Aghanya's POV:

     8:15

The numbers blinked on her alarm. She groaned groggily. She had been in and out of sleep all night. Her eyes drooped in sleep and her mind felt heavy. She groaned again as the door bell rang. Climbing out of the bed, she creased out her long shirt. She found it extremely comfortable. She opened the door without looking through the peep hole. She regretted it once she did.

"Dhruv, so early, why?" She moaned not even being to form coherent sentences. He grinned from ear to ear. He was wearing a bright yellow shirt paired with blue jeans. He had a summery aura around her.

"Good morning!" He said excited and Aghanya cringed. How did people find the energy to be this excited so early? She personally felt murder for the first couple of hours.

"Yeah, morning. Why are you here?" She asked again. "I came to apologise for leaving you alone at the party." He said raising the two cups of coffee. She took one cup and shut the door.

   She groaned as he kept on ringing the door. She opened it to glare at him. He pushed through the door, her hand slipped and she dropped scalding coffee on both of them.

  "Ahh!" He hissed blowing inside his shirt. He now had a big brown blotch in his shirt. She let him in out of courtesy.

***

   Viren  contemplated ringing the bell. He took a deep breath and rang the bell. He had got her address from Aghanya'a mother. His eyebrows raised at her residence. Penthouse. Was it her parents' property or was it hers? From when  did Aghanya Jha get interested in material things? He wondered to himself.

  Was six months really a long time that she had changed so much? The door was opened, cutting his thoughts to an end. Front of him stood, Dhruv. His former best friend. His eyes widened. They had caught up yesterday. He clearly remembering him pushing through the crowd and greeting him.

    What shocked him more was Dhruv was shirtless. He looked equally shocked too. "Viren? What are you doing here?"

  "Uh...Is this 992 B? Am I at the wrong address?"

  "Yes and no! Why are you -?" He asked in return.

  "Who is it now?" An irritated female voice asked. He leaned to the right to look behind him. He hoped with all his might that it wouldn't be her. That he would be at the wrong address. He clenched his jaw when all his hopes crashed. Aghanya stood there with a brush in her hand, wearing a man's shirt and very short shorts. Her eyes narrowed when she looked at him too.

   He scoffed, ofcourse she moved on. And that too with another guy who happened to be his best friend. Pain snapped in his heart as if someone was continuously snapping a rubber band against it.

   "Aghanya, you know Viren?" His best friend asked turning back to her. Not again. This time he won't run away. Aghanya Jha chased him away once, from his family, from his friends, not this time. This time, he wasn't letting her go. It was the hardest thing he had ever did. He slept less, drank much. But not anymore, he thought. He would marry Aghanya Jha and avenge his failure.

   "Eyy, get to the side yaar  nd seriously what are you doing shirtless in front of your bhabi?" He said to him and walked inside the door. With every step he took, her eyes widened, he thought to himself, This time, this time he would extract revenge.

     He put an arm around her shoulder, she immediately went stiff. Dhruv watched both of them back and forth and a look of recognition passed through him. His eyes hardened when he looked at Viren. Dhruv watched him in confusion. He quickly hid it and scratched the back of his head. "I was just..." He tried to explain, when a buzz went off. "That is my shirt, in the dryer. I'm gonna go get it." He said awkwardly walking inside.

   As soon as he was gone she jerked his arm off. She stood in front of him shooting daggers at him. "What are you doing here?" She hissed at him in annoyance. "I am here because your mother told me to pick you up, she wants your help in the wedding arrangements." He ignored her state, he ignored the fact that it was his best friend's shirt.

    "Oh everybody can suck it! I don't give a hoot about this sham of a wedding and I'm bloody calling off the engagement now!" She snapped at him and threw the engagement ring at him. Every encounter with Aghanya only shocked him. He held her hand before she could go away.

  "So I'm leaving now. I'll call you, Aghanya." Dhruv said quickly slipping out the door. Viren frowned at him, he didn't even say bye to him. Aghanya pulled out from his hold.

  "Aren't you over reacting?" He clenched his jaw in anger. He unclenched his jaw and took a deep breath. She scoffed, "How am I over reacting? You decide to show up and ruin my life, yet again. How am I supposed to react Viren?" She said bitterly.

   He ran a hand through his hair calming down his anger. Obviously she felt her life was ruined, he had quashed her plans of marrying Varun. He felt confused, why wasn't she married to Varun? Why was she with Dhruv now?He bent down and picked up the ring she threw.

"Aghanya Jha, don't make me mad. I don't want to say words that'll hurt you.  Go on, get ready, we're going to your parent's place."

  "Yeah as if you could hurt me more." She scoffed and turned away.

  He sighed in relief, atleast she was getting ready.

