A Web of Love and Deceit

Petals in the Rain

Shiva POV

Shivada looked at Ram with skeptical eyes, and Ram, in return, gave her a faint, reassuring smile. But I knew that smile too well—it wasn't the one he used to wear when he was truly okay. It was the one he wore when he was pretending for others. She didn't say anything, just stared at me with eyes full of unspoken rage and hurt. Then, without a word, she turned away and gently closed the door behind her, leaving me alone in the room with him.

The silence was crushing.

When was the last time we were alone like this? Just the two of us, in our tiny, sacred world that we built with dreams and laughter? I couldn't remember. That world felt like it belonged to a different lifetime.

"Ram..." I finally spoke, but my voice cracked midway. His name—so familiar, so dear—felt foreign on my tongue.

He looked at me, and I swear I felt the air leave my lungs. His eyes... they used to sparkle like stars when he looked at me. There used to be light, mischief, and warmth in them. Now they were dull, hollow, lifeless. Like he'd forgotten what it was like to be loved.

He stared at me like I was a stranger. Not just any stranger—but one who had destroyed him. And I had. I was the reason the radiant, sunshine-filled boy I loved had turned into this shell of a person.

The weight of guilt pressed down on me like a boulder. He was broken, and I was the one who shattered him.

"How are you feeling, Ram?" I finally forced the words out, my voice barely above a whisper.

For a moment, there was silence. Then came a sound that made my skin crawl—a bitter, hollow laugh that echoed off the sterile hospital walls.

"Woah..." Ram said, shaking his head slowly, his eyes glinting with something far too broken to be called anger. "Seriously? You really want to ask how I'm feeling?"

He leaned back against the pillows, his voice laced with venom and devastation. "That's rich, Shiva. That's like an executioner leaning down to his bleeding victim and asking—'Did it hurt when I drove the blade through your chest?'"

Each word landed like a punch to my gut. I had no defense. Because he was right.

The silence that followed was suffocating, filled with everything I had failed to say and everything he no longer wanted to hear."Ram, I'm so sorry..." My voice cracked under the weight of it. "I know I've fucked up—big time. But I want to make things right. Please... just give me a chance. I swear, I'll fix this. I'll fix everything."

Ram stared at me for a moment, then let out a bitter, agonizing laugh—so raw, it scraped against my soul.

"Oh, you're going to make everything right?" he repeated, his voice rising with disbelief. "Tell me, Shiva—are you going to magically erase the hundreds of vile comments on my Instagram? The ones calling me a disgrace, a cunt, a curse to my birth place?"

His voice trembled now, fury laced with unbearable pain.

"Are you going to make my parents forget how disgusted they looked at me? How they couldn't even say my name without choking on it? Are you going to wipe away the bruises from the men who came to 'teach me a lesson' for loving you?"

He looked straight into my eyes—dark, hollow, shattered.

"Are you going to pull the blade out of my chest, Shiva? The one you pushed in when you chose silence over me? Tell me... can you undo the moment I decided dying felt easier than breathing in a world where you didn't stand by me?"