Akshara Goenka had suffered through more than her fair share of pain, and although each tragedy had her coming out stronger than before, it also left cracks. Cracks that slowly started covering the entirety of her bruised and battered heart. Along with each crack, she started losing pieces of herself and yet for the sake of her family she glued herself back together and held tightly onto hope.
Hope that one day everything would get better, hope that her family would see her and actually understand her pain, hope that her princess, her Aru would return to her. But right at this moment, she had given up.
She stood defeated, only half hearing Harshvardhan Birla apologize to her family and praise her sister for her falsely claimed heroics, staring blankly at Arohi. Praying her sister hadn't done what it looked like she had. Praying that the small sliver of hope Arohi had given her today wouldn't be destroyed so quickly and mercilessly.
Earlier today had her more hopeful than ever that her relationship with her sister could be mended and her promise to Sirat Ma kept.
A ray of hope had hit her hours after their escape when Akshara realized that Arohi had hugged her and shed tears for her. Her heart soared with happiness, her sister, her Aru did care for her and was actually scared for her life. Aru refused to let her enter the fire stricken hut and afterwards had hugged her with relief. That had to mean something didn't it?
Maybe her near death experience gave her clarity and more reasons to live than anything else ever had. It was for Akshu, a day of epiphanies. Seeing Abhimanyu unconscious, covered in soot caused a fear so intense that for a second she questioned every single decision she'd made since meeting him. She had realized how stupid this whole 'moving on' idea was, after all how would she ever truly live and be happy without him.
How and when had a man she barely knew stopped being only a part of her life and become a part of her, she hadn't ever realized. It was in that fire that could have ended everything, that Akshara promised herself and Abhi that should they survive, she would fight for their relationship. She would fight for Abhi and she would make up for all the of pain she had caused him. After all Zindagi ka kya bharosa, it was too short to spend suffering and yearning for things within your reach.
And between these two epiphanies, her heart beat faster than ever as for the first time in weeks she could see the light at the end of a very dark, haunting tunnel. Maybe it was possible to have both her love and her sister? Maybe almost losing her life had melted Arohis heart finally?
It was with these thoughts running through her mind that she waited with bated breath for her little sister. She would talk to Arohi, make her understand before she gave her full attention to how she would propose and make it up to Abhi. Surely after seeing how much love was there between them, Arohi would not become a barrier and still attempt to win Abhimanyu.
She was also itching to ask about Abhimanyus health. He had to be okay, she had gotten him out and Aru had helped him medically but how had he left without meeting her once? And even now, he hadn't called her once to check on her? It was so out of character for the caring and protective Abhimanyu she knew. Was he angry? Had he meant it when he said he'd move on now? Was she entirely too late in her realizations?
The storm of thoughts and emotions swirling in her mind and heart were put on pause as she spotted Arohi slowly stepping through the main doors, eyes shifting constantly, hands rubbing together, covered in soot and an expression of arrogance with a tinge of guilt. Seeing her like that had once again brought concern to the forefront of Akshara's heart.
"Aru tu theek hai na?" Akshara rushed towards her little sister, all the while checking her from head to toe, making sure she was uninjured. Before Arohi could even open her mouth, the whole family gathered in the hall.
