The suffocating silence in his private chambers was like a lead block on my chest, a terrible rejection that pierced me. Sila's cruel words -

'My feelings are elsewhere' - echoed cruelly in my mind, and every repetition brought new trauma to my already wounded self. He disappeared, leaving me drifting in the sea of shattered dreams, struggling to cope with the painful fact that my fervent passion and unwavering belief in our relationship was... a cruel, fleeting mirage.

Was all of this a ...