Chapter 5

• ....Aaron’s POV....
• From the time I got seated in my particular seat on the flight, I started feeling damn nervous. I felt like a kid who was about to take a flight for first time.
• Actually the reason behind my travel was getting me this nervous. I was going to ask for a lifetime deal with the specific one from which there would be no backing off.
• Without thinking the bad possibilities, I tried to get me mesmerised myself with her thoughts, our first meeting and so on.
• Not many knew about our relationship. It wasn’t my fault though. As not me but she wanted to keep it simple otherwise some journalists would hang around us and we would have been the gossips of people.
• I also didn’t want that because I always liked to keep the things that mattered to me only to me without sharing a soul.
• But I think Sam somehow knew though to some extent but never opened his mouth to ask me anything about it nor did I do that.
• Except Sam, she was my friend. Like a very good friend. I didn’t know how but she could understand me really well from the very beginning of our encounter.
• Our first meeting hit my mind. Out of nowhere she appeared there in front of me and got supporting me when I badly needed one to stand up for me.
• Not like I was getting dumped by someone but something terrible was on its way to be happened to me that was nothing but a set up by Ansh which I got to know later.
• We became friends immediately and that’s how our journey to be together started.
• For the first time in my life, I was grateful to Ansh that time.
• We have been together for the last two years now almost and I thought it was time for us to knot the tie. I didn’t know though what she was thinking of it.
• If she wasn’t comfortable, I wasn’t going to push her rather I was going to wait for her til she was ready.
• But some part of me just wanted it to be acknowledged now.
• Was I being needy? I wondered.
• Half of me knew she would say yes for sure but half of me was hesitant for some reason. What if she said otherwise!
• I just didn't want to be ignored when I put effort in.
• When the flight landed, it was early in the morning. I immediately made my way out of the airport with an intention to check in the hotel in which Sam booked earlier, getting freshen up and after taking a short nap, appearing before my love like out of nowhere.
• I didn’t inform her beforehand as I wanted to surprise her. I liked her surprised face.
• But getting out of the airport, I found myself getting surprised instead. 
• My tiredness due to jet lag was long gone when my eyes fell on her. 
• Evana.
• My love..
• She was standing there, looking somewhere else. But as soon as her eyes fell on me, a cute smile flashed on her face.
• I didn’t get to take more than a step towards her as she made the distance to me covered by herself almost running.
• I stood there being somewhat shocked. How did she get to know that I was coming!
• When she got near, I only managed to utter, “Hey” 
• She hugged me uttering, “I missed you.”
• Getting overwhelmed, I hugged her back in no moment. At least there was one person in this world who thought about me and kept missing me.
• This feeling was inexpressible for a person like me whose existence was always ignored by his near and loved ones.
• Being ignored terribly caused some chemical reaction in my brain as experiencing a horrible physical injury.
• Though I have a family but it made me wonder sometimes.
• What does a family really mean?
• I got out of my trance as Evana let go of me and shot a question with a pout.
• “Why didn’t you tell me that you are coming?”
• As I got uttering, “I wanted to surprise you. But see..you surprised me instead. By the way how did you get to know?”, she shrugged off the question and smiled at me.
• “Sam!” I mentally snapped at him and then turned to Evana, “You remembered Sam’s birthday?”
• She smiled sadly, “Actually no. I couldn’t reach you so ended up calling him being worried.”
• I smiled hearing her.
• While talking on some random stuffs, I got into her car and forwarded towards the hotel...
• ....Alina’s POV....
• After closing the boutique shop when I got back home, it was late in the evening. I was praying not to get Uncle or Aunt saw the condition of the car knowing and fearing the consequences.
• But I forgot my damn luck was with me like always.
• When I entered the mansion, Aunt was near the entrance. She was talking to someone on phone all smilingly but as soon as her eyes fell on my car, the expression got changed within the fraction of second.
• By the time I got out of the car, she was done with her phone call and walked to me taking long strides.
• Pointing at the car, she spoke up deadly, “What is it?”
• I just kept my head down. I flinched when she uttered again all sternly, “I am asking you what is it?”
• “While pa..parking accidentally..” After that, I got my lips sealed as a tight slap landed on my cheek.
• “You blind. Can’t you even see!”
• She paused for a moment and then uttered, “Don’t you dare touch a car again.”
• She stomped on her heel and walked towards the entrance the very next moment. I couldn’t get to reach my hand though I felt a burning sensation on my cheek. Tears made their way spontaneously getting me felt somewhat better.
• After standing still in my place for a while, I walked towards the entrance wiping my eyes off. I thought Uncle would be in the living room now but he wasn’t. Getting somewhat relieved, I forwarded towards my room.
• Getting my clothes, I got into the washroom and stood for a long shower until I started feeling cold.
• It wasn’t something new to me. I had been getting beaten by Aunt since my childhood. Uncle would join Aunt if not standing still. Evana used to enjoy seeing me in pain.
• That’s how I got raised up but still I kept hoping one day they would accept me from the heart and things would get better for me.
• And finally when I felt I was never going to see that One day, I tried leaving this place though I didn’t have any place to go.
• That day uncle raised his hand on me for the first time and locked me up in my room.
• They didn’t want me to leave from this place for some reason which was still unknown to me.
• I again started considering..
• Should I try to leave this place anyhow?
• After giving it a good thought, I decided I would leave not only this place but this city as well. As I was afraid if I stayed here, they would reach me somehow and drag me here as I felt they weren’t going to let me leave.
• While thinking this, I felt asleep at some point without taking my dinner.
• The next morning after taking a shower I stood in front of the mirror to check if there was any bruises on my cheek. When I saw nothing, I felt relieved.
• I left early for my boutique shop with a thought I need some savings getting into a taxi. This shop wasn’t mine only but Hina’s also who was a close friend of mine from college days.
• She was a very cheerful person. Though I never talked about getting ill treatment at my place, she somewhat knew.
• Whenever I was sad, she was there to cheer me up. I felt really lucky to have someone at least by me. Setting up the boutique shop was the dream of us.
• Thinking of this, I couldn’t get to tell her about my plan to leave. But I knew after me she would be able to handle it alone.
• ☘☘☘
• Two days passed without any unpleasant happenings.
• And then that day at noon I started having a severe headache all of a sudden. Hina started forcing me to get back home.
• Though I was refusing but at last had to listen to her and made my way towards my place when it was late in the afternoon. 
• Like as always entering the mansion, I was about to get straight to my room but got stopped near the living room hearing them talking.
• For a moment I couldn’t believe whatever was happening there or the words I was hearing.
• Hoping it to be a dream and to wake up desperately, I got pinching myself. But no matter how many times I pinched myself, the happenings remained unchanged making me believe it was nothing but the bitter reality....