Rumors spread faster than truth.
Hena didn't know exactly when it started.
Maybe it was the way she and Arif walked together after class.
Or the way her eyes searched for him in every crowded room.
But one day, everything changed.
She walked into the college corridor and felt it immediately.
The whispers.
The stares.
The judgment.
Two girls standing near the staircase stopped talking when she passed.
Then one of them whispered, not quietly enough—
"That's her."
Hena's fingers tightened around her books.
Her heart began to race.
She tried to ignore it.
She tried to pretend nothing was wrong.
But nothing felt normal anymore.
By afternoon, the news had reached her home.
She didn't know who told them.
She didn't know how they found out.
She only knew what happened next.
Her father was waiting.
Sitting in the living room.
Silent.
Dangerously silent.
"Hena."
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
She stopped walking.
Her mother stood behind him, eyes filled with worry.
"Who is he?"
The question hung in the air.
Heavy.
Terrifying.
Hena's throat went dry.
She couldn't lie.
Not anymore.
"He's… my classmate."
Her father's jaw tightened.
"Only a classmate?"
Silence.
That silence was enough.
The sound of his hand hitting the table made her flinch.
"You have shamed this family."
Her mother tried to speak softly.
"She's young… she doesn't understand—"
But her father didn't listen.
"He has no job."
"No status."
"No future."
Each word hit her harder than any slap could.
"You will stop seeing him. Immediately."
It wasn't a request.
It was an order.
Tears filled her eyes, but she forced herself to speak.
"I can't."
The room froze.
Her father stood up slowly.
"You can't?"
His voice was cold.
Dangerous.
"For the first time in her life… Hena had disobeyed him."
Her hands were shaking.
Her heart was breaking.
But she didn't take the words back.
Because loving Arif was the only thing that felt real.
That night, she sat on her bed, staring at her phone.
Her father had already warned her.
No calls.
No messages.
No contact.
But her fingers moved anyway.
She typed one message.
"They know."
She stared at the screen.
Waiting.
Praying.
Seconds felt like hours.
Then her phone vibrated.
Arif.
"I'm sorry."
Just two words.
But they carried the weight of everything.
Hena's chest tightened.
Sorry for loving her.
Sorry for not being enough.
Sorry for a future he wasn't sure he could give.
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
She typed back.
"Don't be sorry."
Pause.
Then another message appeared.
"I won't leave you."
Hena closed her eyes.
She wanted to believe him.
She needed to believe him.
Because if he left…
She didn't know what would be left of her.
Cliffhanger:
Outside her room, her father stood silently.
Listening.
And in that moment—
He made a decision that would change her life forever.