Author pov...

Ishani went completely still the moment the video played. Her whole body froze, as if the world around her had suddenly stopped.

The phone slipped from her trembling hands and hit the floor with a dull sound. Her breathing turned uneven, shallow, almost nonexistent, as if the shock had stolen the air from her lungs.

Just then, Deeksha walked in and said softly, “Bhabhi, okay then, I’ll leave now. It’s already very late.”

When Ishani gave no response, Deeksha frowned and looked at her carefully. “Bhabhi?”

Still, Ishani did not move.

A wave of fear rushed through Deeksha.

She quickly stepped closer, gently shaking her shoulders. “Bhabhi, what happened? Bhabhi!”

Ishani slowly turned her face toward

Deeksha, and the very next second, she broke down. A loud, uncontrollable sob escaped her chest, followed by another and another, until she was crying so violently that her whole body shook.

Deeksha panicked. Ishani nearly collapsed, but Deeksha caught her just in time and held her upright.

Hearing the noise, Abhay came running with the children.

The moment he entered, he asked in alarm, “What happened, Ishani?”

Ishani lifted her tear-filled eyes and looked at him. The second she saw his face, her heart felt like it shattered into a thousand pieces.

The pain of betrayal hit her so deeply that it was almost unbearable.

She rushed toward him, grabbed his collar with both hands, and cried out, “Why? Why did you do this, Abhay? Why? Was I not enough for you? Was Ishaan not enough? Why did you do this to me? You destroyed everything… everything!”

Abhay stared at her in complete shock. “What happened, Ishani? What are you talking about? Why are you shouting like this? Look at Ishaan, he’s getting scared—”

“Let him be scared!” Ishani screamed, tears pouring down her face. “His father betrayed his mother. He has every right to know!”

Abhay’s face tightened with confusion and panic. “What are you even saying? I told you in the morning, didn’t I? You’re misunderstanding everything. I am not cheating on you. I love you, Ishani!”

But Ishani could not stop crying. Her hands shook as she bent down, picked up the phone, and thrust it toward him. “Then what is this?” she cried.

Abhay looked at the screen.

And froze.

The color drained from his face. His lips parted, but for a second, no words came out.

Then he stammered, “This… this is wrong. This is a fake video, Ishani. This is not me—”

Before he could finish, Ishani slapped him.

The sound echoed through the room.

Then she hit him again.

And again.

Each slap carried her heartbreak, her rage, her humiliation, her shattered trust. She had loved him with everything she had, and now that love had turned into unbearable pain.

Ishaan, already overwhelmed by the shouting, the crying, and the sudden chaos, began to cry loudly. The fear in the room was too much for him.

His little body trembled, his face crumpled in distress, and tears streamed down his cheeks as he covered his ears, unable to process the storm unfolding in front of him.

The entire room fell into a horrifying mess of heartbreak, betrayal, fear, and pain.

Deeksha looked at the children’s frightened faces, and the moment her eyes fell on Ishaan, her heart clenched. He was terrified.

The shouting, the crying, the tension in the room it was all too much for him.

Without wasting another second, Deeksha quickly gathered the three children and took them out of the room.

“It’s okay, come with me,” she said softly, trying to keep her own panic hidden.

Ishaan was crying badly, trembling from fear, unable to handle the chaos around him. Deeksha immediately knelt beside him, gently trying to calm him down.

She held him carefully, speaking in a soft, steady voice, doing everything she could to soothe him while keeping the other children close.

Inside the room, Abhay stood frozen in his place.

And Ishani kept crying.

It was not ordinary crying. It was the kind of crying that came when a person’s entire world collapsed in front of them. Her whole life felt like a lie.

Every memory, every promise, every touch, every word of love now felt poisoned. She had given her whole life to Abhay.

She had trusted him with her heart, her dreams, her years and he had done this to her.

Abhay suddenly dropped to his knees and held her feet, his hands shaking.

His voice broke as he said, “I’m really sorry, Ishani. I made a mistake… but I ended everything today. There is nothing between me and Elena now. It’s over. Please…”

For a moment, Ishani just stared at him in stunned silence.

Shock spread across her tear-streaked face, followed by a deeper kind of pain.

Her lips trembled as she whispered, “For ten years… you have been cheating on me?”

Abhay lowered his eyes, unable to face her.

Ishani let out a broken, disbelieving laugh through her tears, the kind that came from pure devastation.

