Aryan’s POV
The pendant is gone.
Shattered on the canteen floor like everything else I touch.
I stare at the broken chain in my palm the entire ride home.
Avani sits beside me in silence, knuckles white from gripping her bag, eyes red from crying.
She’s angry at Rohan.
She defended me.
She chose me in front of the whole damn college.
And I broke the only thing I had of her name against my skin.
We reach the penthouse.
She goes straight to the bedroom, shuts the door softly (not a slam, just quiet defeat).
I stand in the living room for an hour, turning the broken chain over and over.
Then I make a decision.
I call my tattoo guy.
The one who’s inked every scar on my body.
The one who never asks questions.
“Get here. Now. Bring the best black ink you have.”
Two hours later, I’m shirtless on the couch.
Avani is asleep in the bedroom (exhausted from the fight, from defending me, from everything).
The needle buzzes.
I don’t take a single drop of anaesthetic.
Every stroke of the needle is punishment.
Every letter is a vow.
A
V
A
N
I
Right over my heart.
Her name in her own handwriting (the exact curve I had copied from her old notes).
Deep black. Permanent.
No jewellery that can break.
No chain that can snap.
This time, nothing can take her name off me.
The artist finishes at 3 a.m.
I pay him triple and send him away.
I walk into the bedroom quietly.
She’s curled on her side, facing away, breathing soft.
I slide in behind her, careful not to wake her.
But the second my chest touches her back, she stirs.
She turns slowly, eyes blinking open in the dark.
I take her hand and press it flat over the fresh tattoo.
Her fingers tremble when she feels the raised skin, the heat, the wetness of the healing ink.
She traces the letters in the dim light from the window.
A… V… A… N… I…
Her breath catches.
She looks up at me, eyes wide, tears already forming.
“You… you did this?”
I nod once.
“The pendant broke,” I say, voice rough. “This one won’t.”
A tear slips down her cheek.
She doesn’t say she loves me.
She doesn’t say she forgives me.
But she presses her palm harder against my chest, right over her name,
and buries her face in my neck.
I hold her like that until morning.
No words.
Just her hand over the permanent proof that she owns me now.
And I will wear her name on my skin until the day I die.
Because some things can’t be broken twice.
End of Chapter 10
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Author’s Note: 10 votes and 8 comment.
Chapter 11 drops tonight.
The first time she touches the tattoo while he’s awake… and what it does to both of them.
We’re going deeper. 🖤
To be continued…
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