Chapter 9: The Letter He Never Sent
Zayaan hadn't opened his window in days.
Not because he didn't want to…
But because he couldn't.
He had seen Eliza laughing — her eyes bright, her smile soft — and not because of him.
With someone else.
And that shattered him more than he expected.
He had told himself she was just a girl across the window.
But she wasn't.
She was the only one who had truly seen him.
He had let her into places of his heart that even he hadn't dared to explore before.
And now it felt like he had misread everything.
So instead of talking to her…
He wrote.
---
"Dear Eliza,
I don't even know why I'm writing this. You'll probably never read it.
Maybe because it's safer this way — when my words are trapped on a page instead of falling apart in your presence.
I saw you with him. Noah.
I saw the way he looked at you — like you were the sun.
And I saw the way you smiled back… like maybe you wanted to be.
I can't compete with someone like him. He's everything I'm not.
I don't even know how to be someone worth staying for.
So maybe it's better this way.
Maybe the window between us was always meant to close eventually.
And maybe… I was always meant to be just a chapter in your story.
Not the whole book."
---
He folded the letter gently and tucked it beneath his journal. Not for her.
Just for himself.
Because sometimes, heartbreak doesn't come with screaming or fights.
Sometimes, it's just silence. The kind that hurts more than words ever could.
And on the other side of the building…
Eliza stared at his dark window.
Confused.
Worried.
Hurt.
"Why did you disappear, Zayaan?" she whispere
d, pressing her forehead to the cold glass.
"Why won't you let me in?"