Hospitals had strange ways of making people collide.
Sometimes in trauma rooms.
Sometimes in elevators.
And sometimes… in the parking lot.
Shabd Heer hadn't been looking for her.
Not really.
But as he stepped out of the ER late that night, exhausted and wound too tight, he saw her—
Vashti Dhiman.
Standing by a black car.
Laughing.
Her hair was loose for once, fluttering slightly in the breeze. Her cheeks pink from the cold. Her voice lighter than he'd heard in years.
And next to her stood Dr. Armaan Kapoor, smiling like he knew what he had.
They were close. Too close.
Armaan opened the car door for her, and she turned back mid-step, brushing a hand over his arm.
It was nothing.
But it was everything to Shabd.
A weight sank in his chest—something sharp and unfamiliar.
He'd seen her cry. Rage. Confess love with fists clenched and eyes on fire.
He'd seen her beg with pride still burning behind her gaze.
But he'd never seen her move on.
Until now.
And it shattered him.
Because for the first time, it wasn't her waiting in the shadows.
It was him.
And he couldn't stand it.
The next morning, he found her in the lounge, casually flipping through a journal.
"Morning," she said, not looking up.
He didn't reply right away. Just watched her.
Then—too fast, too raw—he asked, "You and Armaan?"
She glanced up, slow. Measured. "Why?"
"I just… noticed."
Vashti closed the journal. Calm. Controlled. "Not that it's your business, Dr. Heer. But yes."
There was no bitterness in her voice. No attempt to make him jealous.
Just facts.
And that made it worse.
He stepped closer. "I didn't think you were the type to settle."
Her eyes narrowed. "And I didn't think you were the type to care."
Silence.
Heavy. Personal.
Her voice dropped. "Don't do that, Shabd. Don't come around now that I've stopped chasing you."
"I didn't ask you to stop."
"But you never asked me to stay either."
And with that, she walked past him.
This time—
She was the one who ghosted him.
And he realized too late:
She had always burned for him.
But now?
She was learning to burn for herself.
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