🏙️ “Long-Distance Love, Close-Distance Pain” - Chapter 12

 

Chapter 12: When the Past Rings the Doorbell

“Healing is hard. But reopening old wounds with questions you never asked? That’s war.”

Friday Evening.
Aditi stood at her apartment balcony, the sun dipping low behind the Mumbai skyline, her phone finally on silent. After three chaotic days of media attention, office meetings, HR escalations, and forced smiles — she was done.

Just for tonight… she wanted silence.

Then came a knock.

Three soft taps.

She froze.

No delivery expected. No friends scheduled. No reason for her heart to pound the way it did.

She opened the door.

It was him.

Aditya. Drenched in monsoon rain, holding a small cardboard box.

She didn’t speak. Just stared.

“I didn’t come to explain,” he said. “I came to return something.”

He placed the box on her small coffee table. Then stepped back.

Curiosity got the better of her. She opened it.

Inside were things she hadn’t seen in years.

  • A yellowed envelope with a photo of them at her hostel farewell.

  • A bracelet she thought she’d lost.

  • A crumpled note with her handwriting: "Wait for me. I’ll wait for you."

  • A ticket stub to the movie they missed on their last date.

  • And finally… a letter.

In his handwriting.

She looked up, speechless.

“I never posted it,” he said softly. “I wrote it after I got the job offer in New York. But… I never sent it. I couldn’t say goodbye.”

She picked up the letter with trembling fingers, still silent.

“I didn’t ghost you, Aditi,” he whispered. “I broke.”

Flashback:

Aditya in a dull apartment in New York. Crushed under deadlines, rejection letters, toxic superiors, a bank account with nothing but survival.
He saw her messages. Read them. Wanted to respond.
But every message made him feel like a failure.
So he said nothing.

Back in the present.

Aditi clenched the letter in her fist.

“You don’t get to disappear and return with memories and expect closure like it’s a gift box,” she snapped. “You left me in silence, Aditya. You left me doubting myself.”

“I know,” he said. “I hated myself for it too.”

“Then why now?”

He looked at her for a long second.

“Because I thought if I saw you happy, strong, moved on… I’d be okay. But I’m not. And clearly, neither are you.”

Tears welled up in her eyes, not of love, but frustration.

“I was happy,” she whispered. “I was doing fine. And then you walked back into my boardroom like you never left.”

He stepped forward. “I walked in because I had to… but I stayed because maybe deep down, I hoped you’d still look at me the way you used to.”

She turned away, voice shaking.

“Don’t confuse guilt with love, Aditya. You don’t get to call this fate. You walked out. That was your choice.”

“I’m not asking for a second chance,” he said.

“Good,” she snapped.

“…But I am asking for a first truth.”

Silence.

Then he took a breath.

“There’s one more thing you don’t know. Something about why I left, and why I never came back…”

She froze.

“…and it’s not just about the job or the fear. It’s about your brother.”

Some truths take years to speak.
And when they finally do, they can break everything again.

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