Her Broken Dream [√]

Chapter 16: "A Bad Dream"

Note: " The following update may contain sensitive content. I won't be explicit in the information. But if you had read the previous update, you will be aware of the following contents. To those who don't like to read it, do skip this part. As a reader, I do have a comfort level for my books and know everyone has different levels. If you are underage skip it, please. 

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" He raped me, " Gauri spoke up the three words she never said to anyone else except her psychiatrist. She never had to tell her father because he was the one who found her that night, and her mother never asked her to voice it out either because she had been too distraught by the event. Her brother had been a child, that he probably wouldn't have understood her past. Arun was different. He knew her story because she alluded to the event then spell it out. But with Arnav, she spoke those words out loud. Maybe to shock him from further demanding any answers from her. And it worked. Because for the next hour, he didn't say a single word but let her cry on his shoulders. She stopped crying about thirty minutes ago. But she didn't want to step back from him and face the questions in his face.

" Are you okay Gauri, ?" the question came from her mother. She had been hovering around them for the last hour. Gauri knew her mother was keeping her distance for the sake of her privacy. But it had been close to an hour that she grew from concerned to worried. Gauri didn't want to continue making her worry. So she stepped back from Arnav with a fleeting smile directed towards her mother.

 " I am fine mom," Gauri answered back as she walked towards her mother leaving Arnav behind, she had hoped he would leave now that he finally got his answer on why she is so messed up. But she underestimated him because he didn't leave but rather stayed where he was standing a few minutes ago.

" I am fine Arnav, you can leave now, " Gauri spoke up trying to keep her voice from betraying the emotions she felt at addressing him after the realization he knows her secret now. And had been slightly disappointed when he left with his grandmother but before she left, his grandmother walked towards her to envelop her in a hug and whispered in her ear that she wasn't alone and she got all of them as her family. It meant a lot to hear from his grandmother who didn't seem to be taken back by Gauri's outburst earlier.  

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Arnav had never felt so helpless as today, he didn't know what to say or do when confronted with his emotion that very running wild. One minute he wants to cry and the next second he wants to punch someone possibly himself forever leaving her alone. He didn't think of himself as a hero who could have prevented it if he was around but he should have been around because she needed him back then and he failed her.

     
His Grandmother hardly said a word as they drove back home, she was probably reeling from the shock of it as well but for Arnav it was more than a shock. On the battlefield he had seen death and cruelness, he thought nothing could surpass those dark points until the realization that something held more power than that when the death or cruelness visited those he loved. He hardly said a word to his grandmother until they reached home and it was only then she turned to speak to him.

    
" Go back to her Arnav. She didn't need to think you were incapable of handling the truth, what happened was horrible and tragic but it would be worse if she thinks you would look at her differently, go back and show her that nothing changed between you two because she would need that assurance from you, I know it must be a lot to ask from you at this moment when you could hardly think straight but each minute you delay, she will build a wall around her heart and you can never breach it again, she trusted you with her past and you must trust yourself to make sure it didn't come between you both ."  his grandmother words registered in his mind and he realized she had been right, he thought she would want some time alone to feel better and he left because she asked him but if it was her way of shutting him down then he needs to make sure it didn't happen.