“And today you ended it?” she cried. “Today? After destroying everything? You ruined everything, Abhay… you ruined everything!”

Her voice cracked with every word.

She kept crying and crying, unable to stop, as if years of love and trust were leaving her body in the form of tears. Time passed, but her pain did not lessen.

One hour passed. Then another. She cried until her body had no strength left, until exhaustion consumed her completely.

And then, suddenly, she collapsed.

Abhay’s eyes widened in horror. “Ishani!”

He rushed forward and caught her limp body before she could hit the floor.

Panic took over him completely. He lifted her in his arms and quickly brought her to the bed, laying her down carefully.

His hands trembled as he checked her blood pressure. It was slightly high.

That frightened him even more.

Tears filled his eyes. Guilt crashed over him so heavily that he could barely breathe.

Looking at Ishani lying unconscious in front of him, so broken because of him, made him feel like the worst man alive.

He sat beside her the entire night.

He did not sleep.

He just kept looking at her pale face, her closed eyes, and the pain he had caused.

Every few minutes, he checked on her again, terrified that something worse might happen.

Regret ate him alive, but it was useless now. The damage had already been done.

The next morning, Ishani slowly opened her eyes.

Her whole body felt weak, heavy, and drained, as if all the strength had been pulled out of her overnight.

For a few seconds, she simply stared around the room, confused and blank.

Then her eyes settled on the familiar walls, the bed, the silence around her.

And suddenly, everything came rushing back.

The video.

Abhay’s confession.

Ten years of betrayal.

Her breath hitched.

A sharp pain spread through her chest, and tears instantly filled her eyes again.

She turned her face away and started crying, quietly at first, then helplessly, as if her heart had cracked open all over again.

Just then, the door opened.

Abhay walked into the room, his face full of worry. The moment he saw her awake, relief flooded his expression.

He hurried toward her and said, “Thank God, Ishani. You’re okay. I was so scared.”

Ishani slowly turned her tearful eyes toward him. Her face was pale, but her voice was cold.

“If I die,” she said bitterly, “it will only benefit you. Then you can have an affair with anyone you want.”

Abhay flinched as if her words had physically struck him. “I’m really sorry, Ishani,” he said quickly, his voice trembling. “Please… please forget all this. I know my mistake now. Please. I love you so much.”

Ishani stared at him in complete disbelief, as though she could not recognize the man standing in front of her anymore.

“Do you even understand what you are saying, Abhay?” she asked, her voice shaking with pain and anger. “For ten years, you kept me in darkness. For ten years, you cheated on me. You lied to my face, lived a double life, and now you want me to forget it?”

Abhay stood speechless.

Ishani wiped her tears with trembling hands, but more kept falling.

“I want a divorce,” she said.

The words landed like a blow.

Abhay’s face went white. “What?”

“I want a divorce from you,” Ishani repeated, this time more firmly. “Me and Ishaan cannot live with you anymore.”

Abhay stared at her in shock, as if he had never imagined she would actually say it. “Ishani, listen to me don’t say that. So many husbands cheat on their wives. These things happen. It goes on in marriages. No one takes divorce over this. Think about Ishaan. This will affect him.”

For a moment, there was stunned silence.

Then Ishani looked at him with such deep hurt that even Abhay could not hold her gaze.

“You didn’t understand that when you were cheating on me?” she asked quietly, tears rolling down her cheeks. “You didn’t think about Ishaan then? You didn’t think about how this would destroy him, how this would destroy me? But now, when I want to leave, suddenly you remember your son?”

Her voice began to rise again, filled with the pain of years.

“You had ten years, Abhay. Ten years to think about your family. Ten years to stop. Ten years to tell the truth. But you chose to lie to me every single day. And now you want to lecture me about marriage? About Ishaan? You lost that right the moment you betrayed us.”

Abhay opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.

Ishani’s tears would not stop, but her voice had changed now. It was no longer just broken. It was wounded, cold, and final.

“I gave you everything,” she whispered. “My trust, my love, my life. I made you my world. And you made a fool out of me for ten years. I cannot stay with a man who could look into my eyes every day and still lie so easily.”

Abhay felt his chest tighten. “Please, Ishani… don’t do this. Please give me one chance.”

But Ishani looked away from him.

“There are some mistakes,” she said softly, “that destroyed everything beyond repair.”

Abhay took a step closer, desperation and fear flashing in his eyes. There was no way he was going to let Ishani leave him.

