We Were Never Married

 

• ₹350.00
• by Ashfaq Ahmad  (Author)
• Book: We Were Never Married
• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Gradias Publishing House
• Language: English
• ISBN-13: 978-81-996162-0-2
• Product Dimensions: 22 x 14 x 3 cm

WHEN LOVE LOOKS NOTHING LIKE WE IMAGINED

There are people who enter our lives the way monsoon clouds drift across a summer sky— quietly, without announcement, without fanfare. They arrive with no promise of change, no threat of disruption. And yet, by the time they leave— or stay— they alter the shape of the sky itself.

We meet hundreds of people without truly meeting them. We live inside our bubbles— our goals, our fears, our routines— and forget that sometimes the universe intervenes in strange ways, pulling two mismatched lives into the same orbit, even if only for a while.

But relationships— real ones, meaningful ones— rarely look like the ones we plan.

Some begin with laughter. Some begin with heartbreak. And some begin with a lie.

This is a story about the last kind.

The Distance Between Two People Isn’t Always Measured in Miles

Imagine two individuals who share nothing— no tastes, no goals, no ambitions, no worldview. One is carrying the weight of responsibilities he never chose. The other is running behind dreams that the world insists she must chase faster, brighter, louder.

One is simply trying to survive. The other is trying to shine. They are not soulmates. They are not opposites-attract destinies. They are not even friends. In truth, they’re almost invisible to each other.

But life isn’t a neat, curated bookshelf. It’s messy, unpredictable, sometimes ruthless… and sometimes strangely kind.

One day, under circumstances neither asked for, they find themselves standing under the same roof— forced to pretend, forced to share, forced to coexist. Not as roommates. But as husband and wife. The irony? They aren’t even a couple. They’re strangers playing a role. A role designed to protect, hide, or shelter. A role that begins as convenience. A role neither intends to take seriously.

And yet… time has a way of peeling back layers we didn’t know we had.

Two People Sharing a Space Aren’t Always Sharing a Life... But Sometimes, Space Is Enough

A year can be long. 366 days of tiny conversations, mismatched cups of tea, shared silences, and involuntary habits. A year of witnessing someone’s bad days, late-night breakdowns, ridiculous jokes, and vulnerable moments.

You begin by tolerating someone. Then slowly, without meaning to, you start noticing things: how they speak, how they walk, how they avoid arguments, how they laugh when they’re stressed, how they shut down when they’re hurt.

You start recognizing the unsaid. You start anticipating the unexpressed.

You begin by pretending to be a couple—  and end up being something far more dangerous:

Two people who understand each other. Two people who matter to each other.

Not lovers. Not partners. Not soulmates.

Just two lives slowly stitching themselves together, thread by accidental thread.

Not All Attachments Have a Name

Some equations are too fragile to define. Some bonds too premature to claim. Some connections too unsteady to label.

The beauty— and tragedy— of such relationships lies in the silence between them. In everything left unsaid. In every feeling that grew without permission.

They never planned a future. They never planned a beginning. They never planned anything at all.

And yet, somewhere between survival and companionship, between lies and truth, between chaos and quiet, life happened.

Not the kind of life people write poetry about—  but the kind that creeps into your bones with the warmth of familiarity.

Two people. One fake marriage. A shared home. And a year that changes everything.

But Life Has Its Own Plans… And Not All Plans Are Kind

What happens when the lie becomes comfortable? When the pretence becomes habit? When the distance shrinks, and closeness begins to feel natural— dangerously natural?

What happens when the world finds out? When family, society, expectations, and past traumas crash into the fragile walls of two people who never intended to belong to each other— but somehow did?

Some stories begin with love. This one began with fear. And sometimes fear creates deeper roots than love ever can.

The Hardest Part Isn’t Loving Someone... It’s Admitting You Do

There comes a moment in every unexpected relationship when choices must be made:

To walk away. Or to stay. To deny. Or to accept. To protect ourselves. Or to protect the person we accidentally began caring for.

Not all love stories are soft. Some are jagged and painful, shaped by circumstances neither person created.

Some are born out of survival. Some out of habit. Some out of pure, unintended humanity.

And some… out of lies that turned into life.

The Story That Grew Out of These Questions

We Were Never Married is not a fairy-tale. It’s not a rom-com. It’s not a tragic sacrifice story either.

It’s a journey— raw, messy, emotional— of two strangers forced to act like a couple, and the uninvited bond that grows in the spaces between what’s fake and what slowly,

painfully, becomes real.

It asks uncomfortable questions:

What if the person you pretend to love becomes the only one who truly understands you? What if proximity creates affection you never wished for? What if a lie becomes the only safe place you’ve ever known? Most importantly—  What happens when the world forces you to choose between the lie you built… and the person you built it with?

This book grew from those questions—  and from the belief that the most powerful relationships are the ones we never expected to have. If you’ve ever found connection in the last place you looked, if you’ve ever been changed by someone who wasn’t supposed to matter, if you’ve ever loved without meaning to— 

then perhaps this story will feel like yours too.

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