Broken (Wattys2016)

CHAPTER 20

Two days had passed since Aaliya returned back home from the Dixit household and she had planned everything that she was going to do now. She had made up her mind to go to Australia and start a new life there. She wasn't just planning on turning the page and starting a new chapter but was planning on closing the current book and starting a new book altogether.

The first thing she did as soon as she returned home that afternoon was type a quick mail to the university and ask them if they could postpone her joining date by a week or two and they replied in affirmation. She was glad that now she had two more weeks before joining the university, so now she could peacefully arrange her new house and do the necessary things. Brent had already looked for a house near her university and all she had to do now was move in. The very next thing that she did was book her flight ticket for the twenty seventh of February.

She had decided that after the final divorce hearing she would just meet the Vinayaks and Dixits one day and the other day she'd meet Yash and a few more colleagues from school and the publishing house before flying down to Australia. Aaliya had planned to break the news about Australia real calmly because if she didn't say it the right way then she knew that all of them might end up locking her in a room and wouldn't let her go anywhere. She was sure that she was definitely going to have arguments with Lalita and Nakul but then she knew that this was the best option for her. She knew that she desperately wanted to move away and start a new life and that she wouldn't be able to do that with them around her. No matter how much she loved them and how much they loved her, she knew that they were linked to Aarav and that a part of will never be able to move on if she stayed in touch with them constantly.

It was the thirteenth day of February now and Aaliya had started packing all her things into cardboard boxes. Currently, she was packing her huge collection of books into two cardboard boxes, one box for the books that she wanted and the other box for books that she was going to sell. There were not just her novels, but also all her college study books along with her parent's and Sushant's book collection. She was through packing the entire cutlery leaving behind a glass, plate, fork and spoon for her and had packed most of the show pieces along with all the photo frames and albums. She had even packed all her summer clothes as she knew she wasn't going to need them anytime soon.

It was in the evening that Aaliya went to the Vinayak household to spend the next two days with them. She wanted to collect as much memories as she could because she knew that soon she'd just be left with a couple of memories and pictures and nothing more. As much as she wanted to keep contacts with both the families, she knew that she'd just be tying herself to something that wouldn't ever let her move on completely.

That night, the men cooked the dinner while Aaliya and Riddhima pampered themselves a bit by getting a manicure, pedicure and facial done. It turned out that the men had made pizza and pasta and the four of them had a fun movie night. Around midnight Riddhima and Rishab had both got up and kissed both their kids goodnight before going in to sleep, leaving Priyansh and Aaliya alone. Not knowing what more to do, they put on another movie and watched it silently not really knowing what to talk about. It was around two that the movie got over and they went to sleep once Priyansh gave her a goodnight kiss and a little pep talk.

The next day Aaliya woke up at nine in the morning but didn't feel like getting out of the bed. She didn't feel like going downstairs and interacting with the family, all she wanted to do was stay under the covers for the whole day. She wanted to close her eyes and only wake up the next day. Aaliya pulled Aarav's blue hoodie that she was wearing close to her as she looked out of his bedroom window. She'd close her eyes every now and then as she tried to sleep but just failed at it.

It was around eleven that Riddhima came to her room and tried to wake her up to have her breakfast.

"Ally, get up It's eleven already. Come down, I've made us some breakfast and coffee." Riddhima said running her hand through her hair.