****

Why was he here? After half a year? She wondered. A permanent frown was fixated on her face as she glared at her closet. She was just staring at the clothes, her mind full of questions. She settled on a pencil skirt and top. After a quick bath she put on the clothes. She sighed as she found herself staring at her make up. She hated putting on make up. But she felt like putting it on because he was there. She put it on, regretfully.

    Her regret vanished as she saw Varun eyeing her up and down. With a proud smile she walked out her apartment with him following her.

  "Where were you all this time? In India or overseas? Just curious." She asked. He looked up from his phone in shock, not expecting her to ask it this soon.

  "Bora Bora." He answered.

"Oh." She nodded her head in understanding. "Explains the tan."

      For the rest of the ride Aghanya stayed silent. Viren kept fidgeting beside her in the car. As the car pulled up nearer to their destination, the car slowed down, the driver looked back and asked them if they wanted to turn around.

  Both of them looked forward, there were about a dozen of people with cameras. Paparazzi. Aghanya sighed. She did not hate paparazi but she wasn't fond of them either. Her new found fame was both a curse and boon. She concluded that they would bother her more, now that news of her wedding was out.

  "No no. Don't turn around. Just pull up there. It's fine. I can handle them." She urged the driver. As instructed, he pulled up in the front of the building. They rushed to the car and she carefully got out of the car with a small smile on her face.

  "One question at a time please." She said to them. The flashes flickered unrelentlessly.

  "Aghanya Jha, why a marriage now all of a sudden and so soon after announcing the engagement, is something else the matter?"

  "We just announced the engagement now, we've engaged for a year now. So actually its high time we got married."

  "Was Viren Raizyada the inspiration behind  'Moving From Off ' ?"

  "A little bit." She chucked and the reporters laughed too.

"Will your next inspiration be from your marriage perhaps?"

"Maybe." She said thoughtfully. "I'm a bit late now, sorry, but I have to leave now." She said and looked back at Viren. She had completely forgotten about him. He looked like a statue. A shocked expressiom etched on his face. She took hold of his palm and that was when he seemed to jerk awake.

  Pulling him towards the door, she walked inside the building.

***

Viren was stunned till the time they reached the elevator. Aghanya seemed so changed to him. He couldn't read her anymore. The dauntless girl with her chin tipped high was someone unrecognizable to him. Not that he felt threatened by her. He felt it was hot how she held an aura of self confidence around her, unlike her previous self. The only thing he had changed of himself was grown a beard amd nothing else.

He wanted to ask her about so many things. About Varun. About Dhruv, about her change. He seemed to always forget that he was mad at her, that she had kissed Varun. He found it too difficult to stay mad at her. Why had she kissed him? She was not bold enough then to even think about kissing someone else. His head buzzed around with such thoughts until the elevator doors opened.

Mrs. Raizyada's smiling face greeted them once they were out of the elevator. She gave him a light hug and moved to Aghanya. She brutally ignored her and walked inside the apartment.

"Diya! Hey!" She went to hug an unfamiliar woman. "Aghanya!" The woman squealed, "I'm so happy that you've decided to get married. And doubly so because I get to plan it!"

"Me too."

Just then Diya's phone rang and she moved to a corner talking on the phone frantically. Meanwhile, Aghanya pulled her mother and him inside another room. She locked the door and turned to them.

"Why did you call her? I have no intention of marrying him." She spoke with firm resolution. Viren glared at her as she said it. He felt his anger come back.

"You have to. You cannot just cancel it after just a day!" Her mother panicked.

"Oh I will! I will go down this instant and tell the press about this sham!" She spat at her mother. Viren watched in horror as her mother's eyes were teary. "Don't do this Aghanya, you'll ruin us all." The older woman's voice cracked.

"So I'm supposed to ruin my life for whatever sham you and dad have created?" She laughed humourless. "Why would I do that?"

At this her mother held her hand and almost seemed like she'd go on her knees right now. His anger took a new course. He admired her confidence but this, this was arrogance and brutality. This side of her made him furious.

"Aghanya!" His voice boomed around the room. "She is your mother! Watch your tongue and your manners!"

"No one asked you to butt in Viren. This is between us and if you really wanted to interfere you should've! Before half a year! But you chose to flee and hoarded up Bora Bora with your girl friend. So don't even." She spat out.

He took a deep breath and turned towards her mother, "Mrs. Jha why don't you give us a moment?" She nodded and left the room.

"I'm through and through Aghanya. You have changed, a lot and now you have this oozing confidence, which I'm very happy about. I'm not happy about your new found rudeness. You're angry at me, fine, take it out on me. Not on your mother."

She scoffed. "I take it out on her because I am angry at her. I'm not angry at you."

Viren's face lit up in a smile hearing this. "Truly?" He asked surprised.

"Yep. Because even if I feel anger towards you it means I feel something towards you and I don't have any feelings for you, Viren. Not even anger."

