chapter 46
Chapter 46- The Vase by the Window
The vase was empty.
Aarav noticed it on a Sunday morning while walking past the sitting room with a cup of coffee in his hand.
Clear glass.
Simple.
Placed near the window where sunlight touched the table first every morning.
For a moment, he stopped without understanding why.
Then memory surfaced quietly.
Flowers.
There used to be flowers there.
Always.
Not expensive arrangements.
Not extravagant displays.
Just small bouquets.
White lilies.
Soft pink roses.
Sometimes tiny wildflowers tied together loosely like she had arranged them herself.
Kavya changed them every week.
He had never once asked why.
At the time, he barely noticed them at all.
Now the empty vase looked strangely wrong.
Like something abandoned. Something that care deeply, now has no meaning at all.
Aarav stared at it longer than necessary before taking another sip of coffee.
Cold already.
His gaze drifted toward the window.
And another memory returned.
He had come home late that night.
Tired.
Irritated.
Kavya stood near the table trimming flower stems carefully with small scissors in her hand.
The room smelled faintly fresh.
Soft.
"You bought flowers again?" he had asked flatly while removing his coat.
She looked up.
A little hesitant.
"I thought the room felt less empty with them."
He remembered the exact response that followed.
"Flowers die in a few days anyway."
Simple words.
Careless.
But he remembered what happened after.
Kavya's hands paused briefly.
Just briefly.
Then she smiled faintly and continued arranging them anyway.
At the time, he hadn't thought about it again.
Now-
the memory sat heavily in his chest.
Because suddenly he understood what she had actually meant.
The flowers were never the point.
She had been trying to make their home feel alive.
Warm.
Lived in.
Trying to create softness inside a marriage that constantly pushed her away.
And he had dismissed it like it meant nothing.
Aarav set the coffee down slowly beside the empty vase.
The room was quiet.
Too quiet.
His eyes lingered on the sunlight touching the glass.
He tried to imagine the house through her eyes back then.
Cold husband.
Silent dinners.
Long nights alone.
And still-
she had brought flowers home anyway.
Still tried to make things beautiful.
Something tightened painfully beneath his ribs.
Not sudden heartbreak.
Something worse.
The slow realization that Kavya had been loving him quietly for years-
while he had treated her effort like background decoration.
Aarav looked away abruptly.
But the emptiness of the vase followed him for the rest of the day.
He finally couldn't take it anymore.
He went to the nearest flower shop and bough the exact same flowers that kavya use to bring home.
It was almost 11pm, the shop was about to close, yet he got lucky.
Those flower has somewhat same fragrance as kavya, his mood lighten up instantly.
He trim them carefully looking at the tutorials from his laptop.
He did his best but the result was so poor.
Next morning he bough bunches of flowers. The room was full of flowers and petals.
He then dedicated his full day learning how to trim those flowers.
He barely manage to do it at midnight.
His body was exhausted but he was so happy. Not because he managed to learn it. But...
Seeing them almost felt like kavya has return.
A truth hit him the very next second. The smile that he never shown to anyone in his life disappeared in that dark room turning into grief.
Kavya will never return......
The feelings that he buried in his heart, he himself didn't know.
He finally come to realize it today. His heart was already taken by someone else.
He actually.......