The Other Woman

(Kiyara point of view)

I was just six.

He was nine.

Very young and innocent when we first met.

My bestfriend, my everything.

My raghav.

And from the moment he wiped my tears and gave me half his chocolate, Raghav became my whole world.

I thought about him as a single lone tear fell from my eye.

I loved him, love him very much like he's my heartbeat caged inside the wild heart.

He loved me very much, like I'm his whole world, more than his music.

We started with scraped knees and shared secrets, two messy, barefoot kids who believed the world ended at the park gate.

He called me "Kiyu" because he liked this name.

I called him "idiot" every time he used to do very idiotic things just to prove that he's the bestest bestfriend in the world.

We’d swing so high we thought we could touch the sky, then laugh until our stomachs hurt.

He used to push the swing so hard that sometimes I used to scream.

Sometimes while playing I used to scrap my knee or ankle.

He used to hold my hand all the way home after I fell and cried, even though I only had a tiny scratch.

That’s how he was. So Mine.

We grew up side by side. Same school, same bus, same fights over who got to sit by the window.

He'd always save me a seat during morning assemblies, and He used to share his extra paratha from home with him like it was a ritual.

Even as kids, people teased us, said we’d get married someday.

I used to roll my eyes. He’d smirk.

But secretly?

I loved the sound of that.

Even though we were little kids.

When we entered college, everything began to change. Not between us not at first, but within us.

He grew taller. His voice deepened.

I started noticing how he’d glance at me when I laughed.

How his fingers lingered a little longer on mine when he passed me my water bottle. How his whole body tensed when someone else got too close to me.

The way he used to hold my hands little too tight.

The way my heart used to beat faster when he used to come bit too close.

Everything was going ok until.

On my 18th birthday.

He proposed me.

Without a second thought I said yes...

We shared our first kiss.

From that day we became official.

Him as my boyfriend and me as his girlfriend.

Lovers.

One night after our annual college fest, the campus still lit with fairy lights, he took me to a hill...

"Look up," he said.

I did.

The stars were scattered like glitter across the sky.

He reached into his pocket, his hands trembling. And then, out of nowhere, he held out a small sapphire ring.

"Kiyara," he grinned. "I want you to marry me someday, not today not Tomorrow but one day when I would be successful enough, will you mine for forever?."

I giggled back. "Yes."

We kissed that night under those lights.

Softly passionately.

We became each other's life.

Each other's everything...

Every touch was a promise. Every whisper in the dark felt like forever.

He was my first kiss.

My first love.

My first everything.

And I was his.

We’d sneak out for midnight rides, lie on the hood of his car watching clouds drift past the moon, talk about our dreams. He wanted to be a singer.

I wanted to research marine life. We had no one else other than each other, no backup plans, just dreams and each other.

I remember tracing the veins in his hand one night and telling him, "We’ll make it. Together."

He smiled, kissed my forehead, and said, "Always."

Always.

But "always" has a funny way of breaking.

Because then she came.

Natasha.

All red lips and perfect timing.

They got married to each other.

Or raghav got forced to marry her...

… But the thing is I saw it.

I saw it all..

The pain inside my heart became so heart wrenching.

That my tears dried seeing that.

Sindoor.

His name.

In her hairline.

Like a blade carving my name out of his life.

I stood there, unable to breathe, watching the man who promised me always stand beside another woman.

As if I never existed.

As if all those childhood memories, all those kisses, all those nights tangled in love and laughter, were just... mine.

Not his?

But you know what?

I may have lost him for a while.

But Raghav was mine, from scraped knees to stolen kisses.

From that very first candy to the night he held me under the stars.

I was his before Natasha even learned how to say his name.

So no.

I wouldn’t let her win.

I'm back again..

And I'll take what was mine..

She walked in halfway through our story and tried to scribble herself across my chapters.

But I’m not the girl who walks away silently.

I’m the storm you should’ve never underestimated.

He was mine.

And I’ll burn the whole world to make natasha realise.

Even if it means breaking boundaries, breaking morals.

