Chapter 1
The Last Breath and a New Coincidence
It was 2 AM. The rain in Mumbai was crashing violently against the glass windows, as if it wanted to break into my house and shatter my silence. My penthouse was filled with an eerie stillness—the kind of silence that pierces through your ears. A glass of whiskey rested in my hand, but it carried more poison than intoxication. I turned around and looked at Meera’s photograph hanging on the wall. Her smile seemed to say that it was already too late.
What had I earned in the last ten years? Billions in wealth, a massive empire, and an endless list of enemies. But what had I lost? Everything. I lost Meera, I lost my humanity, and I lost the person once known as “Aryan.” Meera’s accident was never truly an accident—it was a conspiracy. And I had unknowingly played a part in it because my arrogance had blinded me so deeply that I failed to see the schemes of the people closest to me.
I slammed my head against the table. A sharp pain shot through my skull, and my breathing became uneven. The sound of my heartbeat slowly faded.
“If only… if only I had one more chance,” I whispered painfully into the empty air.
The glass slipped from my hand and shattered across the floor. Darkness slowly consumed my vision.
[Suddenly, a strange light surrounded me.]
When I opened my eyes again, the first thing I saw was the ceiling of my college hostel room. The same old fan was spinning lazily, making that harsh creaking noise I remembered so well. My breathing was heavy. As I tried to sit up, a faint gasp escaped my throat.
On the wall hung a calendar.
15 August, 2016.
I froze in disbelief.
Ten years ago…?
Had I really returned to the past?
I looked down at my hands. No wrinkles. No exhaustion. These were the hands of my younger self. I rushed toward the washroom and stared into the mirror. The same face. The same innocence. The same Aryan who still knew nothing about the cruel truths of the world.
My heartbeat quickened.
This wasn’t a dream.
This was a second chance.
Then it hit me—today was the exact day I had first seen Meera at the college fest. That day, I had never gathered the courage to talk to her, and it took us two whole years before fate brought us together again.
But this time?
This time, I wouldn’t make the same mistake.
I quickly put on my shirt and rushed out of the hostel. The fresh morning air brushed against my face. This time, I wouldn’t run after money alone. This time, I would save Meera, destroy the people who ruined her life, and rebuild the broken relationships I had once neglected.
My first step led me toward the auditorium.
And there she was.
The same old Meera.
Standing behind the stage, quietly reading her script.
I stopped in my tracks and took a deep breath.
“This time, Meera… you will be mine,” I vowed silently to myself.
Aryan walked toward the auditorium, but his steps felt weighed down by the burden of old memories. The campus of 2016… everything felt so fresh, so alive. He remembered that later that same day, three hours from now, a fight would break out behind the library—a fight that would completely change his college life and mark the beginning of the growing distance between him and Meera.
But today?
Today, everything was going to change.
The moment he pushed open the auditorium doors, a bright light hit his eyes. Rehearsals were going on inside. And there she was—Meera. She was wearing a simple white kurti with blue jeans, her hair left open, completely absorbed in the pages of her script, unaware of the world around her.
Aryan froze for a moment.
It felt as though his heart had stopped beating.
In his previous life, it had taken him five whole years to understand the depth of this girl’s love, and by the time he finally realized it, death had already drawn a line between them.
Slowly, he walked to the back row and sat down. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“Aryan, control yourself. This time, she won’t just be your pride… she’ll be your reason to live,” he whispered to himself.
Suddenly, a sharp voice echoed across the stage.
“Meera! Focus! You’re forgetting your dialogue again!”
It was Vikram.
The moment Aryan heard that name, a chill ran through his body.
Vikram—the same man who had once called himself Aryan’s “friend,” but in reality, he was the snake who had planned Meera’s accident and slowly destroyed Aryan’s business empire from within.
Aryan opened his eyes.
The innocence that had been there moments ago was gone.
Now, there was only cold fury and calculated hatred.
As Vikram stretched his hand toward Meera’s shoulder, Aryan immediately rose from his seat and strode toward the stage.
“Do you really think she forgot the script, or are you just troubling her for no reason, Vikram?”
Aryan’s voice carried such depth and authority that silence instantly filled the auditorium.
Meera looked up in shock.
The script slipped from her hands.
Aryan bent down without hesitation, picked it up, and looked at her. There was surprise in Meera’s eyes—the same surprise she had felt the first time she saw him, but this time it was different. Because there was no arrogance in Aryan’s gaze anymore… only an unusual calmness.
“Aryan? You…” Meera stammered softly.
“I know what your next dialogue is,” Aryan said with a faint smile.
Then, without hesitation, he spoke the exact line she had forgotten.
“Even in the world of dreams, one must never abandon the truth, because that is what truly keeps us alive.”
Meera could only stare at him.
Vikram’s face was turning red with anger, but Aryan did not even spare him a glance. His entire focus remained on Meera.
“Where did you hear that line?” Meera asked quietly.
Aryan stepped slightly closer and replied,
“Maybe… I read it in your eyes.”
Everyone standing there was stunned.
How had Aryan—the most arrogant boy in college—changed so much overnight?
Vikram stepped forward angrily.
“Aryan, have you lost your mind? Get out of here.”
Aryan slowly turned toward him and gave him a faint yet poisonous smile.
“Vikram, stay within your limits. Otherwise, what’s coming for you… is beyond even your worst nightmares.”
Meera kept staring at Aryan’s face.
For some reason, it felt to her as if the old Aryan—the one who had once been lost somewhere deep inside—had suddenly returned.
But Aryan knew this was only the beginning.
He still had to uncover every twisted “game” Vikram was going to play in the coming months.
As Aryan walked out of the auditorium, he turned toward Meera one last time and said,
“Meet me in the library tomorrow morning. I want to show you something.”
This was a new beginning.
Aryan had finally turned the page of history
