In Did You Ever Love Me?, bestselling author Rithvik Singh offers a heartfelt reminder that healing begins when you choose yourself—guiding readers through love, loss, and the quiet journey back to self-worth.
***
A mother sits alone
for breakfast
on a table of four,
dipping toast in chai.
Five missed calls,
her daughter’s phone says
but she was working all night,
and so she must’ve turned
the ‘flight mode’ on
and retired to bed.
The mother leaves for work
and when she comes back home,
her table greets her,
like a loyal dog wagging its tail.
She notices the dust settling
on the chairs other than her own.
Eleven missed calls,
her son’s phone says.
He calls her back
and talks about his day.
I might get a raise
if I move further away.
She doesn’t respond.
He wasn’t asking anyway.
Someone who could move a little away
could move a lot away too.
That’s just how the world works.
When her daughter calls her at night,
she tells her she’s selling off
the family dining table.
These chairs keep mocking me, she tells her.
You thought your
children would stay?
The chairs kept creaking
through and through,
until they were gone, too.
