Long chapter ahead.

Aarna's POV:

I reached home in a cab and dragged that groceries bag inside with much difficulty. Well.. Don't think of me as some spoiled princess because I am not but this bag weighed so much, making it difficult for me to even lift it.

When I entered the living room, Athayya immediately greeted my sight and seeing me carrying the groceries, she rushed to my side and looked behind me for Dhruv.

At this moment, all I wanted to do was, pour out all my grievances and her son's great deed in front of her. So that she would give him a good beating once he came back but I knew I couldn't do it until I was clear of the whole incident.

"Why are you carrying it? Where is Dhruv? Why is he not with you?" She inquired.

I immediately racked my brain for a suitable excuse and when I got one, I answered her immediately.

"Ravi called him once we were out of the mart and informed Dhruv that there was an important work which needed his attention. Though he wanted to drop me, I insisted on going alone. So he booked a cab for me and went to attend to the matters." I told her carefully, trying my best to sound truthful.

She looked at me with a slight smirk and gestured me to look at the teapoy. Following her gaze, I saw his phone lying on it so proudly. I closed my eyes and chided myself for not being careful.

"You know what, I nearly fell for your lie. If it wasn't for his phone lying in front of my eyes, I would have never known that you were covering up for him. Tell me where is he?" She demanded sternly and I became tongue-tied.

How could I tell her that her son left me all alone? How could I tell her I was not an important person as he was to me? How could I tell her that I was such an existence in his life that could be easily forgotten?

Unknowingly tears welled up in my eyes, though I knew it might be an important issue, how could I not get hurt when he neglected my entire existence just like that?

Suddenly I was engulfed in the warm embrace and a hand shot forward to pat my back in a consoling manner. Not being able to hold back anymore, I broke down on her shoulder and started sobbing silently.

"Silly girl, tell me. What happened? Did he say anything? Did he bully you? If he did anything to hurt you, you can tell me. I will skin him alive once he is home."

I continuously shook my head for her every question. Though I was glad that she was so supportive of me, I never wanted to involve anyone in our issues. I might be just being a little oversensitive.

"Nothing Athayya. Don't worry too much. No. He didn't do anything. Though I lied to you, half of it was true. He really went to attend an important matter." I answered her after calming myself down.

"You won't be crying like this if it was as simple as you are sounding it to be. Forget it. You won't tell me even if I make you stand here all night. Even if he went to attend to some matters, still, it isn't right on his part to send you home alone. Let him come. I will have a good chat with him. Now don't cry anymore. Forget about that brooding brat and come downstairs after freshening up. I will make all your favorite dishes." She said after patting my shoulder.

I was really glad that she didn't probe this matter any further. Nodding at her gratefully, I went to our room and directly headed to the washroom after grabbing my night suit.

Ignoring the angry tears that were coming out in protest, I went to the balcony after freshening up. I stood there for a while, staring at the dark sky in front of me.

I only went downstairs when Aadhya came inside and called me. Though all the dishes were my favorite, for the first time they weren't particularly appetizing because I was missing certain someone's presence.

"Sorry. I am not hungry. I will have my dinner with Dhruv,"

When I said these words, everyone was looking at me with a teasing smile except for Athayya who passed me an understanding look.

I nodded at her while standing up slowly from the chair and went to the terrace with my phone.

Settling myself on the swing, I gazed at the sky, admiring the moon in a daze. It seems so near yet so far just like our hearts.

Every time I told myself to not expect anything from anyone as it would hurt too much when they didn't meet our expectations. Still, I couldn't stop myself from doing so and getting hurt in return.

When I was so immersed in my thoughts, I received a message from Ankitha Akka. We never met after our first meet, however, we both stayed in touch by phone and it became our habit to share everything that was going on in our lives with each other.

[Today I signed those
divorce papers and told
my parents the entire
truth. Now I am feeling so
relieved. Call me when you are free. I have so much to tell
you.

-Ankitha]

I managed to smile even in my gloomy mood. I was genuinely happy for her. At last, she managed to free herself from the shackles. Still smiling, I replied to her.

[I am so happy for you, Akka.
I will call you tomorrow.
Take care of your health🖤

-Aarna]

After messaging her, I saw that there were missed calls from an unknown number, probably I got them when I was in the washroom. Since I never had the habit of attending the calls from unknown numbers, I didn't bother to call them back and pocketed my phone and walked to the parapet when I heard the engine sound of a car. Leaning forward while holding the railing, I saw him staggering into the house.

Is he okay?

Thinking this, I immediately prepared myself to rush downstairs when my phone pinged again. Taking it out, I saw it was Ankitha Akka who sent me a message with an 'Okay' as a reply to my previous message.

Sighing, I sprinted down the stairs while holding my phone, and walked to our room hurriedly but the words that were coming from my room, made me halt on my track.

