Description
Prologue Between Summers and Silences Some stories don't begin with fireworks. They begin in stillness - in long, golden summers filled with mangoes and half-said things. In laughter that echoes down sunlit hallways. In silences so full they tremble with all that's left unspoken. This is one such story. It began when everything felt possible. When love didn't announce itself, but crept in softly - in a glance held a moment too long, in the hush between conversations, in the knowing smile across a crowded room. There were no declarations, no grand promises. And yet, it was all understood Anu and Anuj never ended in dramatic fashion. No heartbreak screamed into the night, no final words carved in anger. Life simply happened - as it does. They moved on, as people do. Married others. Built homes with different names on the doorbells. Learned to say "I'm happy" and mostly meant it. But some loves are not meant to end They don't burn out; they quietly settle into corners of the heart, refusing to leave. They linger in old songs, in certain smells, in the curve of a handwritten letter you never threw away. On her flight back to India, Anu hadn't expected memory to be waiting. But with every cloud drifting past her window, the years rewound themselves. Back to those mango-laden summers. Back to the silences that said more than words ever could. Anuj was not part of her life anymore. But he was still part of her story. And some stories never truly close - they just grow quieter with time. This is not a tale of reunion. It is a story of love that remained unfinished. Of two people who let go, but never fully. Of years carried forward with a quiet ache. Between summers and silences - this is what endured.
✦ Chapter 1: The Goodbye
