Five years later.
The late afternoon sun glittered on the surface of a tranquil lake, the same one where Rihan had once told Ruhi about the tyranny of Professor Verma. The air was crisp and clean, filled with the familiar, comforting scent of pine and wet earth. It wasn't Manali, but a quiet, secluded spot in the hills outside Jaipur, a place they had found and made their own.
Rihan, now a confident, successful software developer with his own small, thriving startup, stood by the water's edge. He was no longer skinny or timid. He stood tall, his shoulders broad, a quiet, unshakeable strength radiating from him.
Ruhi stood beside him, her hand held firmly in his. The year in the facility, followed by years of outpatient therapy, had changed her. The process had been brutal, forcing her to confront the horrors of her past, to mourn the child she had been, to integrate the fractured pieces of her personality. The monster, Ananya, was no longer a separate, raging entity that hijacked her consciousness. She was a part of her, a scar she would always carry, a source of a fierce, protective strength that she had learned to control. The kindness of Ruhi was now tempered with the strength and self-awareness of Ananya. She was, for the first time in her life, whole.
A small boy of about four, with his father's gentle eyes and his mother's determined chin, ran laughing towards them, chasing a brilliant blue butterfly. A little girl, a toddler with a head of unruly black hair and a mischievous smile, sat in a stroller nearby, babbling happily to herself.
Ruhi leaned her head on Rihan's shoulder, a soft, genuine smile gracing her lips. It was a smile that reached all the way to her eyes. "He's just like you," she said, her voice a soft murmur as she watched their son. "So full of wonder and kindness."
"He has his mother's spirit," Rihan replied, kissing the top of her head. "He's fearless."
They stood in comfortable silence for a long moment, watching their children, their future, bathed in the golden light. The shadows of their past were long, and would likely never fade completely. But they no longer lived in them. They had found their way into the light, together. The violence and the pain had forged a bond between them that was unbreakable, a love that had been tested by the most terrifying truths and had not only survived, but triumphed.
She turned to him, her brown eyes clear and full of a love that was calm, deep, and absolute. "Thank you," she whispered, her voice thick with an emotion that still, after all this time, overwhelmed her. "For waiting. For believing in me when no one else would."
He smiled, his heart overflowing with a love so vast it felt like it could light up the sky. "Always."
He leaned in and kissed her, a gentle, loving kiss that held the promise of a thousand more sunsets, a lifetime of quiet, peaceful moments just like this.
She pulled back slightly, her eyes sparkling with unshed, happy tears. "Love you," she murmured.
"Love you to eternity," he replied, his voice full of a certainty that had once been impossible for him. And as they stood by the lake, with their children laughing nearby, a perfect, beautiful family against the backdrop of a setting sun, they knew their eternity had just begun.