PROLOGUE Before Their Worlds Collided Some love stories begin with a glance. Others begin with a secret neither heart knows it is carrying. And sometimes, two people can be moving towards each other long before the world gives them a reason to meet. Shankar Subramanian was twenty-four, a man who had built his life through effort rather than privilege. Raised in a humble family, he had learned that dreams meant little without the courage to work for them. An MBA in Finance, an Assistant Manager at the State Bank of India in Chennai, and a professional cricketer, he carried three demanding worlds on his shoulders—and gave each of them everything he had. Tall, handsome, and athletic, Shankar was easy to notice. But what made him memorable went far beyond his appearance. He was kind, loyal, and quietly caring, with a heart that felt more deeply than he often allowed others to see. He could be strong without being cold, ambitious without being selfish, and determined without forgetting the people who mattered to him. When he loved, he loved wholeheartedly. The trouble was that life never promised to protect a heart simply because it was sincere. Jenny Antony was twenty-five and about to begin a life she had worked hard to earn. A Malayalee Christian from a humble, somewhat orthodox family, she had grown up with family at the centre of every important decision. She had completed her MA in Economics and been selected as a Probationary Officer at the State Bank of India. Her first posting was Chennai—a city of unfamiliar roads, unfamiliar faces, and possibilities she could barely imagine yet. To strangers, Jenny could seem distant. When she was nervous, she grew quiet; when she did not know what to say, her silence sometimes spoke for her in all the wrong ways. People could mistake her reserve for attitude without ever discovering the talkative, affectionate, funny young woman her loved ones knew. She was a romantic at heart, though she rarely admitted just how much. She dreamed of a love built from small things: messages that arrived at the right moment, laughter after a difficult day, honest conversations, and the certainty that someone would keep choosing her. Jenny had her insecurities, too. She wore spectacles and sometimes compared herself with women she thought were more beautiful or confident. She could be brave about work and responsibility, yet still wonder privately whether she would ever be seen exactly as she was and loved without having to become someone else. Her greatest wish was not to be rescued or remade. She wanted to feel safe enough to be herself—and to make the people she loved happy along the way. At this point in their lives, Shankar and Jenny were strangers. They had no idea what the other feared, what made the other laugh, or what kind of love the other secretly hoped to find. Shankar was chasing the future he had fought to build. Jenny was trying to find her footing in a new city, determined to make her family proud and her own place in the world. Neither was expecting a life-changing romance. Neither knew that a seemingly ordinary morning at a Chennai bank would soon become a memory worth returning to. There would be no grand confession at the beginning, no promise that everything would be easy. Only a first meeting, a few words, and a smile—small enough for the rest of the world to overlook, but perhaps not for the two people who shared it. What followed would not be a simple story of two people falling in love. It would be a story of two imperfect people discovering what it means to be understood, to be chosen, and to trust another person with the parts of themselves they usually kept hidden. But all of that belonged to the future. For now, Shankar Subramanian and Jenny Antony were simply two lives unfolding in the same city—unaware that their worlds were about to collide.