In his own twisted mind, he still loved her deeply, and now he was ready to twist even the truth if that meant keeping her with him.

His voice hardened as he said, “You are not the only victim here, Ishani. You also had a part in this.”

Ishani stared at him in disbelief, her tear-filled eyes widening. “My part?” she asked, stunned. “What did I do?”

Abhay let out a frustrated breath, as if he had been waiting to say this for years. “For the last two years, there has been no physical intimacy between us. You wouldn’t let me come close to you. Tell me, then what was I supposed to do? After marriage too, you always kept your distance, and after Ishaan was born, you became completely busy with him. You forgot that I existed. I have physical needs too. That is why this happened.”

For a moment, Ishani could only stare at him.

It felt like the air had been knocked out of her lungs.

Her fingers went cold. Her body turned numb.

She had already been shattered by his betrayal, but hearing him blame her for his cheating felt even cruel.

It was as if he had taken the knife already lodged in her heart and twisted it deeper.

“My fault…” she whispered, barely able to process his words.

Abhay continued, trying to defend himself, trying to make his betrayal sound reasonable. “I am not saying I was right, but you pushed me away too, Ishani. A husband can only tolerate so much. If there is no closeness, no physical intimacy, then what do you expect?”

Ishani looked at him as if she no longer recognized him.

This was no longer just betrayal.

This was humiliation.

This was manipulation.

Tears rolled down her face as she shook her head in disbelief.

“So this is what you really think?” she asked, her voice trembling. “You cheated on me for ten years, and now you are standing here telling me it happened because of me?”

Abhay opened his mouth, but Ishani raised her hand, stopping him.

“No,” she said, her voice suddenly firmer. “Don’t say another word.”

She stepped back from him, her face pale with shock and pain.

“You lied to me for ten years. You betrayed me, destroyed this marriage, and now, instead of taking responsibility, you are blaming me because there was no physical intimacy?” Her voice cracked, but she did not stop. “Do you even hear yourself, Abhay? Do you hear how disgusting that sounds?”

Abhay fell silent.

“I was carrying this family on my shoulders,” Ishani said, tears falling without pause. “I was taking care of Ishaan, giving everything to this home, trusting you with my whole heart. And while I was doing that, you were cheating on me. That was your choice. Don’t you dare stand here and make it my fault.”

Her voice rose with every word, heavy with pain and fury.

“A decent man talks. A decent husband communicates. He does not run into another woman’s arms and then justify it by saying he has needs.”

She let out a broken laugh, shaking her head. “You did not cheat because of me, Abhay. You cheated because you wanted to. Because you were selfish.”

Those words hit him like a slap.

Ishani looked at him with tears in her eyes, but there was something colder there now too something final.

“The worst part,” she whispered, “is not even that you cheated. The worst part is that after destroying me, you still cannot admit that it was entirely your fault.”

Abhay had no answer.

And Ishani felt something inside her go still.

The love was still there somewhere, buried under ten years of memories, but the trust was dead.

And she knew, with terrifying clarity, that the man standing in front of her was no longer her husband in her heart.

Three months later, in Delhi, the night lay still and heavy.

Deepak was fast asleep when the sharp vibration of his phone broke through the silence.

He groaned in irritation, his hand fumbling across the bedside table before finally grabbing it.

His eyes were barely open as he glanced at the screen, and the sight of the time made his face tighten.

2:00 a.m.

He let out a tired breath and answered the call.

“Yeah, Pandey, speak.”

A nervous voice came from the other side. “Sir, Rahul sir has drunk again. He was trying to leave on his bike, but I’ve stopped him somehow. Please come here quickly.”

Deepak shut his eyes for a moment, exhaustion dripping from every breath. “Again? He drank again? And you couldn’t stop him from drinking in the first place?”

Pandey sounded helpless. “Sir, I was trying to stop him, but I don’t even know when or how he slipped out from the station and reached the club.”

Deepak rubbed his forehead, already feeling a headache building. “You didn’t call Bhavya madam, did you? Not this time?”

“No, sir,” Pandey replied quickly. “This time I called you directly.”

Deepak sighed deeply, forcing himself to sit up despite the weight of sleep still clinging to his body. “Okay. I’m coming. Handle him till then.”

Without waiting for another word, he cut the call, his face tense with frustration and worry.

For a few seconds, Deepak just sat there on the edge of the bed, staring into the dark.

Rahul had done it again.

And somehow, no matter how many times this happened, Deepak was always the one being pulled out of sleep to fix what Rahul was destroying.

