Chapter 8: Pretend Smiles and Shattered Hearts

The office was buzzing with excitement.

It was the annual corporate party — music, lights, laughter echoing all around.

Poornima looked down at her phone. A message blinked on the screen from Veeresh.

> “Come to the party. We’re still colleagues, right?”

She stared at it for a long moment.

After all the tears, the silence, and the pain — he still wanted her there?

She sighed, touched up her makeup, adjusted her green kurti, and quietly walked into the venue. Her eyes immediately found him.

Veeresh.

He was laughing, dancing... his eyes dimmed by alcohol but still sharp when they glanced her way for a fleeting second.

And then — he spun around and held another woman close. A twirl, a dip, playful laughter.

And then it happened.

A kiss.

Or at least... it looked like a kiss.

The crowd gasped. Someone clicked a picture. The lights danced on their faces.

But Poornima didn’t react.

Her face was unreadable.

No tears. No anger. Just... emptiness.

But deep down?

She was shattered.

Something inside her cracked. Broke completely. But she stood there, composed, with a calm she didn’t feel.

She turned and left.

---

At home, the silence between them was suffocating.

Veeresh came in later, slightly sober but still arrogant, still angry.

“I didn’t kiss her,” he said, dropping his keys on the table. “It was just shown like that. People were around, you know how it is.”

Poornima sat quietly, her eyes fixed on the floor.

“But don’t worry,” he added coldly. “I’m not like you.”

Those words — sharper than knives — stabbed her in the chest.

He turned and walked to the bedroom, throwing himself on the bed.

She followed silently after wiping a tear that escaped.

Without a word, she lay beside him — inches apart but miles away.

And then his voice came, low, tired, cruelly calm.

“Three more months, Poornima. Then we’re over. Marriage. Friendship. Everything.”

She didn’t respond.

Just let the tears slip quietly into her pillow.

Two souls under one roof. Two hearts once united by childhood, now torn by assumptions and pride.

And yet... they both lay there, not ready to leave, not ready to fight. Just... lost.