The Billionaire's Bride [ Rewritten]

Part 34 | On The Run

Eight Months Later,

The heavy silence of the cabin was broken only by the rapid clack of Arjun's keyboard.

"Get up. We're leaving."

Arjun flicked his eyes toward me for a fraction of a second before returning to his screen. I stepped over, reached out, and slammed the laptop shut.

"Kartik, I have work to do!" His tone flared with irritation.

"Right, because I'm just the jobless idiot here trying to knock some sense into your brain," I scoffed.

"I know what I'm doing. This is the wise thing to do."

" To watch your fiance marry a stranger in another city. Of course! " Sarcasm coated every word.

Arjun averted his eyes, his voice dropping to a low mumble. "It wasn't my decision. She wanted an out."

I knew better than anyone how much this past month had broken him. I had watched him slowly unravel - the dark circles bruising his eyes, the untouched coffee cups piling on his desk, the quiet, hollow way he spoke when he thought no one was listening. He had thrown himself into fourteen-hour workdays just to drown out the silence of an empty apartment, carrying a bone-deep exhaustion that no amount of sleep could fix.

Aditi and Arjun had braved through the storms until last month, when the cracks widened into arguments that tore them apart, leaving Arjun bleeding in silence while hiding behind this rigid, unyielding stoicism.

I did try to reach out to Aditi, but it didn't help that In Aditi's eyes, I was still the guy who broke her best friend's heart. Rightfully so.

I watched Arjun in guilt. If I hadn't shattered my own world that night, maybe theirs wouldn't have collapsed in the fallout.

My voice softened. "Arjun, think for a second. Aditi is getting married today."

He stared out the window, his face a carved mask of indifference. But the sharp twitch in his jaw, and the subtle tremor in his hands, betrayed the agony he was desperately trying to bury.

" In four hours, she belongs to someone else. There won't be an undo button to reset this later. We need to stop-"

"Kartik, she chose to walk away," Arjun interrupted, turning to face me. "If she wants to marry him, let her. Who am I to stand in her way? I'm done talking about this." He turned toward the door.

" So that's it? You're giving up on her without a fight? "

He froze.

For a long moment, the only sound was his ragged breath. When he turned back, his composure was terrifyingly serene.

"It hurts to let her go," he said quietly, a faint, painful smile touching his lips. "But holding onto someone who desperately wants to leave... that hurts worse."