Deepak quickly pulled on his trousers, then grabbed a T-shirt and wore it in haste.

Sleep still lingered in his eyes, but there was no time for that now.

He stepped out of his room quietly.

The house was wrapped in silence. In the other room, his mother was still asleep, unaware that yet again, in the middle of the night, her son was being dragged into Rahul’s chaos.

Deepak walked past her door without making a sound and headed outside.

The cool night air hit his face as he stepped out of the house and then out of the building.

For a moment, he stood there under the dim lights, his jaw tight, already knowing exactly where he had to go.

He unlocked his car, got in, and started the engine.

The route felt painfully familiar.

That same club.

God knew how many times he had gone there before.

The same place where Rahul always ended up completely drunk, drowning himself in alcohol as if it could numb the ache in his chest.

As if every glass could somehow mend a heart that had been shattered beyond repair.

And then came the worst part.

Rahul, in that half-conscious, reckless state, would still insist on taking his bike and speeding onto Delhi’s empty roads in the dead of night riding like a man with nothing left to lose, like he was ready to gamble his life away just to outrun the pain for a few moments.

Deepak gripped the steering wheel harder as he drove through the sleeping city.

There was anger in him, yes. Frustration too. But beneath all of it was something heavier fear.

Because every single time Rahul did this, Deepak knew one thing for sure.

One night, he might reach too late.

Deepak strode into the club with a face hard as stone.

The staff did not dare interfere. They all knew who Rahul was an IPS officer. They knew Deepak too an IPS officer . Fear kept their mouths shut. No one questioned anything. No one tried to stop Rahul from drinking.

They simply kept making one drink after another and placing it in front of him, as if silence could save them from trouble.

Across the room, Deepak’s eyes landed on Pandey, who was still struggling to keep Rahul steady in his seat. Rahul could barely sit straight, his body swaying, his gaze unfocused.

Deepak walked over and said in a low, firm voice, “Pandey, go home. You’ll have to report at the station again tomorrow.”

The relief on Pandey’s face was instant. He straightened at once and nodded. “Good night, sir.”

Without wasting a second, he turned and left quickly, almost grateful to escape.

Now only Deepak and Rahul remained.

Rahul lifted his head with difficulty, his eyes red, his expression blurred with alcohol and anger.

He looked at Deepak but could not properly understand who was standing in front of him.

In a slurred, bitter voice, he muttered, “Who are you to stop me? I’ll go outside... I’ll drive... I’ll die if I want...”

The words hit Deepak like a spark in dry grass.

His jaw clenched. Rage surged through him not just anger, but the helpless fury of someone who had seen this same scene too many times, heard the same reckless words too many times, and still had to stand there and drag Rahul back from the edge again and again.

Before Rahul could say anything else, Deepak stepped forward and slapped him hard across the face.

The sharp sound cut through the noise of the club.

Rahul’s head jerked to the side. For a moment, he just stared, stunned, blinking as if the blow had not only struck his skin but also broken through the haze in his mind.

He looked back with anger burning in his eyes, but he still couldn’t make sense of the man in front of him.

In his drunken confusion, he thought it was Pandey.

His face twisted with fury as he glared ahead, still too intoxicated to see clearly, still too lost inside his own ruin to realize who had actually stopped him.

Rahul held his cheek, his eyes blazing with drunken anger. He stared at the man in front of him and barked, “Pandey… you hit me?”

Deepak let out a sharp, disbelieving breath. His frustration was written all over his face. “You’ve drunk so much, Rahul, you can’t even tell the difference between me and Pandey. Get a hold of yourself.”

Rahul blinked, trying to focus. The haze in his eyes slowly shifted as he looked at him properly this time.

Deepak’s voice turned harder, heavier. “Come to your senses, Rahul. Don’t destroy your life like this.”

For a moment, Rahul just stared at him. Then, as recognition finally settled in, his expression changed. His anger faltered.

“Deepak…” he muttered, his voice still thick with alcohol. “You came?”

Deepak looked at him with a cold, exhausted expression. “Yeah, I came.”

Then he leaned a little closer, his tone edged with warning. “Be grateful I came and not Bhavya. Otherwise, she would’ve dealt with you properly.”

Rahul said nothing for a second. He just kept looking at Deepak, like the weight of those words had pierced through his drunken fog more sharply than the slap.

Because Deepak’s anger was one thing.

But Bhavya’s disappointment?

