Three Months to Forever
907 Words
The Weight of Two Worlds
At nineteen, Arav lived between two worlds.
By day, he was a first-year student at a famous university, surrounded by books, projects, classmates who spoke of careers and freedom.
By night, he was the heir of a family empire, the son of a businessman whose name carried weight in the city.
His father saw him as the next leader of the family legacy.
“You must learn, Arav,” he often said at the dinner table, “our name must grow with you. From next year, you’ll start shadowing me in meetings. You must prepare.”
Relatives praised him. Cousins envied him. Professors expected him to shine.
But Arav carried a truth no one saw: he was dying inside.
All the contracts, the business talks, the plans for foreign expansion—none of them gave him peace. What use was a kingdom, he thought, if my heart is chained elsewhere?
The Silent Heir
He was just nineteen.
He should have been laughing in hostel rooms, planning trips, chasing grades or dreams.
Instead, every night he lay awake staring at his phone.
Every vibration, every glow of the screen could mean her.
Every silence, every blank screen cut him deeper.
His notebooks had no notes of economics anymore—only scribbles of her name.
Ishika.
He was the heir of wealth, yes. But he was also the silent heir of pain.
An heir of guilt—because he had once heard her cries and done nothing.
An heir of longing—because every breath without her felt like theft.
Between Legacy and Longing
Festival season came, and the family home was loud with joy.
Children ran with sparklers, women laughed in the kitchen, men debated politics over sweets.
But Arav stood apart. On the terrace, fireworks exploded above, but his chest only carried smoke. He thought of Ishika, locked in her room.
He thought of her broken words on the phone: “I am not a wife. I am an object he uses.”
He thought of the way she had clung to him in the corridor, sobbing “I love you” as if it was her last breath.
He clenched the railing.
“I am supposed to be the heir of a business empire. Yet I cannot even protect the woman I love. I can sit in boardrooms, but I cannot sit beside her when she cries. What kind of life is this?”
The contrast tore him apart.
He was being raised to run a kingdom—but the only throne he wanted was beside Ishika’s heart.
A Promise of Three Nights
One night, as guilt consumed him, Arav made a decision.
I will meet her. I will go to her, even if for a moment. I cannot live without seeing her face.
His hands shook as he typed a message, deleted, typed again. Before he could send anything, his phone buzzed. Her name.
“Ishika…” his voice broke when he answered. “I was just thinking of you.”
Her breath came soft and shaky through the line. “Arav, listen. I have something to tell you.”
“What is it?” His heart raced.
“My friend’s wedding. It’s in the city. Three days and three nights. And…” Her voice trembled. “My husband agreed to let me go.”
For a moment, Arav thought he had misheard. “What? You mean… you’ll be free? Alone?”
“Yes.” Her voice cracked between tears and laughter. “For the first time in years, I will be away from him. For three days and three nights, I will be mine. I will be… yours.”
Arav closed his eyes. The world around him vanished. His chest felt too small for the joy and disbelief flooding him.
“Ishika… do you know what you’ve just given me? This is more than a chance. This is… life.”
But then her voice grew quiet. “There is one condition. The wedding isn’t now. It’s… three months later.” Silence pressed heavy on the line.
Three months. Ninety days. Ninety nights of waiting. Arav’s first instinct was despair. But then, slowly, a fire lit in his chest.
“Ishika,” he whispered fiercely, “then I will wait. Even if it’s three years, I will wait. Because those three nights will not just be days of freedom. They will be our forever.”
Her sobs turned into soft laughter. “You’re mad.”
“For you,” he said, smiling through his tears, “I will gladly be mad.”
Three Months to Forever
When the call ended, Arav sat in the dark, his face wet, his heart burning.
He was nineteen, a first-year student, the heir to a kingdom of money and status.
But his real inheritance was something else: love, pain, and the courage to wait.
Now, for the first time, he had a reason to breathe through the torture.
A date circled in the calendar of his soul.
Three months.
Three months to survive the absence.
Three months to dream of the touch he couldn’t have.
Three months to prepare for the nights that would change everything.
He whispered into the empty room, “Ishika, hold on. When those nights come, I’ll make them eternity.”
And somewhere, in her locked room, Ishika whispered back into the dark, “Arav, I will.”
- Writer
