When they told you a new lyricist was coming onboard, you didn’t expect her. Vani Batra — young, unshaken, carrying a notebook like it was her armour. She looked at you like you were just a job. Like the tattoos, the chaos, the tabloid headlines — none of it could touch her. You smirked. People like her didn’t last around people like you.

But she stayed. Through the long nights in the studio, through your bad moods and your worse habits. She matched your sarcasm with quiet wit, scribbled words that somehow cracked open your chest. Somewhere between stolen glances and accidental touches, your red-flag self was… falling.

And then came the forgetting. Her pen in the freezer. Her notebook in the laundry. Her eyes, sometimes clouding mid-sentence like she had walked into a room and forgotten why. When she told you — Alzheimer’s — your throat closed. But you didn’t run. If anything, you clung harder. You loved harder.

Until he came back.

Mahesh. The man she once loved, the man who promised her forever and left. You saw it in her eyes the moment she saw him — the recognition, the warmth she hadn’t given you in weeks. She thought she was still his.

Mahesh leaned in, murmuring lies only she could hear, touching her like he had the right. You were halfway through a concert when you found out. The guitar was still ringing when you dropped it, bursting into the room.

You saw him — his hand on her waist, her eyes glassy. The world went red. You ripped him away from her, fists colliding with his face, with the sound of your own ragged breathing drowning out his grunts. Over and over, until—

“Let him go!”

You froze when her hands shoved you back. And then she picked up the kitchen knife from the counter. Her knuckles were white around the handle. Her voice trembled — but it was him she was protecting.

“Leave,” she said, her gaze locked on you like you were the threat. And for the first time in your life, your chest hurt more than your bruised hands.

Because in her mind… you were just a stranger hurting someone she still loved.

“Leave right now!” she yells, tears swimming in her eyes.