The Freedom He Chased, The Love He Lost
A gripping tale of choices, consequences, and the love a man realises he lost only when it was too late.
Story: S A Spencer
Author of Popular Fictions: The Pink Mutiny, The Black Waters, Dream In Shackles
A Moment
He Never Expected
Arvind froze
the moment he saw her.
Anita stood
near the arrival gate, dressed in a simple cotton kurta, her hair tied back the
way she always wore it when she was rushing from college. But it wasn’t her
presence that shook him.
It was the
man standing beside her.
Tall. Calm.
Confident. And holding her handbag as if it was the most natural thing in the
world.
Arvind’s
suitcase slipped from his hand.
Anita smiled
politely. “Arvind… this is Rajiv.”
Her voice
was steady. His world wasn’t.
Before he
could respond, his phone began to ring.
And that was
when everything truly began to unravel.
The
Restlessness He Never Understood
Months
earlier, long before this airport moment, Arvind had convinced himself he was
suffocating.
Not because
Anita was unkind. She was a lecturer at a women’s college — sharp, respected,
always juggling lesson plans with grocery lists. She still packed his lunch,
still reminded him to take his medicines, still asked, “How was your day?” even
when she was exhausted.
But routine
felt like a cage.
He watched
younger men travel, date, party, live freely. He scrolled through photos of
beaches and bars and convinced himself he had missed out on life.
He mistook
boredom for lack of love.
And when the
Sydney posting came, he told himself it was his chance.
His escape.
His rebirth.
He didn’t
realise then that every escape has a price.
The
Decision That Broke More Than a Home
The divorce
shook the family.
His sons
were furious. His daughter cried quietly. Anita listened without interrupting.
“Are you
sure?” she asked softly.
He nodded,
unable to meet her eyes.
He left her
the house, thinking it made him noble. She didn’t argue. She simply said, “Take
care of yourself,” and returned to marking exam papers.
He boarded
the flight to Sydney imagining freedom.
He didn’t
notice the emptiness sitting beside him.
The City
That Sparkled Until It Didn’t
Sydney
dazzled him at first — the beaches, the nightlife, the anonymity. No relatives
watching. No neighbours judging. No expectations.
He
downloaded dating apps. He met women from different cultures. He felt young
again.
For a while.
But the
freedom he imagined wasn’t the freedom he found.
Women here
were independent. Clear. Unapologetic.
They didn’t
want a man who was running from his past. They didn’t want to mother him. They
didn’t want emotional confusion.
Every
connection fizzled out.
Meanwhile,
Anita kept texting him:
“Hope
you’re eating properly.” “Your daughter asked about you.” “Don’t skip your check-up.”
He replied
with one‑liners, sometimes after days. He assumed she was trying to pull him
back.
He didn’t
realise she was slowly letting go.
The Woman
Who Saw Through Him
Then came
Sofia — an Italian woman with a warm laugh and a fearless spirit. She cooked
him pasta, dragged him to salsa nights, and listened to his stories with
genuine interest.
For the
first time since leaving India, he felt wanted.
He moved in
with her.
But Sofia
saw what he refused to see.
One night,
she said quietly, “You’re a good man, Arvind… but you’re lost.”
He laughed
it off.
Until the
morning he found her note on the kitchen counter:
“I hope
you find yourself.”
And just
like that, she was gone.
He didn’t
know then that this was only the beginning of his unraveling.
The Fall
He Never Saw Coming
His company
downsized. His contract wasn’t renewed. His savings drained faster than he
expected.
Then came
the illness — not fatal, but enough to make him weak, frightened, and painfully
alone.
He checked
his phone.
No messages
from Anita.
For the
first time, he scrolled through her old texts. Every line felt like a hand he
had slapped away.
He typed
slowly:
“I want
to come home.”
Her reply
came after a long pause.
“Okay.
I’ll meet you at the airport.”
He didn’t
know what waited for him there.
The Truth
That Hit Harder Than Loneliness
Back at the
airport, Anita stood with Rajiv.
Arvind’s
throat tightened. “You… remarried?”
Before Anita
could answer, his phone rang again.
It was his
daughter.
“Dad… you
met Mum, right?”
He
swallowed. “She… she’s with someone.”
A long
silence. Then her voice, steady but emotional:
“I knew
you’d be shocked. The boys were angry when Mum told us. They kept saying, ‘What
will people say?’ But I told them society doesn’t live her life. She does.”
Arvind
closed his eyes, tears burning.
“She waited
for months, Dad. She kept texting you. You barely replied. She thought you’d
moved on. She didn’t want to spend the rest of her life alone.”
He looked up
at Anita — calm, dignified, finally at peace.
His
daughter’s voice softened.
“Dad… she
deserved happiness. You chose freedom. She chose to rebuild.”
The call
ended.
And so did
the last illusion he had been holding on to.
The
Freedom That Cost Him Everything
As Anita
walked away with her new husband, Arvind felt something he had never felt
before.
Not anger.
Not jealousy. Not even heartbreak.
But clarity.
He had
chased freedom without understanding it. He had mistaken care for control. He
had mistaken routine for restriction. He had mistaken love for limitation.
And in the
end, he lost the one person who had loved him without conditions.
He left to
find happiness.
She found it
instead.
🔔
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AUTHOR’S NOTE
As I wrote this piece, I kept wondering — what truly defines freedom, and when does it become a trap of our own making? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you feel the man deserved a second chance, or did life simply give him what he chose? Share your opinion in the comments — your perspective might inspire the next story.
S A Spencer- I will bring more stories for your entertainment. Please follow me on Facebook and Twitter so that you know when a new story comes.
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