The rain pelted against Ansh’s windshield in relentless sheets, turning the road ahead into a blur of silver and shadow. Each drop slammed against the glass with the same rhythm as his heartbeat, frantic, uneven, desperate. He drove like a man possessed, the engine growling beneath his touch as if it, too, shared his urgency. Every red light that glowed felt like mockery, every car ahead like an obstacle placed by fate itself.

He didn’t care. Nothing mattered anymore. Not the blinding rain, not the screeching horns, not the rules that kept a city moving. The only thought pulsing in his mind was Pakhi. Her face, her silence, the way she had looked at him one last time before turning away. The thought of her walking away leaving him, leaving Aarav, leaving everything that anchored him to life was unbearable.