Ishita unlocked the door to her parents' guest house and stepped inside, her steps heavy, each one reverberating with the painful memories she was carrying. She closed the door behind her, the silence pressing in around her like a weight she hadn’t noticed until now. The quiet felt foreign, almost unsettling; it was nothing like the home she had left behind, where the echoes of arguments and broken dreams still lingered in the air.

She sank down onto the sofa, feeling the exhaustion settle into her bones. As she stared at the empty walls, memories flooded her mind — the life she had envisioned with Arjun, the laughter and promises they had shared, and the future she had once imagined for them. Now, it all felt like a distant dream, one she could barely remember.