Rithvik drove to the hospital late the next afternoon. The sprawling medical center was the last place he wanted to be, yet the one place he felt compelled to go. The drive was made entirely in silence, the radio off, his thoughts a chaotic loop of Dayana's withdrawn face and Amulya's accusation.
He found Ashvin in a private room, the whirring and beeping of the machines a monotonous soundtrack to life's interruption. Ashvin looked young and startlingly peaceful against the white sheets, a true hero suspended between worlds. Rithvik pulled a chair close and took his cousin's still hand, the coldness of the skin familiar now.
"I'm sorry, Ashvin," Rithvik started, his voice a dry, rasping whisper. He didn't know if he was apologizing for the situation, or for dragging his guilt into this room.
He looked at his cousin's pale face, and the dam finally broke.
"I can't lose her, Ashvin," he confessed, the words tasting metallic with raw desperation. "I know what they say—arranged marriage, charts, all that nonsense. But I didn't know it was possible to fall like this. I love Dayana. I love the way she organizes her books by color, the way she hums when she's stressed, the way her hand fits mine, perfectly. I love her so damn much, and she thinks I miss her."
He squeezed Ashvin's hand, the irony twisting his gut. "She thinks I'm thinking of Amulya. And I can't tell her the truth. I can't find the words to tell her how I feel about her, so how am I supposed to find the words to tell her this monstrous, complicated secret about you and Amulya?"
Rithvik ran a tired hand over his face. "I was a few feet from my phone, Ashvin. That day, when she was calling, it was vibrating on my desk, and I just… I let it ring. Because I was already married to Dayana, and I wanted to be done with the past. I wanted to focus on the future—on her."
A tear traced a hot path down Rithvik's cheek. "And then the next day, you're here. And Amulya tells the police she was calling me. She says if I had answered, I would have warned her, I would have stopped her from going out. She blames me, Ashvin. And the worst part is, she's right. I feel it in my bones. And you are here because of my indifference."
He looked down at his cousin, the man who was now his silent confidant. "How do I tell Dayana all of this? How do I tell her that the only reason I'm distracted isn't because I'm pining for an ex-lover, but because I'm drowning in the guilt of nearly getting my ex-lover raped, and putting my cousin in a coma? If I tell her that, she'll think I'm crazy, or that the guilt is just a mask for love, and she will leave me."
He choked back a sob. "She is the only one I want, Ashvin. The thought that I'm hurting her, that I am the reason she's sad... it's unbearable. And I don't know how to fix it because the things I need to say are too huge, too dark. I just want to tell her the simple truth: Dayana, you are everything. But I'm Rithvik. I'm not good at words. And now, my silence is destroying the one person I can't live without."
Rithvik leaned back, exhausted, the heavy secret finally expelled into the sterile air. He looked at Ashvin, seeking some sign, some cosmic relief.
But Ashvin remained perfectly still, trapped in the deep quiet of his coma, leaving Rithvik alone with his truth.
Now that Rithvik has confessed his love and his burden, the tension is positioned to move back toward the couple.