Not edited. I have mixed feelings about this chapter so I might change something later on... but I still hope you like it 🎀
It had been a few days since Aarna had left, and Vivaan couldn't bear the separation any longer.
Despite multiple attempts to reach her, she remained unresponsive. Determined to reconcile, he headed to her parents' house.
Upon arrival, he knocked on the door, hoping for a chance to speak with her. Aashna, Aarna's sister, greeted him casually.
"Hey, Jeej! What brings you here?" she asked, welcoming him inside.
"Where's Aarna?" Vivaan cut to the chase, perhaps too bluntly. Aashna, unfazed by his directness, simply gestured upstairs.
"Upstairs. First door on your left," she replied, watching him ascend the stairs.
Vivaan knocked on Aarna's door, waiting for her.
Mistaking him for her sister, Aarna began speaking without looking, only to stop abruptly when she realized it was Vivaan standing before her.
"Why are you here?" she asked, motioning for him to come inside quietly to avoid her family overhearing.
"I've come to take you back," he replied.
"I don't want to go back," she stated firmly. While part of her reluctance stemmed from exhaustion with him, the main reason was the stalker. Since staying at her parents' house, the messages had only increased, gnawing away at her.
"Can we at least talk about it?" he tried to reason with her.
"There's nothing to discuss. I'm tired of feeling like a burden to you, of being ignored one moment and then treated kindly the next. I can't handle that anymore!" she snapped, unleashing all her frustration about Vivaan and her stalker on him.
"Aar-" he started but she cut him off before he even got a word out "Don't. I'm tired, Vivaan. And I know this marriage doesn't mean anything to you. So why don't we just seperate. End this misery." She told him. She couldn't look into his eyes. Scared of what she'd see in there. Emptiness like always would be the nail on heart that would make it stop.
Realising that no matter what he would do, she wouldn't listen, he moved closer to her and gripped her shoulders making her look up at him. "We. Are not. Getting a Divorce." He said. Prounciating every word so that she gets it into her head.
"Why!?" She shouted "Why?" She asked as tears started to pour out of her. In the short span of their marriage, Vivaan had never seen Aarna cry. So this was something he was new to.
"Aarna-" This time she stopped him by hitting in on his chest, shocking the shit out of him. She wasn't a violent person. But the fact that she was using it as an outlet now showed how much she needed it.
"Am I really that bad? Bad that you can't even imagine being married to me? Am I that big of a burden on you?" She asked while continually hitting him as he let her. "I feel so useless everytime you push me away. As if I'm a toy with no feelings. Leave me and put yourself and me out of this misery,"
She kept hitting him for minutes, getting all her feelings out. And not once did he make a move to stop her. When she was finally done, she started to move back but he stopped her by grabbing into her shoulders again.
He wiped the tears of her face using the pad of his thumb and gave her a moment to get herself back together.
Vivaan hated physical touch. That much she had figured after living with him for months. But at the moment he was touching her. On his own free will. That wasn't something that missed her notice.
"I want you to listen to me now okay..." He started calmly. "Something happened years ago, that made me what I am today." She could feel how much he hated talking about it. But he still did. For her.
"I don't think of you as a burden. Never. I push the people around me away cause i NEED too put up walls. Without the walls I could hurt someone very badly."
"But-"
"No. Let me finish." He said stopping her by putting a finger on her mouth.
"I was an ass for not seeing how I was making you feel... I see it now and I'll... Get better, but... Please come back with me," he pleaded with her.
Aarna didn't know what she wanted to do. She didn't want to get hurt again and even if she trusted him and went back there's still the stalker issue at hand that she needs to take care of.
The months that Vivaan was married to Aarna had made him used to her presence around his life constantly. When she left it felt like a part of him went away with her. He didn't know what to do. It wasn't love. But it wasn't nothing either.
"I-i-" she didn't know what to say to that. Did she really want to go back?
"Come back, Aarna." He tried to persuade her more. It was more than want. He needed her there. It wasn't the same for him without her constant smiles or small gestures that she did for him. It was a change for him. A change that he hadn't anticipated. And Vivaan Singhania hated things that weren't in his control.
Aarna couldn't stay at her parents' house forever. She knew she needed to go back. She just wasn't sure it was now.
Contemplating different scenarios in her mind, she figured the best solution was to go back. The longer she stayed here the higher chances of her family getting hurt. At least at the villa, there were guards all around the clock and everyone knew how to protect themselves.
"Okay," she whispered with still small waves of uncertainty rolling off of her.
The twisted feeling inside Vivaan came to a halt when he heard her. He knew she was still uncertain. But he was going to change that. As soon as she was back in the villa where he would be more in control.
"I need to get my stuff, then we can leave," she told him as she walked towards the cupboard to get the items she got when she made the decision to go there.
"I'll be outside near the car." He told her as he left, but not before giving her another lingering look before he left.
After she was done packing the small carry on that she had got, Aarna sat on the bed to compose herself.
She had washed her face and there weren't any other signs on her face that she was crying except for her eyes, which had started to puff up.
Taking a deep breath she walked towards her sister's room as Aashna was the only one in the house at the moment.
After a knock she opened the door and walked in to find Aashna sprawled on the bed reading a magazine.
"I'm going back to the villa," she informed her.
Aashna sat up on the bed and gave her a nod of acknowledgement before hugging her.
Saying her goodbyes, Aarna walked outside towards Vivaan who was perched on the hood of his car with his head bent over his phone.
Noticing her presence he looked up to find Aarna there.
Without any words he took her bag and put it in the trunk before opening the passenger side door for her to get in, then got in himself.
As Aarna stared out the window, there was a nagging feeling at the back of her mind telling her something was going to go wrong. Something bad.
1300+ words of Vivaan Aarna;)
Now there's only Rishiv Kashvi left before i go back to all three of them in the same chapter.
Tell me your favourite scene of each couple (it'll give me a better clue on what type of scenes i should write in the later chapters)
I posted a new reel on Instagram so please go check that out at authornyra.