Chapter 5: Healing Her, Healing Us

The first time I walked into Isha’s therapy room, she didn’t look at me like a doctor or a friend—she looked at me as a stranger. It shattered me more than I wanted to admit.

She was seated on a chair, staring out of the window, her long, wavy hair cascading down her back, her beautiful, expressive eyes duller than before. The Isha Kapoor I had once known—bold, confident, full of life—was now trapped in a world of her own making.

Her mother had explained it all to me: due to her rare neurological condition, Isha’s mind had latched onto the safest period of her life—her childhood. She believed she was still in school, reliving those days as though the last decade had never happened. I was heartbroken, but I knew one thing for certain: I wouldn’t let her slip away.

But how did it come to this?

The Beginning of Her Nightmare

Isha Kapoor was at the peak of her career. She had everything—fame, wealth, and a life most could only dream of. But behind the flashing cameras and glamorous events, she was struggling in silence.

Her ex-fiancé, Rohan Malhotra, was a man who had built his empire on the illusion of perfection. Everything about his life had to be immaculate—his business, his image, and his relationships. When he and Isha first started dating, she believed she had found love. He was charming, generous, and knew how to make her feel special. But as time passed, the cracks in his perfect façade began to show.

Rohan was controlling. He dictated what she wore, whom she spoke to, and even how she behaved in public. If she did anything that didn’t align with his expectations, he would humiliate her in private, making her feel small, unworthy. Isha, blinded by love, tolerated it. She convinced herself that he only wanted the best for her.

Then, the worst day of her life arrived.

One evening, after a heated argument, Isha collapsed. She had been suffering from severe headaches and episodes of dizziness for weeks, but she had ignored them. That night, the pain became unbearable, and she lost consciousness.

When she woke up in the hospital, the diagnosis shattered her world.

She had developed a rare neurological condition—one that caused severe hallucinations and dissociative episodes. The stress and emotional turmoil had triggered something in her brain, something doctors didn’t fully understand.

Instead of supporting her, Rohan abandoned her.

He looked at her like she was broken, like she was a stain on his perfect life.

“I can’t do this, Isha,” he had said, his voice cold and distant. “I can’t be with someone who isn’t… stable.”

And just like that, he walked away.

Isha shattered that day. The man she loved, the man she was supposed to marry, left her at her weakest. The trauma pushed her further into her illness. She lost grip on reality, retreating into a safer time—her childhood.

Her parents tried everything, but no treatment worked. Every doctor they consulted failed to pull her out of the world she had created in her mind. She had given up, and so had everyone else.

Until she called my name.

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