Areeba was not the kind of girl people noticed in a crowded room.
She never tried to be the loudest, the funniest, or the most beautiful. She simply existed — quietly, gently — like a page in a book that only a few ever cared to read.
But silence does not mean emptiness.
Inside her lived a thousand thoughts, a thousand fears, and a heart that felt everything a little too deeply.
She was quiet with the world.
Yet, with the few people she felt comfortable around, she became a completely different person — talkative, warm, and endlessly expressive. Once she trusted someone, she didn't just talk… she unfolded herself completely. Every thought, every insecurity, every small happiness — she shared it all, without filters, without fear.
Maybe that was her biggest flaw.
Or perhaps… her purest strength.
Areeba had always been an observer.
She noticed the slight change in someone's tone, the hesitation behind a smile, the distance hidden in casual replies. She saw things people thought they had hidden well. But she never spoke about them. She carried those observations quietly within herself, like secrets that were never meant to be exposed.
She believed in loyalty the way people believe in prayers — silently and wholeheartedly.
But life had a strange way of testing the people who believed too much.
Her biggest fear was not darkness, not failure, not even loneliness.
It was trust.
Trusting someone meant giving them the power to hurt her, to leave, to change. And losing people… that was a pain she had known too closely. Every time someone walked away, it felt like losing a small piece of herself. So she learned to be careful. Careful with words. Careful with attachment. Careful with hope.
Yet her heart… never truly learned caution.
Despite everything, Areeba still desired the simplest things:
peace that didn't feel temporary, and friendships that didn't feel fragile. She longed for loyalty — the kind that stays even when circumstances change. The kind that doesn't make you question your worth at midnight.
She wasn't chasing a perfect life.
She just wanted a sincere one.
Along with that quiet desire lived another dream — to become someone her parents could be proud of. To build a life that reflected their sacrifices. To stand one day in front of them as proof that their faith in her had not been misplaced. Every late-night thought, every silent tear, every moment of self-doubt… was tied to that one wish:
to make something of herself.
People often misunderstood her silence.
They thought she was distant, reserved, maybe even cold.
But if anyone had ever looked closely, they would have seen a girl who felt too much in a world that often felt too little.
A girl who gave her loyalty without conditions.
A girl who trusted deeply — even when she feared it the most.
A girl who didn't know that one day, her own story would be written not in ink… but in the quiet heartbreaks of broken friendships.
This is not just a story about betrayal.
It is a story about a heart that remained soft in a world that taught it to harden.
And this…
is where it all began.