Unedited.
Dhruv's POV:
She just sat there with a blank face while clenching her fists as I didn't know what she was going to do by asking me to take her to Ankitha's house. As I stopped the car in front of her house, she got down and waited patiently for me to park it.
Once I was done, she motioned me to move ahead as she followed me. I hesitantly lifted my hand to knock on the door and soon Ankitha's mother came into our sight as she was the one to open the door.
"Is Ankitha Akka at home?" Before giving me a chance to speak, Aarna asked her as Aunty was looking at me in confusion.
"Sorry for the intrusion, Aunty. We have to meet her and it's kinda important." Saying this, she went inside while looking around for her.
Once she spotted her sitting in the living room with a notebook in her hand, she marched towards her and took out a small package from her bag before throwing it on the table that was in front of Ankitha.
Frowning, I walked up to her as Aarna gave me a brief glance and shifted her attention to the Aunty who stood there as completely clueless as me.
"Aunty, can you please excuse us for a moment? We need to talk to her alone. Don't worry. She would be completely safe." She said and assured her when she noticed the worried glance she threw at her daughter.
When Ankitha nodded at her in an assuring manner, she left from there as Ankitha stretched her hand for that package and after noticing what was inside, she looked at Aaru with a panic visible in her eyes.
"Aaru, it's not like what you are thinking. It's in the past." Saying this, she hurriedly stood up and placed the contents on the table, giving me a glimpse of our photos together which we took in the past.
When she tried to grab her hand, Aaru dodged it and showed her hand to her.
"Akka.. Sorry, Ms. Ankitha, I am not doubting my husband nor accusing you of spoiling my marriage but what I want to as is, why didn't anyone of you reveal this thing to me till now?"
"If it was not for me to see them accidentally and found about your relationship, when do you guys plan to tell me about this? Well, do you guys even think of telling me about this in the first place or wanted to fool me by hiding this thing all my life?"
"Aaru, listen to me. I never intended to hide it from yo-" but she interrupted me and said.
"I am not going to listen to anything you would say. I want to know her reasons for hiding this matter from me. Tell me. I truly considered you as my sister and even started calling you 'Akka' but did you ever even consider me as one for at least once before hiding this from me?"
"I never expected for him to tell me in the first place because he could never trust me in his life but what about you? Do you also consider me as an unreasonable person who couldn't even differentiate between right and wrong? Is that why you hid this matter from me?" She asked her while rubbing her tears forcefully.
"Aaru, please listen to me. You are the one who gave me a new life and unknowingly became a person that I could share anything with-"
"But not trustworthy enough to tell her that her husband was your Ex? Is that it?" Aaru asked her in a hurtful tone as I ran my fingers through my hair helplessly.
"It's not like that, Aaru. I only got to know about you being his wife when accidentally bumped into me, in his company. After that, I tried telling you so many times but I was afraid that you would misunderstand me by thinking that I approached you with the wrong intention. Trust me, I truly didn't know about your relation with Dhruv when I met you for the first time.
"I have my reasons and my own insecurities played a huge role. I was afraid you would misunderstand me and I had to lose the only person who I had started trusting. Believe me, I never thought that it would hurt you this much. I am truly sorry." Ankitha choked out.
"Someone accused me that I have the intention of breaking your marriage and I thought you would think the same of me, too. That's why I started avoiding you." Ankitha was a crying mess as Aaru too had tears in her eyes. Still ignoring the confrontation that she intended to do, Aaru poured some water for her.
"Drink it and stop crying." She said without looking at her as I smiled lightly at her for thinking about everyone even in this situation.
"I would never think in such a way because I trust my husband. If he wanted to be with you, who am I to stop him but he promised me that he would never do such a thing and I believe him. As for you, though it was really such a short time since I had known you, I trust you enough to not think that you would spoil people's lives."
"So the thing that's hurting me the most is the fact that you both hid such a big matter from me. You may think that it's a thing of the past and I might look like I am making a hill out of a mole but for me, it's really important for you. When I shared all my deepest secrets with my life partner, It's no wrong for me to expect the same thing from him too..right? When I trust my husband so blindly, it's no wrong to expect him to trust me equally..right? So that's where everything went wrong and it proves what a wrong match it was, to begin with."
"Anyways, remember, I didn't come here to blame you. I am just here to confront you and I did. Now I am feeling so lite and I understand your reasons but it will take some time for me to digest everything. So don't try to call me in the meanwhile. I will definitely contact you once I come to terms with my life. Take care of your health." Saying this, she marched out without glancing at me as I ran behind her hurriedly.
Once I unlocked the car, she settled herself in the passenger seat silently. While driving, I tried talking to her but she kept on ignoring my attempts of talking to her. The thing I hate the most is her silence as it was so scary to bear.
As we reached the house, I kept on following her to the guest room. Though she was aware of my presence, she didn't say anything as I went inside the room along with her.
"Dhruv, do you remember the words that I had once said?" She asked me in a plain tone while removing her watch and giving me a side glance.
After meeting my confused gaze, she smiled at me and went near the window before standing there with her back facing me.
"Once I said that, when you have to choose between your Ex and me, instead of assuming everything on my own, I would give you a chance to choose whom you wanted to be with! Remember?" I stood there willing myself to listen to what she had to say, though I knew what was going to come.
"So I am now giving you a chance. I already knew what would your answer be. Still, I want to put myself as an option though I know how I don't even deserve to be one. Let's say I need proper closure. Hence I needed to hear it from you."
"So tell me whom will you choose? An immature girl who is forced on you in the name of responsibility or a girl who is capable of standing on par with you, like an ideal one for the perfect person?" She asked me flatly but the slight trembling in her tone gave away her pretense.