"What kind of irresponsible behavior is this, Dhruv? I didn't expect this from you at all. How could you send her home all alone? Answer me and why the hell did you drink yourself to death?" Athayya was shouting at him angrily while he held a table for support.

"Not today, ma. I am not in a good mood. Leave me alone." He slurred and Athayya immediately stormed in front of him and made him look at her.

"He is drunk," my eyes widened as the realization finally sunk in.

"Hell with your mood. You have to answer me. What have you done to her? Why was she crying so much when she came home? What was that so-called important matter that made you leave her? I don't know what happened but she seemed so hurt about something. You better give me a valid explanation." She asked him and he angrily threw her hand from his face.

"Stop it ma. Stop it. For god's sake, please leave me alone. I am not her driver and she isn't a child. Even if I leave her alone, she can make her way on her own. It doesn't concern me for what reason she was crying. You wanted me to marry her and when I did, what more do you want from me? Stop expecting anything from me because the thing I am most afraid of is, not meeting their expectations and being the reason behind their disappointment."

I bit my lips to control my tears after hearing those hurtful words he had uttered as my heart throbbed in pain.

"Dhruv, Are you even aware of what you are talking about? We are talking about your wife. That girl left everything behind her to live with you and decided to trust you with her life even if you were basically a stranger to her. To this day, all I saw was her efforts of mending with us. She is practically treating us like her own family. Let me tell you this, the moment I saw you smiling so carefreely, trust me I know she was the one for you. I knew I took the right decision. So please don't make me question my judgment. I know you have your considerations but don't hurt her. She is too broken. If you think that her life is perfect then you are wrong. She is just a child who is shielding herself with a smile. Cherish her before you lose her. " Her voice was softened when she said those last words.

I touched the wall with my back and covered my mouth to control the sob that was threatening to erupt. I never had someone who stood up for me till now and here was a woman who was my mother in law just rebuked her son because of me. She understood me without any need of saying anything. She recognized my pain just as a mother should do to her child. She decided to take my side, even in the face of her son. Could I be anymore luckier than this? Should I be happy that at least someone was there to stand up for me to voice out my grievances or should I feel bad for him for making him face all these questions? I was crying for the things which were beyond my limitations and forgetting the fact to cherish the little happiness that life had thrown at me.

Coming to Dhruv, he didn't do anything wrong to me till now but today was the first time, I felt hurt by his behavior. Was that person so important to him that he completely forgot about me or my existence in his life was so unworthy that it could be disregarded at any time? Was I making a hill out of a mole? Was I being unreasonable and overthinking things?

I didn't have answers and the only person who had all the answers was standing in front of his mother with his head bowed down as a culprit. My heart really went out to him. He didn't need to go through all this and he wasn't answerable to any one of us as I knew he must have his reasons but it was so hurting to even think of a possibility that he too would leave me.

"I- I don't know what's happening in my life. Just leave me alone for a while. I don't even know what I am talking about. Just ignore my words. Please, leave me." He pleaded her while his hands shot forward to wipe his dampened eyes.

Seeing his broken self, tears gushed out my eyes, and Athayya too had tears in her eyes as she walked out with a defeated sigh and got stunned when she caught the sight of mine but she composed herself immediately.

"Aaru, Don't take his words to heart. I don't know what happened to him but he never behaved like this before. Trust me, this is the first time he came home completely drunk. If you aren't comfortable being around him, sleep in the guest room." She said softly. I shook my head at her in denial.

"No, Athayya. Don't worry too much. I am not that fragile. I can handle him. I can't leave him alone when he seems so broken. Please don't think about all these things anymore and have a good rest," saying this, I marched inside and closed the door slowly once I saw her leaving.

Turning my head, I saw him sitting on the couch while burying his face in his hands. I carefully walked towards him and hesitantly placed my hand on his shoulder. His head immediately snapped in my direction, making me step back in fear as I was really afraid of drunken people.

Seeing me, his eyes softened a little as he gave me a silly smile and struggled to lift himself from the couch. I immediately leaped to support him. Holding his waist, I barely managed to walk near the bed as his weight was nearly crushing me to the ground.

"Eenie Meenie Minie mo..." He started singing while displaying all his teeth.

What's that!! I think alcohol finally started kicking in.

Though I was hurt and all I wanted to do was smack him so hard, I was enjoying this side of him thoroughly. I couldn't stop myself from smiling. It was completely different from his usual mighty behavior. Thinking about something, I took my phone out from my pocket and started recording his nonsense for sweet revenge.

"Sing with me na, baby. Eenie Meenie.. Err..what's after that? Hehe.. I forgot the lyrics after seeing your beautiful face," he leaned even more onto me.

"Is he for real? Isn't he the same man who made me cry so much a while ago? Isn't he the same man who created a lot of insecurities and turmoil inside me? Then why am I melting over his single silly smile? Does love make people irrational? Must be it," I thought with a sardonic smile.

