Broken (Wattys2016)

CHAPTER 6

Aarav submitted the divorce papers in the court the very next day and got a date after two weeks. Aaliya gave a temporary resignation because she knew she wouldn't be able to handle the court cases and school together. She wanted to be true to her job and she knew she wouldn't be able to do that with the mental stress she was having with this divorce case. Aarav and Aaliya had decided that they would not tell anyone about the divorce until second last or last hearing. It was more like Aaliya's plan to hide it from Jay because she knew if Jay came to know about the divorce then he would beat Aarav black and blue nonetheless, and that was the last thing she wanted. Aarav knew that he'd be disappointing his parents if he told them about it and they would pester him to give this marriage another chance, and that was not what he wanted.

Aaliya had also asked Aarav if she could stay with him until she got her parents' house renovated. Aarav was taken aback when she asked him that, he thought of why she'd have to move away from him but it was then realisation hit him that they were getting a divorce. He didn't really want Aaliya to shift, he couldn't imagine not having her around, but it wasn't any great with her being around him either. Somewhere, he was a little scared about Aaliya shifting back to her old house, the place where she was first brought after her birth, where she had spent thirteen years with her family. The last time she visited her own house was when she was fourteen. She spent the whole day sulking thinking about her family and so she decided not to go back home again as the memories would haunt her every time.

Today was their first hearing at court regarding their divorce case. Aaliya dressed up in a pair of denims and a white shirt and sat on the bed fiddling with its hem. She still didn't want to go through this. She always thought that divorce was for those couples who couldn't stand each other and always brought out the worst in each other but with Aarav, it was nothing like that. She had always loved him, she still did and she desperately wanted to be with him till the end of time but Aarav had put an expiration date to their marriage.

"Are you ready?" Aarav asked emerging out of nowhere.

She looked up at him from where she was sitting. Her eyes were red and she had bags under her eyes.

"Aarav?" She whispered looking at him and then looked back at her hands not knowing what to do.

He came and sat next to her on the bed and looked at her. He knew she was fighting back her tears and he felt guilty for putting her through this.

"Can we please give our marriage another chance? You know I've never begged for anything like this before, but I need you Aarav. Give me a chance to prove myself one last time." She stammered as tears rolled down her cheeks. She looked at him, waiting for him to say something but Aarav just froze at his spot. He didn't want to give it another chance, he knew it wasn't going to work and he didn't know how to explain it to her.

Aaliya frowned when he didn't react but then her lips curved into a small smile and she wiped away her tears in swift moments.

"It's okay. I get it. It's fine if you don't want to give us another chance, I don't deserve one at the first place for snatching something so important to you. But Aarav, I love you." She said as she got up and kissed his forehead.

"It's best for both of us, especially you, if we part ways, Aaliya. We are at a bad place now and this is the best to do right now." Aarav said as he placed his hand on her arm.

"No Aarav, we can work things out even now. We just need to try."

"No Ally." He said and dropped his hand and she sighed.

"If this is what you want then let's go get this done." She said and pulled him by his wrist.

They left for the Karkardooma Court around half past nine. Aarav had insisted to drive her but she declined the offer and drove to the court in her own car. Around ten, they were there and were discussing the case with their respective lawyers for one last time before seeing the judge. They had got the time slot of half past ten, so they got seated in a small room where the hearing was going to be held, with their respective judges around quarter past ten. Aaliya started playing Candy Crush just to divert her mind from all this mess. Never in her life had she thought that she'd go to a court and today, she was here fighting her divorce case. It was after a good fifteen minutes that a middle aged lady walked in and the lawyers stood from their chairs seeing her. Aaliya and Aarav soon got up assuming that she was their judge. The woman sat on a chair and then asked everyone to sit. Aarav and Aaliya walked to the wooden box where they were supposed to stand. It didn't really have any fence sort of thing around it, just a small square wooden box on which they had to stand. For the next ten minutes the lawyers explained the judge about their case and when they were through the judge looked at Aaliya.