But in all the Chaos, I never realised.

Even it breaks my heart in pieces.

Did I become The Other Woman?

***

Kiyara.

She's back.

After a year, a year when she disappeared from their lives.

Now she's back again.

Again in their lives.

Natasha thought raghav had moved on from her.

He might take time but maybe ready to give their marriage a chance.

Even though it's a contract marriage yet.

It's 11 pm and he's not home yet.

Natasha started to worry about her husband because he usually used to reach before 10.

So natasha tried to call him.

One ring

Two ring

Three ring

No answer.

Desperate...she called his office staffs only for them to told her that he already left.

Natasha thought that raghav must been in his studio.

After all he's working hard for his dream to be a singer.

Sometimes pushing himself too hard.

She told the driver to drive to the studio.

As she pushed the door..

The scene before.

Broke her heart.

"Raghav, you're married to someone else now," Kiyara said, her eyes brimming with tears.

He cupped her face gently.

"I... I had no options left, Kiyu... I'm sorry," he whispered. "Natasha is just my responsibility. Wife on paper, that's all. I'll divorce her as soon as I can."

"It's been more than two years," Kiyara said, her gaze dropping to the floor.

"What if I told you I still love you the same? That you're the only woman my heart ever beat for?"

"I don't know," she said quietly, eyes still down.

"I love you, Kiyara. You're the only woman I'll ever love till my last breath."

Before she could say anything, Raghav pulled her into a hug.

And before Natasha could even understand what was happening, Raghav kissed Kiyara.

A deep, passionate kiss.

He was kissing her, in his music studio.

Where natasha came to find him because he hadn't been home from yesterday.

Only to find kiyara back.

Only to find him kissing another woman.

The woman he had loved all along. The woman he had never stopped loving.

She should have been surprised. She should have felt anger, betrayal, or something fierce enough to set her heart ablaze.

But all she felt was a dull ache, the kind that had settled in her chest long ago, ever since she married a man who never looked at her the way he looked at Kiyara.

Memories flooded her mind like an unstoppable tide.

Of years before.

The countless nights she waited at the dinner table, the food turning cold while she hoped-prayed-that maybe tonight, he would come home on time.

That maybe, just maybe, he would choose to sit with her, talk to her, look at her.

But he never did. His world revolved around Kiyara. His love, his attention, his devotion-none of it had ever belonged to Natasha.

She had tried. God, she had tried so hard to win his heart.

She had played the perfect wife, never demanding, never questioning, always hoping that one day, he would see her.

But now, watching him hold Kiyara like she was his whole world, Natasha knew the truth.

She had never even been a part of it.

Tears welled in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She had spent years loving a man who never loved her back.

****

(At home)

Natasha sat on the edge of the bed, herfingers tracing the soft fabric of the sheets. Raghav's bedroom. The room he never let her enter.

The room that had always been off-limits to her as if she were nothing more than a stranger in her own marriage.

Tonight, she had stepped inside anyway.

The air smelled faintly of his cologne, mixed with something softer-something unmistakably Kiyara.

It was as if every corner of this room carried her presence.

The neatly arranged books on the shelf, the single photograph on the nightstand- it wasn't of their wedding, but of Kiyara, smiling as if she belonged here more than Natasha ever did.

Natasha wasn't sure what she expected, sitting here, waiting for him.

Maybe she wanted to hear the truth from his own lips. Maybe she wanted to see if he would feel even an ounce of regret.

Or maybe... she just wanted closure.

The door creaked open, and Raghav stepped inside, stopping short when he saw her.

His face twisted in irritation, his brows furrowing as if she had invaded his personal space-as if she didn't have the right to be here.

"What are you doing here?" His voice was cold, indifferent.

Natasha met his gaze, her own eyes calm. "Waiting for you."

His jaw tightened. "We've talked about this, Natasha. This is my space."

Her lips curved into a sad smile. "And where is mine, Raghav?"

For the first time, he had no answer.

Becuse he knew what he's doing with natasha is wrong in many ways.

***