Ved deliberately held back the words "I love you." He knew his life tied to group missions and promises to his leader left no room for her. He had sworn not to fall for anyone, barely finding time for himself.

Yet he saw the love and affection in her eyes, and could not stop confessing how much he missed her.

The moment Ved heard Sanskriti say she liked him, joy flooded his heart like never before. With a sweet smile, he replied softly, "I like you too, Sanvi."

She beamed, happiness bubbling over. She didn't even mind that they had said "like," not "love."

For the next hour, they talked about almost everything except their own lives. It wasn't because they didn't want to it just happened that way.Their hearts felt too happy being together in that moment, so the words flowing between them mattered less than the joy of simply sitting close.

Sanskriti glanced at her watch.Her eyes widened in panic.Time had slipped too far, and her driver might already wait at Mona's boutique.

Ved read her worry at once. "I'll drive you there safely," he said, standing with her.They slipped into his car.

The short ride felt quiet yet warm.They pulled up at the boutique soon after.As goodbye loomed, Sanskriti's hazel eyes, full of affection, met his.

"When will you meet me again?"

"Next month," he promised gently.

"Can I have your address? I'll send letters."Poor girl didn't know he had a telephone at home.

That's why she skipped asking for his number.

Ved nodded. "Write to me in my sister's name. I'll reply."

She nodded with a soft smile, stepping carefully out of the car onto the boutique's quiet street, her green dress catching the last rays of afternoon light.

Ved watched her go, heart full yet heavy, as the distance between them grew with each step.

A few days later,

two weeks had passed since Sanskriti met Ved. She missed him deeply and decided to write him a letter.Though she didn't know how to write to a man she loved so much, she filled the pages with everything from her life in those two weeks simple daily moments.

When Ved received the letter, happiness warmed him, and he found it cute how she shared just her routine.He replied soon, saying how much he liked her letter and her days.

That's how they wrote letters to each other for months.When she asked in one why he wasn't visiting, he gave excuses about being busy with work and studies.Sanskriti had no choice she couldn't change it.

Meanwhile, her mother kept taking her to lavish parties she didn't want to attend.But did she have any choice? obviously not.

Nearly a year had passed since Sanskriti began attending these parties, and six months since her confession to Ved.

Her mother started growing suspicious, noticing how her daughter turned down every good proposal.Saudamini was strict, but not cruel enough to marry her off without consent. They looked rich, but in truth they were not her husband could only afford so much.

She took her to these gatherings so a successful man could choose her one who would care for her properly, unlike her naive husband who agreed to everything without thinking of the fallout.

Now she started watching Sanskriti closely, quietly telling driver Shyam to shadow her in disguise whenever she went to college or elsewhere, all without her knowing.

One fine day, Sanskriti headed to college. In the middle of the way, she slipped out to post a letter to Ved.Shyam spotted her and quickly took the letter, handing it straight to Saudamini.

Sanskriti felt upset from all the parties.In the letter, she told Ved how her mother dragged her to them.She didn't like it.She liked him and wanted a future with him just working nearby, helping people together.

The same letter reached Saudamini's hands.

The moment she read it, fury burned through her. She saw the truth ,this boy must come from a poor family,dreaming of helping people.Her daughter would suffer with him.She got really angry at Sanskriti.

Saudamini waited patiently.It was almost 3 pm when Sanskriti returned from college.She saw her mother sitting quietly in the drawing room.

Saudamini looked at her and said, "Freshen up, Sanskriti and come to my room.I need to talk about something important."

Sanskriti sensed a chill in her mother’s calm words, her stomach tightening as she freshened up quickly, splashing cool water on her face to steady her nerves.She stepped into Saudamini’s room, the air thick with unspoken tension. “Maa, what’s wrong? You wanted to talk?”

Saudamini sat straight on the edge of her chair, eyes fixed on Sanskriti like a hawk, the intercepted letter hidden in her fist behind her back.

She started slow, voice even but probing. "Sanskriti, college going well? You've seemed off lately distracted,What's on your mind?"

Sanskriti shifted, heart pounding as she sensed the trap, but kept her face calm. "Just studies, Maa. Painting too. Nothing else."

Saudamini circled closer, her voice still measured but eyes narrowing like a predator sensing weakness."Outing with Mona to her botique,trips to post offices mid-day... letters to someone?"

Sanskriti's breath caught, palms clammy as she grasped for words.

Saudamini feigned a soft smile, her tone deceptively calm as she leaned forward, eyes unyielding.

"The full truth, kriti.No hiding.Who's this friend getting your letters?Speak now, or Mother will have to check everything herself."

