Chapter 1
One years ago, I thought I was choosing love. Today, I realize I was just running away from everything I had.I left my family without looking back, holding his hand like it was my whole world.I believed him. I trusted him. I chose him.And now… I have nothing.Not him. Not my family. Not even the courage to go back.”Every night, I stare at my phone, wondering if I should call home…But what would I even say ? That I ruined everything for someone who didn’t even stay?“Is this the life I really wanted?Every night before closing my eyes, I pray that this is just a nightmare…But every morning, I wake up in the same room.The same silence. The same emptiness.And it breaks me all over again.I miss my family…I miss my friends…I miss the person I used to be.”“I still remember the day I walked out of my house…I didn’t even turn back.I thought love was waiting for me.I didn’t know heartbreak was.”“I thought he was my true love.In the beginning, when we started living together, he took such good care of me…I even believed he was like my father.How foolish I was…How could I ever compare him to my father?Back then, we were happy.But we were just in our twenties—young, immature, and unaware of the real world.As time passed, I started noticing changes in him… Small at first, but enough to make me feel that something wasn’t right.” I came from a wealthy family, so I had never worked a day in my life.After everything that happened, I was still trying to process my decisions. The thought of working scared me… but I knew someone had to earn money for us to survive.He went to work every day, and for the first few months, I actually enjoyed our life. I would wake up early, pack his tiffin, and wait for him in the evening. We would go for walks together… and it all felt like a dream. But I had no idea… that this dream was slowly breaking.A dream that would soon collapse… because of money.” We didn’t have everything a home should have…No TV, no fridge… not even the small things that make a house feel like home. In the beginning, I adjusted. I understood our situation, so I tried to manage everything—like every woman does for her family. But after seven months, I felt we were a little more stable financially. So one day, I gathered the courage and asked him for some money…Just to buy a few essential things for our home.” His face changed instantly…. Money? Do you even know how hard I work?’ he said sharply. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Just for asking about a few basic things… he sounded so harsh. Then his words cut even deeper. ‘What do you even do all day? Just sit at home?’. In that moment, I felt so small… like everything I had done meant nothing.”. “I wanted to say something… but no words came out. That night, I cried quietly, hoping he wouldn’t notice. But he did notice. He just pretended like he didn’t. At first, I thought maybe he was stressed… maybe it was work pressure, and I was overthinking everything. The next morning, I packed his favorite food in his tiffin. I kept a smile on my face, as if nothing had happened the night before. But he still looked at me with irritation…. And that hurt more than his words.”. Days passed, but nothing changed…Instead, it only got worse. He started coming home late, and sometimes, he wouldn’t even talk to me. There was something else too… something that didn’t feel right. He had never locked his phone before—no WhatsApp, no Facebook… nothing. But suddenly, everything had a password. Even his gallery. One day, I finally asked him, ‘Do you have a girlfriend? Is someone texting you… is that why you’ve locked everything?’. He quickly grabbed his phone from my hand and laughed.' My coworkers use my phone sometimes… it’s just for safety,’ he said casually. Before I could say anything else, he pretended to get a call. And walked out of the house.”. “I wanted to believe him… But something inside me kept telling me that he was hiding something. That night, he came home late and went straight to bed. The love we once had… the romance between us… felt like it had disappeared somewhere. He didn’t notice me anymore— not how I dressed, not how I waited… nothing.