The slight shaking of her shoulders gave away how scared she was to hear my answer and how she was willing to portray herself to be brave even when I knew her heart was ripping apart with each word she had uttered on her will.
So without saying anything, I moved forward and pulled her into a hug and the moment her soft body landed in my arms, I could hear the loud thudding of her heart which was reflecting the turmoil she was facing within herself.
"Just say it and get over with it already. Getting hurt is nothing new to me. Based on your answer, I will be prepared to tend the wounds of my heart." She said as her body shook softly with her sobs. As I tightened my hold on her, she still laid there without wounding her arms around me.
"Listen then!" Saying this, I held her chin up, making her look directly into my eyes as my other hand wrapped around her securely.
"You are not an option for me to choose."
"You are my life. My everything. Being a fool I am, I have always taken you for granted. I never knew how you became so important to me until I heard my mom saying that you left the house. I never knew when you became my everything and I never thought about how made me a better person." I told her sincerely.
"I am extremely sorry for making you feel so unworthy. I am extremely sorry for making you feel unwanted. I am extremely sorry for making you belittle yourself. I am extremely sorry for every pain I have inflicted on you. I am extremely sorry for not providing solace when you needed it the most. I am extremely sorry for being a useless husband." I said while pinning my forehead on hers as the tears of regret fell from my eyes onto her cheeks, trying to convey how ashamed I was for doing such things to her.
"I just don't know how to undo everything I had done. I don't know how to take away your pain but I only know that if I was the one to cause you the pain, I should be the one to heal it. If I was the one to cause you the tears, I should be the one to spread smiles on your face. If I was the one to degrade your self-worth, I should be the one to make you gain your self-confidence again. If I was the one to make you feel worthless, I should be the one to prove how lovable you are by cherishing you with my love."
"I am a jerk, a whole big jerk if I may say but can you please believe me for the last time when I say I will prove myself to you? You believed me all along. So please take a risk of doing it again. I...I beg you. I can't live without you, Aaru. I can't.
"The feeling of being away from you, itself is so scary. So please, give me a chance. I don't want your forgiveness because I know I don't deserve it but I truly want you in my life. Call me selfish.
"Please, don't ever think low of yourself. If there is anyone among us, who doesn't deserve whom, it should be me who doesn't deserve you. I am so sorry, baby. I am so sorry." I mumbled over while hugging her tightly, not wanting to let her go at all as she continued whimpering in my arms.
"Believe me, I wanted to forget everything like a nightmare and wanted to believe your words. I wanted to take a risk of giving us a chance but the wounds are too fresh, Dhruv. I can't forget everything and forgive you as nothing had happened. I really can't." Came her muffled voice as she clutched the sides of her shirt and buried her face in my chest.
"Because how could you even accuse me like that? Am I nothing in your eyes, Dhruv? Is that why you couldn't notice the pain in my eyes and my plight? That day was a nightmare in my life that I wanted to forget. I never felt that humiliated and harassed in my life. Heck, even you, as my husband, never crossed a line in our relationship but who gave him a right to do such unspeakable things to me?" She choked out as I kept on rubbing her back in a soothing manner and let her cry out as she had to let out everything.
"I can still feel his touch on my body. I don't even how to get rid of it. It might not be a big thing and some people must have experienced worst than this but for me, it's really too much. I just.. I just wanted to protest or even wanted to beg him but I let myself bear everything."
I kept on mumbling sorry through my tears as she continued venting out and all I wanted to do at this moment was to rip that jerk apart from inflicting this pain to her but was I any different from him? While he caused physical pain to her, I gave her the mental wounds and broke her heart with my cruel accusation.
"For whom? For your sister! Because I genuinely treated her as my sister and moreover the reason I chose to bear everything to protect her was you. I know how you love your sister a lot and I witness how protective you can go for her. If anything would have to happen to her, I knew how worry and vulnerable you could get to see her in such a situation.
"Moreover, I somehow felt I was responsible for her situation because if I didn't insist on her tag along with me, she wouldn't have to leave her Uni and wouldn't have landed herself in his trap. When I saw you in the hospital, I never expected that you would say such words. Why, Dhruv? Why couldn't you see my vulnerability? Am I really such a low person in your eyes, for you to you think that I could even harm my family?"
"Your words are the ones that hurt me the most that day. You are the person I decided to trust with my life but what did you do? So I am just too broken to forget everything and don't get me started with yours and Ankitha Akka's topic which again proved your lack of trust in me."
"So listen, Dhruv. I don't deserve all of this at all and how much ever I wanted to believe you, I simply can't because I am afraid of feeling the same pain again and get my heartbroken due to my own shattered hopes." She kept shaking her head while saying so.
"You are a good person, good son, good brother and you can be a good husband too but it's just that I am not lucky enough to enjoy that privilege." Removing herself from my embrace, she wiped her tears.
"At least give me some time to get over all of this. Then I will think about us. So for now, I want to focus on myself and I have no time to think about other matters."
"Aaru, please!"
"No! Please, let me have some time for myself. Thanks for lending your shoulder just now even when you don't have to. So if there is nothing else, you may take your leave." Saying this, she slumped on the floor while bringing her knees towards her front and leaned against the bed.
I dejectedly took some steps back and left from there after giving her one last look with the new determination to bring back the cheerful self of hers.
Hope you guys liked the chapter.
I know the last few chapters including this one, were quite emotional but I can promise that everything will end soon. You will again witness their old versions soon. So please bear with this flow of the story for a while.
Thanks for reading.
I will update it soon once the target is reached.
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