Ishika groans. “This Lucian guy showing up is messing with her head—”
“I assure you it’s not. They both want each other. They love each other.” I take a breath. “And as I said—I don’t want her. I... I haven’t told you this but... I’m in love with someone else.”
Vikram frowns. “Who? That executive assistant who—”
I shake my head.
Then force the name out.
The name I haven’t said out loud in years. At least not to these two.
“Greesha.”
God.
Just saying it out loud—her name—is like exhaling after holding my breath underwater for two years.
It feels... cathartic.
And brutal.
Ishika’s face drains of color. “Oh god. Is she the one who broke up with you because of—”
“Yes.”
“Well... you haven’t fixed anything with her in the last two years. What—”
Vikram stops.
Because he sees it now.
The tears filling my eyes.
The way my chest starts to shudder, breath hitching painfully.
“She...” I try. My voice cracks.
I’ve never said this before. I’d never possessed the strength to actually say these three words in the same sentence. I feel bile rise up my throat at the thought of finally uttering the devastating sentence.
Say it.
Just say it, Advik.
“Greesha is dead.”
The silence after is deafening.
I don’t remember much of what happens next.
Just fragments. Blurred sobs. The muffled sound of their voices behind the roar in my ears. Their arms around my shoulders squeezing me tight.
But something inside me has cracked open.
And I don’t think it’s ever going to close again.
SIX
Aadya
