He regretted every moment of his life before he stepped foot into that train. Every moment that he spent hurting her. The only thing he wanted to do now was to ask for forgiveness. 

The scenery passed before his eyes, inviting him to indulge in the beauty before him, but his heart wouldn't allow it. He kept going through the scenario in his head over and over again. He imagined he would say, "You've been so kind to me for all of my life. You raised me and provided me with unconditional love in abundance but, instead of repaying it, I rejected it." 

He even mouthed those words. Judging how they sounded. At the end, he figured he wouldn't be able to say anything. Even now, thinking about all of it, how she had asked him to not leave, and how he had done the opposite. How he had cut all contact with her and didn't even send her a single letter in all the five years he spent in the city, made him tear up. 

There was nothing more in the world he wanted to do now than to reach his village. He did not recall the last time he had been this anxious. 

Finally, after the most painful ten hours of his life, the train stopped. He didn't wait a second longer and jumped out of it. Leaving all of his luggage behind. In the crowd at the station, he saw his father. He ran towards him and hugged him. "Where is mother? Is she at home? Is she alright?"

His father bowed down to the floor and took out a piece of cloth from his bag. "She wanted to apologize that she didn't have anything valuable enough to leave behind except this."

He looked at it, completely silent. He ran his hand over it and imagined her face. "Its the chador her mother had gifted to her on her wedding day." His father said.

Was this how it was then? He was surprised at himself. Not even a single tear? Then suddenly, he remembered the last words he had said to her, "...and if I had been born to someone else, maybe I would've been happier."

That was his breaking point. The moment he could no longer bear it.