KUCH NAYE FEELINGS

13.Shattered peace

They were sitting in the cafe drinking their coffee while Nihara was sleeping on Neil's lap.
Neil-"Mai kuch puchu?"
Aarohi-"kyun nahi... unless it's something stupid."
Neil-"Vikrant koun hai?"
Aarohi stopped drinking coffee and was shocked.
Neil-"kya hua? Bolti kyun nahi ho?"
Aarohi tried to skip the topic and shrugged off and said
Aarohi-"pata nahi! kyun? koun hai?"
Neil-"pata nahi toh tumhari suicide karne wali din uske itne saari calls kyun hai?"
Aarohi now choked on her coffee.
Neil-"tumhari suicide ki vajah voh toh nahi hai?"
Aarohi tried to hide her tears from him which was definitely a fail and she ran away and sat in the car. Neil paid the bill and took Nihara and made her sleep in the back seat and started driving the car towards the apartment.
The moment Neil stopped the car Aarohi ran to her flat and locked herself up. Neil went to Sumati's house and made Nihara sleep in her room. While going back he knocked on Aarohi's door and she opened the door.
Neil-"tum thik ho"
Aarohi-"mujhe kya hona hai"
Neil-"toh ro kyu rahi thi?"
Aarohi-"paagal ho kya? Main kyun roungi?"
Neil-"thik hai Mai chalta hu phir"
Aarohi nodded her head. Neil left.
Neil said to himself 'paagal main hu nahi chipkali tum bana rahe ho. Main Nihara nahin hu jo maanlu jab tum kaho ki tum ro nahi Rahi thi.'
Sumati called up Neil and Aarohi to have dinner.
Neil came but Aarohi neither had her dinner nor she opened the door again.

The next morning
Neil was talking to Akshara and Abhimanyu on phone.
Akshara-"Neil Aaru Ghar pe hai toh baat Kara na usse"
Neil-"main abhi jaata hun upar"
Neil went upstairs and saw Aarohi standing at the door of Sumati's house. Neil went there and asked her
Neil-"kya hua darwaaze pe kyun kadi ho?"
Just then they heard someone shout and Akshara asked "koun chilla rahe hai?"
Aarohi looked at Neil's phone and took it from him and started speaking to her while going back to her flat.
Neil came back of her and asked "koun aaya hai thaku maa ke Ghar pe?"
Aarohi-"woh..unki beti aur damaad USA se."
Neil-"toh chilla kyun rahe hai?"
Aarohi-"Nihara ki cancer ki baat pata chal gayi uski mumma ko."
Neil-"Nihara so raahi hogi uth gayi toh... Aise kaise chilla rahe hai ek dusre ke upar."
Aarohi-"Nihara yahan hai. Meri kamre mai. So Rahi hai."
Ashara-"Cancer! Woh thik toh hai na?"
Aarohi-"Haan akshu chinta mat kar woh thik hai"
Neil-"bhabhi aap baat karo main aata hun"
Said Neil and left to Sumati's flat where everything was cool now.
Anjali and Anurag are Nihara's mother and father.
Anjali-"Nihara Kahan hai maa"
Sumati -"voh aaru ke paas hai."
Anjali-"main Jaa Rahi hun uske paas"
Nihara woke up and Aarohi got her ready and was feeding her breakfast when Anjali Anurag and Neil entered.
Aarohi saw them and gave the breakfast plate to Anjali to feed her.
Anjali was feeding her breakfast while having tears in her eyes.
Aarohi gave a smile to Anurag and left with Neil to his flat.
After sometime Neil and Aarohi went up and saw only Anjali sitting in her flat and Nihara was just going back to their house.
Aarohi-"khaa liya usne"
Anjali-"haan ho gaya"
Said Anjali and got up with the glass and the plate with which she fed her daughter.
Suddenly, a sharp sound echoed through the room as the glass slipped from her grasp, shattering into a myriad of pieces on the floor.
The room fell silent, but for the haunting crackle of broken glass. Aarohi's eyes widened in terror, her breath catching as memories of a past trauma flooded back.
The shards on the floor resembled fragments of her own shattered peace, and the air grew heavy with the weight of her distress.
Anjali, unaware of Aarohi's inner turmoil, hurriedly cleaned up the mess. But for Aarohi, the broken glass became a symbol of fragility she had long tried to forget. Neil helped Anjali clean up the mess and asked Aarohi to do the same as he noticed that Aarohi stood frozen, grappling with the haunting echoes of her painful past.

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Revelation of her past in the next chapter.