Chapter Sixty-Eight: The Man Who Turned to Stone

After Poornima left, something in Veeresh didn’t break loudly.

It didn’t shatter in front of the world.

It… froze.

The Rathore palace in continued as it always had—meetings, responsibilities, power, decisions.

But Veeresh Rathore was no longer the same man moving through it.

He became quieter.

Not calm—

Cold.

The kind of cold that didn’t show anger anymore.

The kind that didn’t react.

Before, his presence carried fire—sharp, commanding, unpredictable.

Now… it carried distance.

Unreachable.

In business, he became ruthless again.

Deals were closed without hesitation.

Partnerships ended without explanation.

There was no patience left.

No softness.

Only precision.

Only results.

Ritwik noticed it first.

The way Veeresh stopped staying back for casual conversations.

The way he cut calls short.

The way he didn’t even pretend to listen unless it mattered.

Because nothing…

Felt like it mattered anymore.

At home, it was worse.

He returned to his room, but it no longer felt like his.

The same walls.

The same bed.

But no trace of her presence.

And yet—

Every corner reminded him of her.

The side of the bed she used to sleep on.

The faint memory of her voice.

The way she would sit quietly, just existing beside him.

He stopped going to the penthouse completely.

Because that place—

That place was hers.

And he couldn’t walk into it without feeling like he had lost something he never even got the chance to hold fully.

His parents tried.

They spoke to him.

Sat with him.

But Veeresh…

He didn’t open up.

Not anymore.

Because the only person he had started opening up to—

Was gone.

He didn’t talk about her.

Didn’t say her name.

But he never removed the ring.

Not once.

At night, sleep didn’t come easily.

And when it did—

It wasn’t peaceful.

Because his mind replayed the same moments.

Her smile.

Her silence.

Her trust.

And the letter.

Always the letter.

I am freeing you…

A bitter thought would pass through him every time.

“I never asked to be free.”

But he never said it out loud.

Because there was no one to hear it.

The man who once believed in control now lived in a space where the one thing he wanted was out of his reach, and instead of chasing it, he buried it so deep within himself that the world only saw a colder, harder version of him—while everything he felt remained untouched, unresolved, and painfully alive.