After enjoying an restful week in Goa without any more disturbances and enjoying peaceful ti together, Alex and Riya finally returned to Mumbai feeling refreshed and content with their quality ti spent away.
The mont Alex stepped through the elegant doors of the luxurious Lotus Crown Villa, his expensive phone buzzed with an incoming ssage notification that imdiately caught his attention with its urgency.
He pulled out the phone and glanced at the screen. Seeing the sender, he groaned visibly with frustration building in him.
The ssage was from his aunt.
The ssage read:
Alex, your cousin has completely lost his mind over so girl! I am desperately begging you, please help ! This situation is so ridiculous that I do not know who else to ask for help. You know that Yash is so close to you. That is why I am ssaging you, begging you to co and help him....
The ssage continued scrolling down the screen endlessly. Alex had to scroll down repeatedly just to reach the end of it.
When Alex at last completed scrolling through everything he was astonished by his cousin’s circumstances. He had just gone through what seed like a ten-thousand-word essay.
His aunt provided a description of every detail regarding his cousin Yash.
Ultimately it essentially boiled down to this: his cousin had fallen so deeply in love that he was no longer able to differentiate reality from his own fantasy.
His cousin Yash had apparently beco so utterly infatuated with so girl he barely knew for more than a week or two that he had lost all common sense in the process.
In his pursuit of her he ended up sacrificing his self-respect and basic dignity.
Based on the bits he managed to gather from his aunts ssage his cousin was chasing after a woman who was obviously not attracted to him at all.
Nevertheless Yash was completely certain that each refusal he got from her actually indicated she was secretly fond of him, which was obviously a misconception on his part.
Alex brought his hand up to his temple to rub it with growing frustration.
This was the scene that Riya witnessed when she ca into the living room from the kitchen wearing an apron, carrying food that she had prepared herself.
She saw him sitting on the sofa with his hand pressed against his temple, frustration written all over his face.
"What is wrong?" Riya asked with genuine concern, noticing his extrely troubled expression as she ca closer to him. "You look like soone just told you so terrible news. What happened? You can tell ."
"Oh, it is nothing but so family drama actually," Alex sighed heavily while taking her hand in his and pulling her gently into his arms. "My cousin is apparently having a serious romantic crisis that requires my imdiate intervention brfore it is too late."
"Oh no, what kind of crisis exactly? What happened to him?"
"Nothing except that he is completely delusional about reality. It needs urgent intervention from . Otherwise he might ruin his entire life, or worse, he could even end up in jail for harassnt of a girl if she decides to file a complaint against him."
Riya heard him and winced sympathetically at the implications.
"Is it really that bad?"
"According to my aunt’s novel length ssage that I just spent ten minutes reading, yes, it is obviously that bad and possibly even worse than she described."
He grabbed his expensive jacket from the coat rack.
This was definitely not sothing that could be handled through a few text ssages or phone calls. He needed to et his aunt in person and understand the full extent of this disaster before attempting any kind of solution.
Just as he was preparing to leave, he turned, gently took Riya’s hand, and asked, "Do you want to co with , or would you prefer to stay here?"
"I need to go deal with a family ergency right now," he told her seriously. "If you want, you can co with , otherwise you can watch so TV. I should be back by evening."
"And miss expending so more ti with you? Absolutely not, I am coming with you," Riya said imdiately without hesitation, grabbing her own jacket from the hook.
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Thirty minutes later after a quiet drive through Mumbai’s evening traffic, Alex and Riya arrived at an upscale café in Bandra’s expensive shopping district.
His aunt was already waiting there, sitting anxiously at a corner table positioned away from other custors. She was nervously stirring a cup of tea that had probably gone completely cold a long ti ago.
The instant she noticed Alex entering the room her anxious expression brightened with relief as if she had been awaiting a rescuer.
"Alex! Thank God you are finally here!" She stood up so quickly in her excitent that she nearly knocked over her chair in the process.
"I have been going absolutely crazy worrying! You have to help Yash imdiately.
I have tried everything I can think of: talking to him calmly, yelling at him angrily, even threatening to cut off his monthly allowance completely. Nothing works at all!"
"Auntie, please calm down first," Alex said gently but firmly, guiding her back to her seat with a reassuring hand. "Let us start from the very beginning. What exactly is going on with Yash?"
His aunt took a shaky breath, trying desperately to compose herself and organize her thoughts properly.
"Three months ago," she began with visible distress, "Yash t this girl nad Kirti at his college. She is beautiful, I will give her that much credit.
Within just one week of eting her, he beca completely obsessed with her to an unhealthy degree.
At first, I genuinely thought it was just a normal crush that would pass naturally. Young people fall in love all the ti and get over it, right?"
Alex nodded encouragingly, listening carefully to every word.
"But then it got progressively worse with each passing day. He started ssaging her obsessively, sending dozens upon dozens of ssages every single day without stopping.
He would show up wherever she was; like a stalker following her movents. He bought her expensive gifts she never asked for. He even..."
She trailed off, looking genuinely embarrassed to continue speaking.
"He started writing terrible poetry about her and posting it online for everyone to see and trust Alex.... it is too bad."
"That does not sound too bad yet," Riya said from the side, trying to be supportive.
"Oh, it gets so much worse later on, trust ," his aunt said darkly with a grim expression. "She barely responds to him at all.
When she does actually reply, it is usually just to tell him firmly to leave her alone and stop bothering her. Yet Yash, my boy takes every single thing as a clear indication of secret love!"
"What exactly do you an by that?" Alex asked carefully, though he was beginning to understand the disturbing pattern.
"She will say clearly to stop ssaging her, and he will sohow think ’she is just playing hard to get like girls do!’
She at one ti block him from all social dia profiles, and he said to that ’she is testing his devotion to prove he is serious!’
She even threw hot coffee directly on him once in public in front of everyone, but it still did not bother him at all!"
Alex and Riya exchanged deeply concerned glances with each other.
"That is... actually pretty seriously bad," Alex admitted with genuine worry creeping into his voice. "This goes beyond normal crush behavior."
"It is not just bad, Alex. It is absolutely terrifying to watch as his mother. He is completely delusional about reality. He cannot see what is actually happening anymore no matter what anyone tells him."
His aunt reached into her designer purse and pulled out a small worn notebook with a conflicted expression on her face.
"This is his personal diary. I know reading soone’s private diary is morally wrong, but I am his mother. I absolutely had to know how bad things really were inside his head."
She slid the diary across the polished table to Alex with trembling hands.
"Read it carefully. Then you will fully understand why I am so desperately worried about him and his future."
Driven by increasing intrigue Alex gently opened the diary.
The diary cover was covered completely in stickers and childish doodles: hearts everywhere, flowers, and poorly drawn portraits of what Alex assud was the girl in question nad Kirti.
He began reading the first entry:
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March 21st - Sunny Day
Today turned out to be an INCREDIBLE Day! As usual I texted Kirti to share details about my morning habits what I ate for lunch my classes in the afternoon everything, about my day. Normally she never answers,. Today... TODAY she actually replied!
She responded: "ohh..alright."
TWO COMPLETE WORDS! She’s at beginning to open up to ! I dedicated two hours trying to decipher what "ohh..alright" might signify in this situation.
I believe it indicates she is becoming at ease with . This is a breakthrough!
I am so happy I shed tears of joy. Even if she scolds every single day for the rest of my life, I would still be grateful just to hear her voice or see her ssages!
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