled of antiseptic, machines humming like a mechanical heartbeat. Her father lay there, fragile, hooked to life. His eyes opened slowly, blinking against the harsh fluorescent light.
“I…” she began, voice raw but steady, “I wrote these when I was thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. Every word I sent… ignored. I wanted to matter. I wanted you to see me. But you didn’t. I watched, helpless. I bled in silence. I lived in your shadow while you were elsewhere. And I carried the blood of fear, guilt, and waiting in my hands.”
He tried to speak, but the words got lost somewhere between regret and weakness.
“I am not asking for forgiveness. I am not asking for love,” she continued, feeling strength grow in her chest. “I am asking for acknowledgement. That I existed. That I mattered. That my years of waiting, my terror, my scars… were real. And this is the last time you get to ignore me.”
She placed the letters on the bedside table. Her father’s gaze softened slightly a silent, almost imperceptible acknowledgment. That was enough.
Outside, Aakhrit wrapped his jacket around her shoulders, pulling her close. “You didn’t need him to see you,” he whispered. “You only needed to see yourself.”
Her first true, deep exhale in years left her lungs like liberation. She was free , free from guilt, fear, and the shadows of the past.
CHAPTER 25 —
The rooftop was quiet, the snow softening the edges of the world, the mountains standing witness. Aakhrit and Tharushi leaned against the parapet, shoulders brushing, hearts synchronized.
She shivered. He draped his jacket over her shoulders, fingers lingering along her arms.
“Do you feel free?” he asked, voice low, intimate.
“Not yet,” she said, lips trembling. “I feel… alive.”
And then they kissed slowly, deliberately , claiming the storm outside echoing the fire between them. Fingers tangled in hair, hands mapping warmth, hearts beating against restraint.
“I am fire,” Tharushi whispered, breath mingling with his, “and I’ve finally learned to burn without fear.”
Aakhrit’s lips pressed to hers, eyes closing. “Then let’s never hide it again.”
Snow fell silently, but their world burned bright. Past ghosts could no longer touch them. Secrets, scars, and fears , all surrendered to this moment of truth and desire.
They stayed there until dawn ; lips, hands, and hearts entwined. The future belonged only to them, and they would write it together, unafraid, unashamed, and unbroken.
And as the first light of dawn kissed the mountains, they remained entwined : two storms that had survived the night, unbroken, unrepentant, and finally, unstoppable.”
With that we come to say a sweet goodbye to them to live happily ever after forever and forever.
Thank you dear kind readers.
This was my second draft of the first story i shared , I hope u like this story for more stories stay tuned with love and chai cup on your hand .
Till then bye💚
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