That was something Rahul had never been able to bear.

Rahul’s face crumpled all at once. His eyes filled, and then, like a child who had finally found someone safe enough to break in front of, he started crying.

“You hit me, Deepak…” he said, his voice shaking. “You hurt me.”

Deepak stared at him for a second, half angry, half exhausted beyond words.

Then he let out a dry breath and said, “That hurt you? Really? You took a bullet while catching a thief and survived that. And now my slap is what’s hurting?”

Rahul kept looking at him with teary, unfocused eyes, his cheek still turned slightly where the slap had landed.

Deepak’s expression hardened again. “Enough of this drama. Get up. We’re going home.”

Rahul sniffed, still looking miserable, but Deepak had no patience left for his drunken theatrics.

He caught hold of Rahul’s arm firmly, not rough enough to injure him, but strong enough to make it clear there was no room for argument.

“Come on,” Deepak said sharply. “Stop this nonsense and move.”

Rahul stumbled as he tried to stand, still weak from the alcohol, still muttering under his breath like a wounded man who wanted sympathy even in his self-destruction.

Deepak held him up despite his irritation, his grip steady as he started leading him out of the club.

Because no matter how angry he was, no matter how many times Rahul tested his patience, in the end Deepak was still the one who came.

Still the one who stayed.

Deepak somehow dragged Rahul out of the club and shoved him into the passenger seat.

Rahul collapsed against it without resistance, too drunk to fight, too broken to care.

Deepak slammed the door shut, walked around the car, and dropped into the driver’s seat with a hard, tired breath.

The engine started.

For a while, there was only silence inside the car except for Rahul’s uneven breathing.

Rahul kept staring out of the window, his eyes fixed on the blur of Delhi’s sleeping streets.

Tears kept slipping down his face, one after another, and he didn’t even bother wiping them away.

He just sat there, looking outside like he was searching for something that was never going to appear.

Then, in a cracked voice, he whispered, “I miss Ishani…”

Deepak’s grip on the steering wheel tightened instantly.

His jaw locked so hard that the muscles in his face turned sharp.

A dark tension settled over him, heavy and immediate, but he said nothing. Not a single word.

Instead, he pressed harder on the accelerator.

The car sped through the empty roads, faster than before, the city lights streaking past them in long, restless lines.

Rahul kept crying quietly beside him, still staring out of the window, still lost in the ache of a name that refused to leave him.

And Deepak drove on with silence burning inside him.

When they finally reached the building, Deepak parked the car in the basement and stepped out without a word.

He came around to Rahul’s side, opened the door, and pulled him up carefully.

Rahul could barely stand on his own, his body loose with alcohol, his mind somewhere far away.

Deepak held him steady and took him upstairs.

He did not take Rahul to his own house.

If he did, Bhavya would find out. And what would happen after that both to Rahul and to him Deepak knew very well. So without making any noise, he brought Rahul straight into his own room.

Once inside, he sat Rahul down on the bed and bent to remove his slippers. Rahul didn’t resist.

He was too lost, too tired, too broken. Deepak made him lie down properly and pulled the sheet over him.

For a moment, the room became quiet.

Then Rahul stirred weakly in his drunken state and whispered, his voice trembling with pain, “Ishani… please come back to me… it hurts so much… I can’t breathe…”

Deepak froze.

Hearing those words from Rahul’s mouth, seeing his friend in such a shattered condition, did something painful to him. He looked away for a second, his chest tightening.

Rahul, who once faced bullets without flinching, now lay broken by something no one else could see.

Deepak sat beside him and said in a low voice, “Go to sleep. Everything will be okay.”

Maybe he said it for Rahul.

Maybe he said it for both of them.

Rahul kept murmuring Ishani’s name a few more times, weaker and weaker, until at last sleep pulled him under.

Deepak stayed there, watching him in silence. Then he let out a long breath and lay down on the other side, staring at the ceiling.

But sleep did not come to him immediately.

Because once the room fell silent, his own buried thoughts rose to the surface.

Deeksha.

He never said her name aloud. Never told anyone that even now, after everything, she still lived in some hidden corner of his heart. No matter how much he tried to forget her, he never truly could.

He kept thinking about her in the darkness, about the memories he never shared, about the feelings he kept locked away from the world.

And somewhere between those thoughts, with Rahul still breathing heavily beside him and the weight of his own past pressing quietly on his chest, Deepak finally drifted off to sleep too.

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