Ignoring his nonsense, I dumped him on the bed. Seeing him leaning on the headboard and adjusting himself to a sitting position, I thought to leave him and settle myself on the couch but soon fell on his lap as he tugged my hand forcefully.

He held me so tightly and embraced me, making my heart flutter at his mere touch. Did he even know what he was doing to my poor heart?

When I tried to free myself from his hold, he hugged me even tighter as if he wanted to engulf me into his body and he buried his face into my hair. I could feel his heart, pounding as fast as mine.

"Stay for a while," he mumbled when I again made a protest to get out of his hold.

"You reek of alcohol. I can't stand it, " I told him sulkily.

"I am sorrryyyy. I promise I won't repeat this," His words came out more like gibberish, still, he sounded so sincere.

"Why did you even drink in the first place?" I asked him calmly after some time.

Hearing my question, he released his hold on me, and taking it as a cue, I sat cross-legged on the bed beside him. He slowly crawled up to me and placed his head on my lap like a wounded child.

"I met her today," he confessed. Even when he didn't mention anything about her, it didn't need the genius to guess who was she.

"I was a fool. I thought she was living happily but I don't know the fact that she was living in hell. I made people follow her to protect her but how could I protect her from the people she was living with. I am feeling so guilty, Aaru." This is the first time he called me by my nickname as his eyes teared a little.

Unable to utter a word when my husband was talking about another woman, I bit my lips as I ran my fingers through his hair to ease his pain at least.

"I want to kill her bastard husband with my hands. I want her to help in becoming a normal person but you know she denied my help after knowing that I am married. She doesn't want to create problems in my married life and most importantly she doesn't want to hurt you. I understand where she is coming from. Still, I want to help her with my might, not because I am still in love with her but because of the guilt that's killing me from inside."

I wiped my tears which are flowing continuously with my other hand and turned my face to another side.

"Believe me Aaru when I say that I don't have any feelings for her or should I say I realized that I was never in love with her in the first place. My intention is pure and I truly want to help her as a friend but I guess she doesn't need it." He slurred making my eyes wide open.

"How can I believe you? How can I know that you aren't in love with her?" I croaked out.

"Because I-..I started liking you. I finally started falling for you, idiot." He confessed with a sweet smile.

Hearing his words, I scoffed through my tears and covered my face with my hands as I sobbed so badly.

How much I waited for these words but when it really happened, I didn't know whether to believe his words or to consider them as his drunken nonsense talk.

"Don't cry. I can't stand your tears," when I heard his words, I angrily removed my hands from my face and saw him smiling at me like a fool.

"Idiot, how can you tell me to not cry when all you do is hurting me? You are saying that you started liking me..right? Then why the hell did you leave me and take her with you? Is this what your so-called liking meant? As if it wasn't enough, you even uttered all those hurtful words in front of Athayya. Do you even consider my feeling for once? Do you even know how much I got hurt because of your words?" I spat him angrily as the angry tears spurred out of my eyes.

"Don't give me false assumptions. I can survive a loveless marriage but I can't live in a facade. I know you can never fall in love with me and I can live with that fact as I, myself is undeserving of your love but can't I even deserve a little bit of respect in this marriage? Do you even know how I felt when I saw you driving her home? For the first time, I felt so insecure, so unworthy even when I didn't know anything about her identity. I am afraid of losing you though I never possessed you in actuality." When he was about to stop me, I pushed his hand away.

"Let me speak. I know you may forget everything by tomorrow and I am not daring enough to say all these things to you when you are quite sober. So listen to me. I am a girl with lots of insecurities. I am a girl who grew up with a fear that everyone who relates to me will get hurt because of me. I am a girl who craved to love someone and to be loved by someone. I know what I was going to get when I signed for this marriage but I am a human too..right. Moreover, I am a sensitive person. I may look like I am a carefree person and like someone who doesn't take anything to heart but believe me, everything hurts me a lot but I learned to feign the ignorance and mask my pain with a smile."

"Though I enjoy our usual banter and silly fights, they aren't the only thing I want in this marriage. I want you to be with me in all my ups and downs as much as I want to be with you in yours. I want us to be a normal couple without the intervention of our pasts. I want us to go on the little dates every now and then to have our own couple time. I want you to tell me about your day and I want to do the same. I want to share the cuddles with you and tell you every little secret that I have buried in my heart. I want to live a carefree life without any facades. I want to cry when I wish to cry. I want to smile when I wish to smile. I want to be myself at least in front of you. I want to explore so many things with you but you know what, everything is just my wishful thinking and all these things will forever remain as my dreams. Only my dreams."

