It had been a week.
A week since the air had started to feel normal again, or at least like it was pretending to. Karan and Isha were back to their soft routines, brushing fingers in the kitchen, soft banter at dinner, and the comfort of shared silence. But like all performances, something felt a little too quiet.
Karan's mother had gone to a temple retreat, leaving the house unusually empty. Isha had the place to herself that afternoon, sipping coffee in the living room, when her phone rang.
It was Reem.
"Are you sure you'll be okay alone? That girl... I don't trust her."
Isha smiled faintly. "It's fine, Reem. Karan will be home early today."
But Karan wasn't home yet. And the doorbell rang.
Isha walked to open it, expecting a delivery. Instead, she found Priyal standing there with a plate of brownies.
"Hey! I baked too much. Thought I'd share. Didn't know anyone else was home."
Isha raised a brow but accepted with a tight smile. "Thanks. I'll give these to Karan."
"Oh, is he around?" Priyal asked casually.
"He will be," Isha said, shutting the door before more pleasantries could unfold.
Later that evening, Isha left for a short walk with Reem, trusting Karan to return soon. But he didn't. And her phone battery died somewhere between sunset and disappointment.
When she returned home and entered from the back gate, she heard voices.
Karan's. And Priyal's.
She paused.
"You still remember that?" Priyal laughed, the sound breezy, flirtatious. "That spot near the old bookstore, how you held my hand and said we were invincible."
A pause. Isha could imagine Karan rubbing his neck awkwardly.
"Yeah... it was a different time."
"But not a different heart, right? You still care, Karan. You don't just forget a love like that."
Silence.
Then, Priyal's voice dropped. "Isha wasn't even home... you could've at least hugged me without guilt. Don't act like you didn't want to."
Isha stood frozen by the side window. She couldn't see them, but she could feel the room, the closeness.
"Priyal, stop," Karan said, voice low. "This isn't what you think it is."
But Priyal's voice came again, thick with pretended innocence. "Then why didn't you pull away when I touched your arm just now?"
Isha stepped inside before she could stop herself.
They both turned. Karan was standing stiff, looking like he'd been caught doing something he didn't even realize was happening. Priyal, meanwhile, looked a bit too composed, like someone who knew which lines to blur.
Isha looked at neither of them. Her eyes were on the plate, the brownies, still half-eaten on the table. Her voice was calm, but it cracked at the edges. "I didn't know hospitality meant this."
Karan stepped forward. "Isha, it's not what it looked like. She just—"
"Touched your arm? Flirted with you? Told you about your invincible love?" Her voice was quiet but cut like a blade.
Priyal had the audacity to smirk. "He didn't stop me. That's not my fault."
Isha laughed bitterly, a dry sound she barely recognized as her own. "You were always good at illusions, Priyal. You make lies look like memories."
She turned away, walking straight to their bedroom. She didn't yell. She didn't demand explanations. She packed with a silence that screamed louder than any fight ever could.
Karan stood at the doorway, guilt hanging off his shoulders like chains. "Please, Isha, don't go. I didn't... I never wanted this."
"Then you should've stopped it," she said, closing the suitcase. "You let a ghost in. And now she haunts us both."
She walked out, her steps firm, her hands trembling only when no one could see.
The house felt heavier the moment the door shut.
And all that remained behind was the scent of brownies, the weight of what almost happened, and the silence she left behind.
The morning after Isha left, the house didn't wake up.
The curtains swayed in the quiet wind, but there was no scent of her jasmine perfume. The kitchen stayed cold. Her slippers lay untouched by the bed. The silences that once felt comforting were now loud with absence. And Karan? He hadn't moved from the couch all night.
Arun knocked on the door at 9 a.m. sharp. "Brother," he called softly. "I heard from Reem. Is it true?"
Karan didn't answer at first. He was staring at the plate of brownies, now stale.
"She saw what she wasn't supposed to," he finally murmured. "But that doesn't mean it was true."
Arun stepped inside, frowning. "You let Priyal get close again. That's enough to ruin everything, Karan."
"I didn't touch her," Karan said, his voice low. "But maybe… I didn't push her away fast enough."
"She's your past," Arun snapped. "Isha was your present, and maybe your future. You should've known which door to close."
Meanwhile, across town, Isha sat at Reem's apartment, legs tucked into her chest on the balcony floor. She hadn't said much. Just stared out at the rain.
"She set you up," Reem said for the third time. "I know it. Priyal's not just here to settle in. She's here to burn something down."
Isha shook her head. "Even if she staged it… he didn't stop her. That's what I saw. That hesitation? It killed me."
"But you love him."
"I do," she whispered. "And that's why it hurts. Because I never thought I'd need to beg someone to choose me twice."
Back at the house, Priyal was still around. She'd stayed the night, pretending concern.
"You should eat something," she offered, placing toast near Karan.
Karan looked at her, eyes bloodshot. "Did you plan all of it?"
Priyal stepped in, holding a tiffin and feigning concern. "I brought you breakfast. You haven't been eating, Karan."
He didn't even glance at the food. "Did you plan all of it?"
She blinked innocently. "What do you mean?"
"That moment. The way you touched me. The memories you kept bringing up. Did you know Isha was outside?"
A flicker of guilt, too quick for most to notice, flashed in her eyes. "I didn't know she was watching," she said quietly.
"But you hoped she would," Karan replied coldly. "You've been waiting for a crack to slip through ever since you came back."
"Karan—" she reached out again.
But his voice rose, sharper than before. "You think you can fake your way back into my life with old stories and crocodile tears? I loved you once, yes. But now? Isha owns every part of me I never knew I had."
Priyal's face stiffened.
"I don't want to see you here again. This isn't your home. You don't belong in my world anymore."
He pointed to the door.
Stung, Priyal stood frozen for a second before slowly turning away.
Karan didn't look back as she left. He just stood still, like a man finally clearing the ruins of something long dead.