Viren's smile dropped down. She tried to turn around and leave. He held her elbow and pulled her back. "Nothing? You feel nothing?" He closed his eyes sighing.

"No. Not a thing. Thank you so much Viren, by fleeing away for six months, you actually taught me a load of things. The credit of who I am now goes to you. By leaving, you taught me how to live without you. That is why I don't need this marriage anymore. I don't need you anymore." She said and turned around but he held her back again.

"Don't do this." He held her back. His company was doomed without her. But mostly, he'd be doomed without her. Even half a year apart couldn't make him forget her. He still remembered his time in Bora Bora. He always wished she was there. At mornings while he walked along the shore he wished she was there to walk along with him. He imagined she'd have a purple orchid behind her ear, she'd skip a step and swing their hands.

At lunches, he imagined she'd fuss and nitpick her lunch and slide it onto his place. At sunsets he imagined her running towards the sea with her arms apart as if she was running to embrace the dipping sun. He imagined she'd pull him over and push him into the waters.

Night times were the most difficult, he earnestly wished she'd be there to see the thousands of stars in the sky above him, that she'd rest her sleepy head on her shoulders humming a tune.

Even after everything, she was there, in his mind, in his heart. "Don't do it. Don't go." He said. She brushed his arm away. "Why? Why should I? When you didn't stay then why should I?" She mocked him. "Why did you leave? Why? Answer me now!" She snapped at him angrily.

"Then what should I have done after seeing you with an other man? What more could I have done!" He yelled at her. She stumbled back in shock. "That day in the garden, you saw what happened." She looked at him betrayed. "And you ran away like a coward... This is exactly why I can't marry you! Y-you coward! Why did you come back then?"

"I can't- I need you." He said desperately. "My company needs you."

"Your company?" She asked in confusion. "My father is paying you." She connected the dots. "Isn't he?" She snapped. He nodded in shame.

She cackled in laughter. "I cannot believe this. All this while I thought you were genuinely interested in me and I kept blabbering to you like an idiot about my father paying suitors, when you were one too."

***

Aghanya watched him lower his gaze in compunction. Her pride pricked her on being weak. He had managed to prove he was a lowlife.

"I'm sorry. Don't cancel this marriage. I will do anything that you ask."

Anger clouded her senses as he said that. She wanted revenge. She wanted revenge for every tear she shed in his absence. She wanted revenge for trapping her. She wanted it. She wanted to soothe her ego and build her pride. All she wanted was his apology. But that wasn't all. She wanted his pride to be crushed. She wanted him to regret him ever playing her.

"Beg." She said. "Get on your knees and beg for forgiveness!"

He stumbled back in shock from her words. Her pride inflated as she saw his expression. His eyes wide in shock. He had no option. Now he'd know how she felt. Helpless and wrongly accused of something she didn't know. Stripped off her every pride.

"No? I'll leave then." She said turning to leave. She gave up, she knew he'd never. When he left her, in the six months while recovering all she thought was about him. About how he was ever confident and how he always laughed his way through his problems. How he'd confidently work and always get what he wanted. She wanted to instill more confidence than him and that she did. She sighed, what had she been thinking? He wouldn't beg ofcourse, his pride would never allow it. If she didn't get what she wanted then she'd not give him what he wanted.

She turned the doorknob to leave. It clicked. She heard a soft thud after it. Turning around she saw him on the floor on his knees. Her eyes widened as he held her hand. Placing his forehead on it, he murmured an apology.

She was not sure if he had murmured it or were blood rushing to her ear. She felt tears prick her eyes. She pulled her hand out of his and walked out of the room. She ran to her room and shut the door. She slid down to the floor. Her eyes fell on her reflection on the mirror in front of her. She looked so different. She looked so vengeful, vehement and proud. She looked so cruel. She threw a nearby vase so it crashed the mirror and both itself. With itself her pride has crashed too.

The thing about wanting something out of anger. An apology even. The moment you receive it, it feels like a burden, it feels like rotten meat thrust in your hands. By asking an apology that person is already free from his pride but you, your pride decays your heart or already has. Apology shouldn't be demanded, that she learnt. Because the things asked out of vengeance won't make you feel as you expected it to.

A/N:

🎉🎉🎉🎉Contest!!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉

Comment what you think 'Moving from off' is. The secret to Aghanya'a secret is. Like a book or something like that. The one who gets it right will get a DEDICATION in the next chapter.

Freaking finally broke my writer's block! Thank the heavens for that. This chapter might be bleh but still vote and comment! Do you guys love it? Hate it? Sorry for the late upload, it was so bad though! :p anyways! Comment your favourite scene!

And check out the cover to the side or above!!!

I love you guys! Have a nice day!!! (~_~)