The tea had gone cold.

Anaya stared at the tiny ripples forming in the untouched cup, the faint aroma of jasmine still lingering in the air like a fading memory. It should have been her wedding week. The living room still held marigold garlands from the engagement, and her wedding lehenga lay untouched in her wardrobe, wrapped in golden silk and expectations. But there would be no music. No laughter. No vows.

Only silence—and the weight of a heart slowly freeing itself.

“You don’t have to be so much all the time,” Aarav had said the night before, his voice heavy with frustration. “You always act like you don’t need anyone. I don’t know where I fit in your world.”

She had stood there, calm, composed. Not broken. Not begging. Just… tired.

Tired of apologizing for her strength. Tired of shrinking herself so someone else could feel taller. Tired of the way love always seemed to demand sacrifice from women like her—soft, fierce, and unapologetically full.

The next morning, Anaya packed her suitcase in silence. No drama. No arguments. Only a decision. Her mother stood in the doorway, torn between tradition and understanding.

“Beta… where will you go?” she asked gently, her hands trembling with unspoken worry.

“Somewhere I can breathe,” Anaya replied, trying to smile. “Somewhere I’m not just someone’s daughter or someone’s future wife.”

She placed her journal in the bag—leather-bound and weathered from years of secrets and soft thoughts. Then came the packet of wildflower seeds she’d bought at a roadside stall two years ago. She had planned to plant them with Aarav. Now, they were hers alone.

By noon, she was on a bus to Lanesworth, a quiet hill town nestled between pine forests and foggy mornings. She had seen it once in a photograph—a little valley full of wild blooms and crooked cottages. It had stayed in her heart like a promise.

The bus ride was long, winding through narrow roads and past nameless rivers. But Anaya didn’t mind. With every mile, the weight on her chest seemed to lift. She thought of all the things she’d never said, all the love she gave without condition, all the care that was never returned.

She wasn’t running away. She was planting herself somewhere new.

As the sun began to set behind the hills, casting golden light over the misty landscape, Anaya saw it—her future waiting like the edge of a dream. She stepped off the bus with only three things: a suitcase, her words, and the seeds of something better.

She didn’t know what this town would give her—peace, pain, or maybe love again. But for the first time in years, her story felt like hers.

And maybe, just maybe, this would be the place…

Where her heart could finally bloom.

THANKS FOR READING MY NOVEL

This story is written by me and all copyrights reserved to me