"Main toh pathar tha, sab ne kaha,
na dard samjha, na aansu chaha.
Par tere jaane ke baad ek baat samajh aayi,
pathar bhi toot jaate hain, jab dil pe chot aayi."

"They said I was stone...felt no pain, shed no tears.
But after you left, I learned—
even stones shatter when struck at the heart."

A  B  I  R

Shristy's Sangeet Night

Life doesn't warn you before it ruins you.

It doesn't knock.
It doesn't ask. It just places you in front of the one thing you spent years learning how to live without....and expects you not to break.

I stood there long after she left. No... ran.

But her voice, her tears, her words...stayed. Looping in my head like something that refused to die.

Eight years.
Eight years of building a life that looked complete from the outside... while learning how to exist without her on the inside.

I held myself together.

Forced myself to move on...from her, from us, from everything we once planned. But she never really left.

The emptiness she created didn't fade.
It settled. Rooted. Became a part of me. Like a parasite.

When she walked away, it felt like I lost something essential. Like I was never whole again. I tried to understand it.

Tried to make sense of what went wrong. What was my fault?

I went over it again and again...every moment, every possibility. And every time, I reached the same conclusion.

It wasn't me.

She made her choice.
She walked away.

I just liked the idea of you. You were just a phrase... something I left behind.

A phrase.

Then why did her eyes tell a different story?
Why did they tremble... hesitate... like they were holding back something her words refused to say?

I don't know what to believe anymore.

My fingers curled into my palm, pressure building until it hurt. Pain was easier than this.

I thought I hated her. I wanted to.

But the moment she collided with me...Everything I had built over the years collapsed in a single heartbeat.

I knew she would be here. Of course she would.

Shristy's wedding... and Mahira not showing up? Impossible.

I had prepared for this like a war.
Stay occupied. Stay surrounded. Keep moving. Don't look at her.

Because I knew...one look would be enough.

And it was.

I didn't even see her first. I felt her.

The same way I had all those years ago...like something inside me recognized her before my mind could catch up.

And then she looked at me. The same eyes. And yet... not the same.

There was no recognition. No anger. Nothing. Just a fleeting reaction...like I was a stranger who happened to be there.

Something twisted in my chest.

Like I had imagined everything we once were.
Like I was nothing more than her best friend's brother.

And I hated it.
More than that....I hated her.

She stood there like she still belonged. Like she hadn't shattered me piece by piece.

So I gave her nothing.
No anger. No reaction. Not even acknowledgment.

I let go the moment she steadied herself...like I had touched something I shouldn't have. That was the plan. Pretend she didn't exist.

But then she crossed the line again. And this time... it wasn't about me. It was about my sister. And everything fell apart.

I didn't want to move since she ran out. Didn't want to breathe.
Because every breath carried her scent....jasmine and something that felt too much like betrayal.

It burned.

Without thinking, I reached into my pocket. The cigarette sat there, like a habit I develop over those years.

I stared at it for a second... then lit it. The smoke burned my throat.

Not enough.
Nothing was enough to quiet the questions tearing through my head.

Something about her was different.

Even when I held her, I could swear....she was begging me to believe the lies she was saying.

Why?

Why pretend it meant nothing... when her hands were trembling?

Why?

My phone rang. I glanced at the screen. Viraj Thakur .
My best friend.

It rang again.

Once.

Twice.

My thumb hovered over the "Accept" button, but I pulled back at the last second and cut the call.

Because the second I picked up... He'd know. He'd detect.
He always did.

He knew my disasters had a pattern, and he knew I had a habit of walking straight into the fire without a suit.

I exhaled slowly, dragging a long, punishing puff from my cigarette, the smoke burning my lungs in a way that felt almost deserved.

"Cutting my calls now, Abir?"

The voice came from behind me.

I froze.

Of course. Viraj.

I didn't turn. Didn't need to.

I could already picture him... leaning against the pillar, arms crossed, watching me the way he always did when I was about to ruin things beyond repair.

"I was busy," I said flatly as a dead heartbeat.

A quiet scoff.

"Right. Busy." A pause. Then, colder—
"Busy burning your lungs... or busy hiding the fact that the disaster finally caught up to you?"

I didn't respond.

He stepped closer.

I felt it... his presence shifting the air, tightening it. Then his hand landed on my shoulder.

Grounding. Or maybe... restraining.

"I saw her," he said, voice lower now. Controlled.
"Running down the hallway."

A beat. "I can guess the rest."

My eyes closed.
I swallowed hard....the kind of lump that refuses to go down.

"So you were right," he continued, moving in front of me now.
"She really had the audacity to show up your sister wedding ... after perfectly destroying her brother."

A humorless chuckle left him.

"But still couldn't show up when it actually mattered."

I couldn't answer.

"Did she told you why she never showed up at the airport gate, after saying she'd come....with the evidence?"

"I couldn't..." I said, voice cracking. Then added, "Isn't it obvious?!"

The ache still had the same effect on my heart—
unbearable, devastating, suffocating.

