❝The only kind of love I want is one where even if it is just for a short moment, it feels like I have lived a lifetime in that moment with that person. ❞ - Jhanvi Raichand.
**You CANNOT read this as standalone. Read Dare to Be before reading this...
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2.10 To Live For
In the plane, Aarav tells me about this shelter we will be hiding out at. A place Arnav opened for abused children and to support crime victims instead of putting them in the foster system.
It can't save every child out there but its an effort to give them a safe haven and a second chance to life - a place where they can stay at for as long as they wish and recover before they were ready to take control of their life once again.
"It's both a good and bad place," Aarav expresses, "As a child, it used to be a place I would go to in order to get away from the world... and yet the irony is that some of the worst things that can happen to a person... you'll find them there. So, it wasn't really an escape. It would only show me how cruel the world still was and in a twisted way, it would make me appreciate all that I had."
I assure him hugging his arm. "Most people wouldn't go back there, you know? You're a good person for returning."
He chuckles, "I'm not that good, Shona. I might have had a selfish reason for it." I raise my brow in question and he answers in one word. "Annie."
"Ah."
"Yeah... I just didn't know it then. I hated it when I started to understand what it was, but Annie... she always says that's the first place that felt like home to her. As if she was finally somewhere where she belonged. I would tell her she belonged in a much better place. I imagine she'd still argue with me on this topic."
"It's the first place she felt safe; where she felt she could connect with people. A place that gave her a family. I can see why."
He grumbles, "Great, you take her side too."
I smile shaking my head for this was no competition and then bring up the topic I have been meaning to. "She came to see me in the morning." The frown on his face disappears, replacing it into a blank look. I confirm what he must be wondering, "She told me what happened."
"It was a stupid thing to do."
"She believes this is a real marriage, Aarav. Why didn't you tell her?"
His shoulders sag a little in defeat - not a known look for him. "I can't expect her to be with me just because I tell her now I love her too. It's her choice and I can't barge in and out of her life when its convenient for me."
"What do you mean?" I ask in confusion, "From what I see, you two have always been in each other's life."
"That may be but its different now. I can't involve her in my messed-up life. She deserves someone who'll make her his first priority and right now, I can't give her that. And it'd be wrong of me to tell her I love her but that I can't be with her. It'll be cruel. It'll be like giving her what she wants with one hand and taking it away with the other. It's best to just not say anything."
