Arsh remained completely still.
The phone was still pressed against his ear even though the call had ended.
For a few seconds, he simply stared ahead.
Her words kept repeating inside his head.
I loved you.
In another life, we would have been enough.
He slowly lowered the phone.
Siddharth, who had been standing nearby, immediately noticed the change in his expression.
"What happened?"
Arsh didn't answer.
"Arsh?"
His voice finally came, barely above a whisper.
"She loved me."
Siddharth froze.
"What?"
"She said she loved me."
There was no happiness in Arsh's voice.
Only devastation.
Siddharth stepped closer.
"Then tell her to stop the wedding."
Arsh laughed bitterly.
"She already said goodbye."
"Then don't accept it."
"I don't know how."
Siddharth stared at him.
For the first time, Arsh looked completely lost.
"I spent so much time believing she didn't love me," he said. "I thought she chose someone else because I wasn't enough."
He swallowed hard.
"But she loved me."
Siddharth said nothing.
Arsh looked at his phone again.
"She loved me, and I still lost her."
The room fell silent.
Then Siddharth spoke carefully.
"You still have a choice."
Arsh looked up.
"What choice?"
"You can walk away."
Arsh's eyes hardened.
"Or?"
"Or you can go to her and tell her everything you should have told her before."
Arsh stared at him.
"What if she still chooses the wedding?"
"Then you let her choose."
That sentence hurt more than Arsh expected.
Because deep down, he knew Siddharth was right.
Love had never meant owning someone.
It meant allowing them to choose—even when their choice destroyed you.
Arsh looked toward the window.
Dawn was still hours away.
"I can't just watch her marry someone else."
"You don't have to watch."
Arsh turned toward him.
"Then what do I do?"
"Go to her."
Siddharth paused.
"But not to force her."
Arsh remained silent.
"Go there because she deserves to hear the truth from you," Siddharth continued. "And after that, let her decide what happens."
Arsh looked down at the phone in his hand.
He opened Aakrati's contact.
His thumb hovered over the call button.
Then he stopped.
"No."
Siddharth frowned.
"What?"
"If I call her again, she'll think I'm asking her to change everything tonight."
"Then don't call."
Arsh put the phone away.
"I'll tell her tomorrow."
Siddharth nodded.
"Before the wedding?"
Arsh looked toward the first faint light beginning to appear beyond the curtains.
"Before she says those vows."
---
At the same time, Aakrati sat beside her bedroom window.
She hadn't moved since ending the call.
Her tears had finally stopped.
But her heart still felt unbearably heavy.
She had said the words she had been hiding for so long.
She loved Arsh.
She had always loved him.
But sometimes loving someone wasn't enough to build a life with them.
She closed her eyes.
"Goodbye, Arsh."
She whispered it again, as though saying it twice might make it easier.
It didn't.
A sudden sound came from downstairs.
Someone was laughing.
Someone was arranging flowers.
The wedding preparations had begun.
Aakrati looked at the clock.
Morning was coming.
She stood slowly and walked toward the mirror.
For a moment, she simply looked at herself.
Tomorrow—or rather, today—everyone expected her to smile.
She wondered whether she would be able to.
Then she remembered Arsh's voice.
Just be honest with yourself.
Aakrati closed her eyes.
"I was."
A tear slipped down her cheek.
"I was honest."
But somewhere inside, a tiny voice asked a question she was afraid to answer.
Were you honest enough?
---
The first rays of sunlight appeared over the city.
Arsh was already on his way.
Siddharth sat beside him in silence.
Neither of them spoke.
They didn't need to.
The night had changed everything.
Arsh had started the evening believing that Aakrati didn't love him.
He was ending it knowing that she did.
And now he had only one thing left to discover—
whether love could still change the ending.