It was as if time hadn't moved at all.

<<<<<<Flashback (8 years ago)>>>>>>

"Abir, just for once... trust me. I have something to tell you. The truth."

"Didn't you clarify everything once already? What now, huh? What do you want this time?" I said, my fist tightening around the phone in my hand.

Just like my heart clenched hearing her voice after fifteen whole days.
Fifteen days without her—when I once thought I couldn't survive a single one.

But if breathing counts as surviving... then yes, I survived.

"I know I hurt you... but can you give me... just one more chance to explain? Please, Abir. Please..." she pleaded, her breaking voice twisting something deep in my chest.

I wanted to trust her again.

But everything flashed before my eyes like a horror movie.

"Please. After hearing me out, you can punish me however you want. But just once... hear me."

"I'm leaving, Mahi."
My voice was thick with emotion—but firm.

She didn't reply.
And I knew then... she knew I was really going.
Away from her.
Until I could learn how to live without her.
Maybe.

A soft sob came through the line. I clenched my fist harder, my fingers digging into my palm. It might bleed soon.

She took a shaky breath.
"Just ten minutes... five, I promise... please..."

"I'll wait at the airport gate. Just for five minutes. Not a second more. Don't make me regret this, Mahi," I said calmly.

"Thank you... I'll be there before you. Eleven p.m.," she said in her soft, calm voice.

<<<<<<Flashback Ends>>>>>>>

And she never came.

I waited.

Five minutes turned into ten.
Ten into thirty.
Thirty into two hours.

Every passing second turning me into a bigger fool than the last.

If Viraj hadn't been there...I would've missed my flight. Waiting for someone who never intended to come.

I believed her promise again.
And she...

She broke it again.

"Forget it. It was my fault," I said bitterly. "My fault for loving her. For trusting her more than Once. And she betrayed that love."

Viraj didn't interrupt.

I took a deep breath, trying to adjust to the pain tightening in my chest.

"That's what disgusts me—not just her, but myself. For letting her fool me. For giving her my trust so blindly. For loving her that much."

A tear escaped my eye.

Like I wasn't the grown man I am—strong enough to fight my enemies,
just not... my heart.

"F**k her, man," Viraj snapped.

I didn't look at him.

"I've said it before, and I'll say it again—she's a chapter. A dark one. The kind you don't reread. One you need to tear out and burn."

He had been telling me this since that day.

And maybe—just maybe—after hearing her words tonight...I finally get it.
Maybe he was right.

I should have torn her chapter from my story.

I should have buried her name years ago
I should have burned the memory of her just like she burned my life without a single ounce of guilt.

I closed my eyes.
Tried to calm down.
Tried to forget everything that's happened.

But all I could see was her...crying, just like she had been eight years ago.

And my stupid, pathetic heart? It still wanted to be the one to wipe those tears away.

"Don't..." Viraj's voice cut in, cold and knowing.

He stepped into my personal space, his eyes reading the exact moment my resolve started to soften. "Don't even think about softening because of her tears. Girls like her... they know exactly how to play the game."

Right.
She ruined me.

"She doesn't deserve you, man." Viraj said, his hand clamping down on my shoulder, anchoring me back to reality.
"It's really high time you get over her—because I can't watch you fall apart like that again."

His sharp voice was enough to snap me back—back to who I am.
Back to what she is now in my life.

A non-existent person.

I had imagined seeing her again so many times. And in every version, I was calm. Cold. In control.

But in reality?

My hands were trembling. My chest felt caved in.
And I was standing here, broken... all over again.

I didn't say anything. I reached out and crushed the glowing ember of my cigarette against the stone, the heat a sharp contrast to the hollowness inside.

My fingers lingered on there for a second longer than needed,
like I was holding onto something that wasn't there anymore.

Closed my eyes and leaned my head back.

The stars above blinked at me with that quiet stillness that felt like mockery.

So still. So untouched.

While I was a mess of fire and regret.

Let them mock.

Because I am Abir Singh.

The man who makes his enemies rethink their decisions.
The one people fear without needing to raise his voice.

And once—just once—I let myself love her. She was my most trusted person.

Now?

"She's a non-existent, Viraj," I said, my voice finally hardening, shifting back into the man people feared. "A shadow of a betrayal. I won't let a ghost touch my family or ...me."

I straightened my sherwani, the "Abir Singh" mask sliding back into place. The man who makes his enemies tremble. The one who doesn't need to raise his voice to be heard.

"If she dares to come near me again—if she so much as casts a shadow over Shristy or Maa—she won't see the man she left at that airport."

I looked at Viraj, my eyes as cold as the Toronto winter that nearly killed me.
"She'll witness the side of me that even my enemies fear to name."

<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>

Hey my Gulab's & Gulabo's
How are you doing?

So here is the Abir's Prelude
How was that?!
Please share your thoughts

So that I could get an idea that my writing is good.

Just one comment will be enough.

One more thing:
There will be two part it this book.
See the next page/chapter
To understand

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Till then
Stay safe & happy
Fahi 🫶🏻