The morning sun barely filtered through the blinds as Nidhi sat in her office, staring at her phone. It had been two days, two long silent days, since she had last seen Tanveer.
Not a single call. Not a single text. Nothing. The night she had rejected him haunted her.
His eyes, so dark and dangerous, flashed in her mind. The way he looked at her as if he could destroy anything that stood between them.
She knew she had hurt him, but she never imagined he would vanish like this.
Just then, a colleague rushed into the office, waving her phone.
“Did you see the news?” she asked, breathless.
Nidhi frowned, confused.
“What news?”
The woman turned the screen toward her. Breaking News: Tanveer Malik announces his retirement from the film industry.
Nidhi’s eyes widened. Retirement? She snatched her own phone and quickly searched the news. The headlines were everywhere.
There he was, standing in front of a sea of reporters, calm but detached.
“Is this because of the dating scandal?” one journalist asked.
Tanveer’s lips twitched into a forced smile. “No, this has nothing to do with it,” he replied coolly.
“This is a decision I made on my own. I’m glad my final film was with *xxxx* productions. It was the perfect ending for me.”
Her heart dropped. Final film?
The words repeated in her mind. She couldn’t believe it. He was giving up everything, his passion, his career, just like that.
Unable to sit still, she grabbed her phone with trembling hands and dialed his number.
It rang and rang. She thought he wouldn’t answer, but just when she was about to give up, he picked up.
There was silence on the line at first. She could hear him breathing but he said nothing.
“Tanveer…” her voice was soft, almost pleading.
“Did you… Did you really quit acting because of me?”
A low chuckle left his lips, but it wasn’t out of amusement. It was bitter.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” he sneered. “You think you hold that much power over me?”
Her throat tightened...
“Then why?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
He exhaled slowly, his voice turning cold.
“You don’t need to know. You’re the one who wanted to stay away from me, right? Then keep your word.”
She blinked back the sting of tears. His voice was so distant, so unlike the man she knew.
“At least stay truthful to your own words, Nidhi,” he added cruelly before cutting the call.
Her hand slowly lowered, still clutching the phone. She stared at the blank screen, her chest tightening with a strange ache.
She had told herself she was doing the right thing by pushing him away.
But why did it feel like she was the one being suffocated?
It had been two weeks since she had last seen him. Two weeks of nothing but silence.
Nidhi tried to focus on her work, but her mind refused to cooperate.
No matter how much she tried to convince herself that walking away from Tanveer was the right decision, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was responsible for his downfall.