"I had sinned when I was a kid and I am getting punished for that till today. All I know is I am undeserved of everything but still this heart wants to be a little greedy when it comes to you. So don't lie to me. I can't take the pain anymore when I realized that it's all a facade. I beg you. I beg you." My voice became muffled as I broke down in front of him, giving him a glimpse of my broken self.

"I am sorry. I am so sorry. It was never my intention to hurt you but still, I managed to hurt you. I am sorry if I made you feel unworthy. If it is anyone undeserving and unworthy between us, it is me. I don't deserve you. This is the very reason why I don't want you to get dragged into my messy life. I was never afraid of anything but for the first time, I am afraid of hurting you and afraid of being the reason behind your tears. Though I never said it aloud, you changed my life for good. You made me realized so many things. Why do I love being with you? Why does every annoying thing you do was so enticing in my eyes? Why can't I stand your tears? Why do I want to unveil your secrets and want to be a cure to your pain? I never felt like this before."

"What are you doing to me? You are driving me insane. I can't even imagine my life without you.. heck, I can't even live without you. If it isn't falling in love, then what is it? Is it even possible to fall for a person in such a short time. No..right. So I keep on telling myself that it may be just a liking but I know it's more than that. You are a beautiful yet painful reality which I avoided to face till now. Not only you but even I am also afraid of saying everything out when I am sober but trust me when I said I started falling for you, it wasn't a lie. Believe me..please."

"I am truly sorry, darling. Don't be angry with me anymore. Stop crying..okay?" He slurred in the middle before attempting to wipe my tears and I was too dumbfounded to even react. So I let him do whatever he wanted but when I realized what he was doing, I held his hand indignantly.

"Then don't become the reason behind my tears. Don't make me cry.. not at least for you. Give me all the love that I craved for. Pamper me as I wished to be. Cherish me as I dreamt to be." I told him while looking into his eyes directly as he was sleeping in my lap while facing me.

"I will but you should repeat them tomorrow again, " he said in a suggestive tone.

"Why?" I asked him in confusion.

"What if I forgot everything when I am sobered up. I was never wasted before. So I don't know whether I will remember all these words or not. So you better record them and send them to my phone. Ohh, wait. I don't know where my phone is. I think I lost my pretty phone," he said like a child with a slight pout and I immediately burst out laughing, seeing his innocent face.

When he said about recording, I have immediately reminded of the fact that my phone was still in recording mode. It was a good thing though. I can use this against him whenever I feel like pulling his leg as he never missed a chance to taunt me with that teeny weeny crush thing.

"Dhruv, when did you realize that you started having feelings for me?" I asked him cautiously after a while.

"Oh. When I was on my business trip. I missed you so much. You are annoyingly beautiful. So how could I possibly resist myself to fall for you? You are pretty too, cute too, understanding too, caring too..oh..annoying too. There are so many things that I love in you," he said while spreading his hands indicating 'many'.

Though I was usually thick-skinned, I couldn't help but get flustered under his open praises. I bit back the sweet smile that was threatening to form on my face.

"Then why did you avoid me at that time? You didn't even attend my calls and didn't respond to a single message of mine. Is this how much you have missed me?" I cleared my throat and asked him sternly.

He looked at me innocently while pursuing his lips and dragged my face so close to his face by placing his hand on my neck...so close that even a single movement could land my lips on his.

"Dhruv-" my words died down in my mouth when he bent my face even more and took my lips into an intense kiss, making me caught off guard. He deepened the kiss while nibbling my lower lip and I was completely thrown into a hazy state as I reciprocated him clumsily.

After what I felt like an eternity, I came back to my senses and tried to push him. Though I didn't mind getting kissed by him, I was unable to stand the stench of the alcohol that was assaulting my nostrils and in no way, I wanted it in this situation. So I did only one thing I could do. I bit his lower lip when he denied leaving me.

With a hiss, he left his hold on me and I immediately glared at him angrily but my heart got melted into a pool of water when I saw him grinning ear to ear like a child who got his favorite candy. Seeing his carefree face, my lips stretched into a smile.

"Because I want to do more than just kissing," he proclaimed with a cheeky smile, answering my previous question while pointing his finger at my lips before closing his eyes and dozing off with a smile on his face.

"How can he be damn annoying even when he is not in his senses? If you think that I may forgive you when you act all cute, then you are wrong. Though I am not angry at you, you still have to earn my forgiveness on your own," I chided him while caressing his head lightly as he turned his body and buried his face into my belly by holding my waist and I extended my hand to stop and save the recording on my phone

Unexpected confession from Dhruv!!

Though some of you might think that it was too early for the confession, this was the plot and the flow I had planned in my mind.

It is a long chapter till now. I wanted to publish this in two parts but I don't want to break the flow. So I published it as a single chapter. From the next update onwards, the chapters will be resumed to their usual word count only.

Hope you guys liked this chapter.

Thanks for reading.

Please do vote and comment.