Here After!

46. The Unspoken Fear

Giri had always believed that distance could be a solution—that maybe time apart would help them breathe, think, and find their way back to each other. But the moment he stepped out of the house with his packed bags, reality hit him like a storm.

He wasn't just leaving the country. He was leaving her.

Every step towards the airport felt heavier than the last. His hands trembled as he clutched his passport and ticket, his heart pounding as though it was warning him—this is not right.

But wasn't this what they had agreed on? To create space, to figure things out?

Yet, as he sat in the waiting lounge, staring at the flashing flight details on the screen, he felt suffocated. He had spent the last few months convincing himself that separation was the only way forward, but now, faced with the reality of it, he wasn't sure if he could do it.

His mind raced back to the past—the nights they spent in quiet exhaustion, the unspoken pain in Anu's eyes, the way he had avoided talking about the doctor's visit, pretending that time would magically fix things.

The truth was, he had been terrified.

Not of fatherhood, not of the responsibilities that came with it, but of the possibility that something might be wrong. That the doctor might say something that would break Anu.

He had seen how much this meant to her, how deeply she longed for a child. And he knew—if they had gone to the hospital and received bad news, it would have shattered her. And he couldn't bear to see that happen.

So, he kept delaying it. Kept telling himself that the right time would come. That fate would play its part. But in doing so, he had unknowingly pushed Anu further away, until they both stood on opposite ends of their relationship, unable to meet in the middle.

And now, he was here, about to board a flight that would take him miles away from her.

Giri closed his eyes, trying to steady his breathing. His phone buzzed with a message from his sister, Gayu.

"Take care, Giri. Mom will be fine with us. You should focus on yourself now."

His fingers hovered over the screen, but he couldn't bring himself to reply.

Focus on himself? Wasn't that exactly what he had been trying to do all this time? But without Anu, what was left of him?

He swallowed hard and stood up. His legs felt numb as he made his way to the airline counter.

"Sir, your flight is in forty minutes. Would you like to proceed to security check?"

Giri's grip tightened around his boarding pass. The words came out before he could stop them.

"I need to cancel my flight."

The staff member looked surprised. "Sir?"

"Postpone it," he corrected himself, his voice steadier this time. "There's a medical emergency in my family. I can't leave right now."

His heart pounded as he said it. It wasn't a lie—Anu was his emergency. She always had been.

As the staff processed his request, Giri pulled out his phone and called his manager.

"I need to delay my travel," he said the moment the call connected. "I'll join later, but not now."

There was a pause on the other end. "Giri, is everything okay?"

He took a deep breath. "No."

For the first time in months, he admitted it.

Everything was not okay. And running away wasn't going to fix it.