He remembered the exact moment her breathing hitched, the way her eyelashes fluttered as she lifted her face. He remembered the way her lips parted, the quiver in her voice as she said his name like she was pleading.
And then her voice was in his head, soft, shaking, terrified and brave all at once.
I love you, Kabir.
Three small words with his name tacked on. So small yet so powerful. They shimmered inside him like something holy and ruinous. Something he’d wanted for so long it felt like blasphemy to finally hear it. Something he’d been starved for and terrified of in equal measure.
He remembered the warmth of her breath on his skin. The hope in her eyes. The absolute, devastating trust in her voice.
He remembered wanting to say it back, wanting to fall to his knees and worship her, wanting to drag her against him and never let go. He remembered all of it. And he remembered what he did instead.
He’d walked away from her. He’d broken her heart. And he did it with cruelty and finesse. He’d killed her dream with the weight of his silence.
And that memory, that moment, was the one that haunted him most. Not because she’d loved him. But because he had loved her too and he had still fucking left.
“Kabir.” Ved’s voice drew him back to the present.
He opened his eyes, letting his misery envelop him. “I broke her heart. I ghosted her. I stopped taking her calls, responding to her messages…I shoved her out of my life and I didn’t let her back in. I’m the reason she allowed that bastard into her life. I’m the one who set the stage for this.”
Silence met his confession. Bile rose in his throat, his heart practically beating out of his chest as he met his father’s gaze. In them, all he saw was compassion. And he knew that if he stayed, he’d break. And he couldn’t afford to break.
“I have to go,” he said. “I can’t be here.”
“You should,” another voice answered him. Kabir looked over his father’s shoulder to see Karam standing in the doorway.
“Take some time for yourself,” Karam said. “You need it.” His hard gaze softened as he took in Kabir’s wrecked expression and he said the words that would get Kabir moving, “And so does she.”
Kabir nodded, taking a stumbling step back from them. “If there is any blowback from Jay, I’ll deal with it.”
“No,” Karam said. “We’ll take care of that. You take care of yourself.”
Kabir made it to the car before he stopped, turning to meet Karam’s eyes. “Everything I did, I did because…I don’t deserve her. She deserves better. She deserves everything.”
“She does,” Karam nodded, his matter of fact words sliding a dagger through Kabir’s already bleeding heart. “But I didn’t deserve her mother either,” he added, with a small smile. “And yet, here we are.”
He walked over to where Kabir stood and hauled him in for a hard hug. “Let me tell you a secret, son,” he murmured. “Those women do deserve better. But the lucky bastards that we are, they choose us anyway.” He thumped Kabir on the back once, hard enough to almost topple him. “Thank you for looking out for her. I will always owe you for that. And as for that snivelling bastard, you leave him to us.”
“I’m not sure you should be driving,” Ved said now, coming over to take the keys from his trembling fingers. “I’ll take you back. Let’s go.”
Kabir slid into the car, the door shutting with a heavy thud that echoed through his bones. His gaze lifted to the rearview mirror. There, small and distant, framed perfectly by the glass, stood the front door of Il Cuore. The house that held his heart. The first place he’d set eyes on her. It held their lives. Their laughter. Their memories. Their ghosts.
The world outside the car blurred, but he kept staring, his eyes locked on that doorway as if sheer will could rewind time, undo the last hour, unhear the truth that had hollowed him out.
Then the car began to roll forward, slow and steady, pulling him away from everything he’d ever wanted and everything he’d never deserved. He watched until Il Cuore disappeared completely from view.
Only then did the strength leave him.
Kabir exhaled a broken breath, closed his eyes, and let the world go dark around the edges. His chest ached with a heaviness that felt bone-deep, a weight pressing down so relentlessly his ribs strained to contain it.
He let it all fade, the pain, the fear, the fury, the memories of her voice in his ear, her hand over his heart, her kiss still burning on his mouth. He let it fade because he had nothing left to fight with. He leaned his head back against the seat, breath shallow, eyes closed.
He couldn’t take in anything more, his mind and heart caving under the pressure. So he didn’t. He let go. For the first time in years, Kabir simply… stopped.
He’d failed. He was done.
CHAPTER 34
TANISHA
