✦ Chapter 1: The Goodbye

Prologue

Some stories do not begin with fireworks. They begin quietly - in summers filled with mangoes and laughter, in silences heavy with words left unsaid. This is one such story.

It is about love that grew in glances and pauses, about promises made without ever being spoken. It is also about loss, about doors that closed too soon and moments that slipped away.

On her flight back to India, Anu did not expect memory to return so vividly. Yet with every cloud, the years folded back into those summers when everything felt possible. Between summers and silences, this is what remained