Sanskriti's eyes brimmed with fresh tears. She knew her mother's cruelty all too well this could be her last chance, and apologizing wouldn't help.

Her mother would never accept a poor boy like Ved.Sobs wracked her body, grief flooding her heart.In a barely audible voice, she whispered,

"Maa, Ved is such a good person.I met him by accident on my way back from high school exams. We became friends, and I started liking him.He is really generous and kind-hearted he helps the needy and that made me admire her deeply."

Saudamini grabbed Sanskriti’s arm in a vise-like grip, yanking her toward the small wooden desk where more letters lay hidden,her voice a venomous hiss.

“Enough with your nonsense! You’ll burn every trace of this poor boy now, or I swear I’ll lock you in this house till you rot.No college, no friends, no Ved.Choose wisely.”

She cried harder, knowing she couldn't defy her mother's orders.In that moment, she lacked the confidence to confront her, but silently vowed to make her mother regret this cruelty.

Sanskriti slipped back to her room and locked the door, resolving from that day forward to embrace silence, no matter what came.She barely ate, day or night.

A month passed.Saudamini, at first too furious to notice, soon saw her daughter's rebellion: no words to anyone, all time spent locked away, painting classes abandoned.

She expected surrender after a week, but it didn't happen.

Saudamini noticed that Sanskriti withered like a fragile stem,face pale, body frail proving her will unbreakable.

_______________________

Saudamini's P.O.V ,

Two days before she got Sanskriti's letter,

I had known for days that something within me was quietly failing.The weakness lingered longer than it should have, the pain no longer dismissed by rest or prayer.

When the doctor spoke, his voice was calm, almost apologetic, as he named the illness and told me it was beyond remedy.

Time, he said, would not be generous with me. A year, perhaps less.

I found myself wishing ,almost urgently that she be secured in a life untouched by uncertainty, married into wealth, into a name powerful enough to shield her from the fragility.

I want her to be protected when I no longer could.If my presence was to fade, then her future must not.

If this disease was to claim me, then it would not be allowed to claim her future.That resolve settled quietly within me, steady and unyielding.

Then her thoughts drifted toward the growing chaos within the palace, where her husband, the chief treasurer, had begun to falter.

He was far too naïve to recognize the quiet conspiracies that thrived behind polished corridors and courteous smiles.

Numbers he understood, loyalty he trusted, but deceit moved faster than honesty ever could. Only days ago, the king’s displeasure had found him openly, his rebuke sharp and public, for failures that were not entirely his own.

The incident lingered in her mind, not as humiliation, but as warning. Power was shifting, and those who did not learn its language were the first to be crushed beneath it.

_______________________

Saudamini's heart ached fiercely at the sight of her daughter's pale, weakened frame, fragility etched into every line of her face.

She had only ever wanted Sanskriti to live in wealth and security long after she was gone, shielded from hardship's cruel bite.Yet now, with rebellion unyielding, she knew action was urgent her anger lingered, but helplessness won out.

She steeled herself to confront Sanskriti once more, determined to break the silence before it claimed her entirely.

She knocked on the door and asked her to open it.When the door finally gave way, she walked in without another word and settled into a chair, her composure firm despite the weight she carried.Sanskriti remained standing,

motionless,like a statue carved from hesitation.

The moment Saudamini noticed the tears trembling in her daughter’s eyes, her restraint broke.Anger rose swiftly, sharpened by the sight of Sanskriti weeping for a man who could not offer her the life she believed her daughter deserved.A man too poor, in her eyes, to safeguard something so precious.

Her voice rose, firm and unyielding.

“If you truly believe this is love whatever his name may be then ask him to take you away,”

Saudamini said, her voice steady yet unyielding.

“You have left me with no choices anymore.”

She paused only briefly before continuing, “I will give you my blessings for this marriage.But your father and I will not attend it.”

She instructed Sanskriti to write to the man and ask him to take her.Their family, she reminded her, had a reputation to uphold. After such a wedding, there could be no ties, no quiet connections, no shared name.

Then, with a final warning, she asked her daughter to remember this well: if that man, for any reason, failed to marry her, then Sanskriti would do exactly as she was told.

“Remember this well, Sanskriti,”she said, her voice low but absolute.

“If that man, for any reason, does not marry you,then you will do exactly as I tell you. Without question.”

After her mother stormed out of the room, leaving behind a silence thick with unsaid words, Sanskriti remained where she was. Only when the echoes of her footsteps faded did she gather herself. With trembling resolve, she sat down and reached for pen and paper. It was then, in that fragile quiet, that she wrote the letter to him each word carrying both her fear and the hope she refused to abandon.

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