Chapter 48: chapter 48

Chapter Forty EightMaya and he didn’t move or speak for several moments after his mother left. A strange, deafening silence filled the room making the space between them seem to balloon to insurmountable proportions.Finally, she spoke.“It was never you,” she said again, the words seeming to seep into her consciousness.“No.” Yash watched her for a clue to what she was thinking or feeling but he found nothing.“Why didn’t you respond to my message?” she asked, turning to look at him, her face still carefully blank. “Why didn’t you ask me why I was breaking off our engagement?” “I…” He ran his hands through his hair, thinking back to those days. “I was hurt and angry and…”“And?” she asked, her voice and face still expressionless.“Heartbroken.” His voice was just as flat now. “My father had just died. I had lost my job because of the extended leave I took to care for him in his last days. I was drowning in medical debt. And I got a fucking one line text from the woman I was hoping to spend the rest of my life loving, dumping me. So yeah, forgive me for not replying.”“Your mother-““What the fuck does it matter what my mother said?” he exploded, years of pent up hurt bursting out of him. “We’d known each other for months by then. We were supposed to be getting married. Shouldn’t you have known me better? Didn’t I deserve a fucking conversation? Was that all I was worth to you? One line?” “I was lying in a hospital bed with a mangled foot and second degree burns. Didn’t I deserve a visit from my fiancé? Maybe then you could have said whatever you had to, to my face,” Maya yelled back, her composure splintering.“I didn’t know. I didn’t fucking know. Do you know how it felt to find out years later? To know that I failed you at a time like that? To know that I let you down?” “Has it ever occurred to you, Yash, that everything isn’t about you,” Maya sounded bored now but her eyes glittered with unshed tears. “I was too busy trying to stay alive to worry about your bruised ego.” “It wasn’t my ego that was hurting, Maya, and I think that was the problem.” Every inch of his body hurt but Yash forced himself to keep talking.“What? What was the problem then?” she asked, her arms going around her waist, unconsciously comforting herself. “I fell in love with you. I was madly, insanely in love with you. It wasn’t an arranged marriage to me anymore. It was my fucking dream come true…until it turned into a nightmare.” She flinched. “But you didn’t.” He turned away from her. “You didn’t fall in love with me. Not then and not now.” Her mouth opened and closed but no sound came out. “Don’t say it,” he warned. “Don’t say something just because you think it’s what I want to hear.” Maya swallowed her words, something undefinable churning in her eyes. “Not saying it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.” “You broke me, Maya.” He marvelled at the fact that his voice stayed steady as he finally lanced the wound that still festered between them. “And you destroyed my faith in humanity,” she said, quietly. “But it’s in the past.” It was like a sharpened dagger to his already aching heart. He rubbed a hand absently to his chest as he stared into her teary eyes. And he knew what he had to do. “Is it? Last night was incredible,” Yash said. “It was everything I’d always dreamed of.” “But?” Maya asked, challenging him, pushing him to put in words what they both knew. “But I think we forgot to deal with the past before we enjoyed the present and dreamed up a future.”Maya flinched, the colour draining from her face. She shook her head and stepped away from him, as if by doing that she could stop what was coming.“I thought you said you loved me,” she whispered.“I did. I do. I will. There is a Maya shaped brand on my heart. It’s going nowhere.” “Then why?” she asked. “Why destroy this thing between us? Revenge? Is that what it is? Your turn to break me?”“That you would ask that shows how little you know me. Your family hates me, my mother feels the same for you, our past is filled with anger, pain and bitterness. My mother will do anything to ruin you. She can’t see past her hatred. And I cannot give her the opportunity to do that. It’s not a foundation for a successful relationship, Maya. The last time, I lost you even without ever truly having you and it took me years to heal from it. This time, I don’t think lifetimes would suffice. I will not survive you this time, Maya. I will not survive us.” “You don’t mean this. We can find a way.” “Can we?” he smiled, sadly. “I’m not as sure of that as you are.”“Maybe we do need some time away from each other, from this ridiculous roller coaster that we’ve been on.” Maya took a deep breath and bent to pick her panties up. “Maybe we need some time to work through the issues.” She walked past him and to the door, stopping just short of opening it. Looking over her shoulder, she met his gaze head on. “Last night was real. It was honest and it was incredible. We fucked up in the past but I’m going to show you that we can do it better this time around. I love you, Yash Malhotra, and I’m coming for you and for the life we are going to have together. Don’t for one single second think I’ve given up on you, on us. And don’t for one millisecond think I’m going to let you give up on us. Not now. Not ever.”Â