Us.

Elastic Band.

Diya cried until her eyes ran dry. Pritha, who initially was too angry to comfort her, was now ready to do anything to erase the past one hour from their lives. This left Aadarsh with the duty of making breakfast and attending all calls, each one of them inquiring about the press reports' details.

"Is it true that they are getting divorced?"
"Did she really have relations with another man?"
"Is she pregnant with someone else's child?"
"Was he drunk when he said all of that?"

He definitely was drunk when he said that, was Pritha's opinion.

Soon after Diya had arrived to Mumbai, Armaan had called for a press conference to announce the separation. The headline of the paper, 'ICONIC SPLIT OF ICONS', didn't take Diya by shock. The content did. She read the article again, hoping its content would be different this time:
Only six months after the Great Indian Wedding, the one which every couple desires, the not so desirable marriage is on the verge of breaking.....Mr. Mallick has reasons to believe that his wife, the Diya Gupta, has been cheating on him....adultery...."I want a divorce and have filed for one."...."She will not deal with me anymore, just my lawyers"

"What sort of a moron is he? Does he not know that your closest friend is a damn good lawyer? I assure you that you'll be freed from all these allegations in a month. All of his property, along with your reputation, would come to you. I promise."
Pritha swore, under her breath, that Armaan was an arse.

"I don't want all of that!" she trembled, "I want my marriage back."

That is when it struck Pritha that he had no clue what had happened between the two of them and thought it right to ask for the details, which Diya sincerely presented to her.

"You're just as much of an idiot as your so-called husband. Why do you want the marriage back? And what in it do you want? Diya, this is abuse and nothing else!"

"I still love him."

Pritha sighed deeply. "Sweet, you might love him, a lot, but it takes two to hold a relationship, a marriage together.
"Think of it as an elastic band being pulled, one end by you and one by him. You need love, faith, care and trust to do something like this. If even one of these is missing, one of you will leave your end.Right now, he has threatened you that he would leave his end and look how much it's hurting you! Just imagine what will happen when he actually leaves his end. Diya please, I'm requesting you, please leave your end. Else it will shatter you when he does."

Diya wiped her tears and let her feelings burst out, "Pritha, you know, even I can't believe that I still like him. But my stupid heart and brain won't stop. It's irritating!
"I want to erase everything of him, I really want to. But I can't do it. It doesn't happen. I don't even know if it ever will. I mean, to me, it was the only successful relationship, all others had failed and now this. I feel like there is a problem in me.
"Why didn't Armaan come home on all those nights? Why didn't he ever show that he cared? And why did it have to happen after the bloody wedding? This could've happened when we were in a live-in but, no. 'Let's hurt Diya because it is fun'.
"It's all falling apart and everyone but me can hold it up. I can't do this anymore." She broke down again.

This time Pritha hugged her tight. "No, Diya. It's not you. You're wonderful in every sense and I know it. Also, it's pretty obvious that you still love him. For Goodness's sake, you guts were together for like thirteen years! It's a long time! You'll never forget him. But he'll become a distant memory. It'll take a couple of years but he will fade away from your mind. And one day, you'll meet someone with whom you'll create more empowering and happy memories and then, Armaan might not even cross your mind once in a blue moon. You and this new guy will live happily ever after. It will happen."

Still sobbing, Diya whispered, "I don't have the strength for another relationship and its consequences. I'm not removing love from my life, just love from men. I don't want it."

"Oh, Diya!" she paused, "Not even Theo James?"

Diya shot up, "No, no. I want him. I want Theo James."

"But he is a man."

"Argh, he is different! Want!" Seeing the smirk on Pritha's face, she laughed, "You know how to lighten the mood up, don't you?"
Her soul sister winked, and said she had to go to work.

While leaving she instructed one of her maids to take special care of Diya, but to make sure that she didn't notice any difference in treatment. She also ordered for the phone lines to be blocked for the day.
Before leaving, she took out her notepad and quickly jotted down the words 'press conference'.