🌧️ Side Chapter: Silence Hurts Louder

The room was dark, lit only by the pale glow of a table lamp. Poornima, wrapped in her old blue shawl, sat cross-legged on the floor, a dusty album in her lap.

Her fingers trembled as she turned the pages.

Laughter frozen in time.

A birthday celebration where Veeresh had smeared cake on her cheeks.

A photo of them on Nandi Hills, her arms around his neck.

Another of him asleep on her lap.

She clutched the last photo—his sleepy smile, her eyes glowing with love.

And she broke.

The sob tore out of her chest like a dam finally collapsing.

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💔 The Reason She Left

Two years ago, things had been perfect—until that one night.

Poornima had received an anonymous message on her phone:

> “Veeresh is cheating on you. Ask him about Bindu.”

Confused, she confronted him the next day. Not directly, not angrily—just a gentle question over coffee.

> “Who’s Bindu? She’s been texting you a lot.”

He brushed it off with a laugh. “Just an old friend.”

But Poornima felt the shift.

He started coming home late.

He began keeping secrets.

He grew colder.

Then one evening, she saw a photo—Veeresh and Bindu at a hotel restaurant.

It felt like betrayal.

She didn’t ask.

She didn’t scream.

She simply… walked away.

> "If he could lie with a smile, what else was he hiding?"

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😶 Why She Stayed Silent

He had tried to reach out—once, twice, maybe more.

But Poornima never answered.

Not because she hated him.

Because she loved him too much to hear him lie again.

She feared hearing him say “It’s not what you think.”

Because in her mind… it already was.

And her silence, she thought, would protect her dignity.

> "Let him think I was wrong. Better that than hear him confess something that would kill me."

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🧨 When She Heard About Bindu

Months later, through a mutual friend, she heard it—

> “Veeresh married Bindu. They had a baby girl.”

That night, Poornima didn’t sleep.

She stared at the ceiling, numb, cold, shaking.

> “So it was true. He did love her. He moved on.”

She imagined Veeresh holding Bindu’s hand at the hospital.

Smiling at their baby girl.

Laughing again.

She curled into a ball on the floor.

And cried.

> “Why didn’t I ask one more time? Why didn’t I fight for him?”

“Why did he give up so easily