Raghav wanted to scream.
He wanted to ask why.
But no sound came out.
Only a weak, broken breath escaped his lips.
His throat felt locked, as if the pain had stolen his voice.
I don't want to die…
His thoughts trembled in panic.
I want to live.
Tears slowly rolled down the sides of his face, mixing with the blood on his cheeks.
Through his blurred vision he looked at the woman standing beside the car.
His wife.
The woman he had trusted for more than a decade.
The woman he had built his life around.
He tried to move his hand… but his body refused to listen.
The only thing he could do was stare at her with pleading eyes.
Begging silently.
Please… help me.
Please…
Don't let me die.
Meera looked at him without a hint of sympathy.
Her lips curled slightly, almost amused.
"Weren't you always the strong one?" she said coldly.
"Why are you crying now?"
Raghav's heart trembled.
The voice that once comforted him now sounded like ice.
She leaned closer to the shattered window.
"You know something funny?" she said quietly.
"I always hated you."
The words struck him harder than the crash.
"I never loved you. Not even once."
Raghav's mind went blank.
Meera casually pointed to the man standing beside her.
The man watching the scene like it was nothing more than an inconvenience.
"I loved him," she said.
"Since high school."
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
"But you came and took everything."
"You stole the life that should have been mine."
Raghav struggled to understand.
Stole…?
His memories flashed.
The wedding day.
Her smile.
Her shy voice introducing that man.
"This is my best friend."
The rain fell harder around them.
Inside the wrecked car, Raghav's chest rose and fell weakly.
Every breath felt like knives stabbing his ribs.
Then Meera's eyes suddenly shifted.
She noticed the cake box resting against the cracked windshield.
For a moment she stared at it.
Then she laughed softly.
"Oh…"
"So you were rushing home to celebrate a birthday?"
Her voice dripped with mockery.
"How foolish."
She tilted her head slightly.
"Did you really believe those children were yours?"
Raghav's heart stopped.
His mind refused to accept the words.
But Meera continued mercilessly.
"You were always so dumb."
The world around him shattered.
Not the car.
Not the bones in his body.
His entire life.
The birthday parties.
The school meetings.
The nights he stayed awake when they were sick.
The laughter.
The memories.
Everything.
A lie.
A carefully crafted deception.
He had lived inside it for years… without ever realizing.
Meera straightened up and stepped back.
Her expression had already returned to indifference.
As if the man dying inside the car was a stranger.
"Finish it," she said to the man beside her.
Then she turned and walked away into the rain.
Raghav felt something inside his chest collapse.
Not his ribs.
His heart.
His entire life had been nothing more than a cruel illusion.
The pain in his body faded beneath the weight of that realization.
The rain fell harder.
His vision slowly darkened.
Was my whole life… a lie?
A final tear slipped from the corner of his eye.
Then darkness swallowed everything.