THE WAIT - Chapter 8

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CHAPTER 8

ARNAV SINGH RAIZADA

I stare at my trembling Khushi as she stifles her sobs. Her cries subsides my anger but I don’t release her yet. Instead, I raise my hands to scoop her face in my arms but the moment she sees my hands getting closer to her face, she steps away in fear. And my anger returns.

“Your silly decision will ruin two lives, Khushi. Don’t do that.” I warn. “Strongest relationships like these can never be built upon decisions made in your weak times.

Khushi looks at me in a daze for a few seconds before wiping her tears.

“I’m not weak nor is this decision which I have made today of marrying you,” she replies.

I clench my jaw and cross my arms at front, letting her speak.

“I just want to marry the man my father thinks is the best for me.” She adds.

“I may not be the best for you,” I argue.

She peers up into my eyes, confused as I add more.

“And that’s still not enough for me to marry someone who is not even prepared to look at me when I am in the same room as hers.”

She looks away again, then realizing that’s the exact reason why I may not agree to marry her, she meets my eyes.

“I can try to be a good wife..” she murmurs.

My heart flips a beat. Did she just say that?

“You seem very desperate to fulfil your father’s wishes,” I retort.

“Yes.”

Khushi composes herself further, and is slowly opening up to me as we further converse.

“I never thought of an arrange marriage ever but then now I don’t think I have the strength to love a man before I decide to marry him.”

I swallow painfully. She loved Dhruv. I know she will never love me back the same way.

“I had someone in my past,” she continues. “But he is no more a part of my life. That’s the only reason you see tears in my eyes at this moment when I plan to take my life ahead in the form of marriage.”

Tears prick her eyes again and this time they prick mine too.

“If that is the reason why you don’t want to marry me, I ..”

“Everyone has a past,” I intrude before she finishes that statement. “But it’s not your past I am bothered of..”

Moving ahead and stand close to her, not breaking our eye contact.

“I’m bothered of your future, Khushi. Our future, if we happen to go ahead with this marriage.”

She struggles to read the meaning behind my words so I don’t make her wait for too long.

“I’m not a man to be toyed with. As I said earlier, if I marry, I would want my wife to not just be dutiful to me, but let me be her confidant too. I want her days and nights, her smile and sorrows..” I don’t realize when I move closer to her than before, not leaving the eye lock between us.. “her senses..” I add.

She searches something on my face as if trying to match my present intense look with that of Dhruv’s and only because I don’t want her to do so, I instantly exhale stepping back, breaking her stupor.

“So?” I clear my throat. “Are you willing to give me all of that in future after becoming my wife?”

Khushi thinks for a few seconds and then watches me stretching my hand towards her.

“I…” she murmurs then pauses pressing her eyes together to think for a second more before opening them again and replying. “I will.” She nods.

“Promise?” I grin.

“I promise..” she whispers pressing her palm over mine and giving me the promise of my lifetime.

I might be the toughest person when it comes to bringing reactions on my face, but whenever I am with Khushi Gupta, they happen to be all over my face. What I feel for her in the inside, is what my face reveals to the world. I smile as she keeps looking at our handhold. Probably, this is the new beginning we can get in each other’s lives. I want Khushi to be happy again, and with that I also want my solace by having her as my wife, my life partner before the world. It’s finally happening. She was meant to be mine, she is going to become mine. And now…. The wait is killing!!

KHUSHI GUPTA

I can’t believe I made that kind of promise to Arnav Singh Raizada when the truth is that, all I had in mind was marrying him only for my father’s sake and not assure him any future of being the kind of wife he wanted. But it just happened. There is something in the way he looks at me, which makes me forget the rest of the world. It’s as if the love I saw in Dhruv’s eyes once had started appearing in Arnav’s too which hypnotized me.

The door knocked and Nani along with the rest of the Raizada family and my parents entered the room. I quickly pull away my hand from Arnav’s and turn to them. But guess they have seen us holding hands already as the smiles of satisfaction on their faces is very prominent.

“Sorry for disturbing you two, but we couldn’t wait to know if the wedding is happening or not? Have you both cleared it out and are on the same page now?” Anjali teases on everyone’s behalf.

“We are..” Arnav responds. “And please stop looking at us as if we are aliens.”

Everyone laughs heartily while all I do is smile back seeing the families so happy. It’s been six months since the Raizadas haven’t been this happy after Dhruv’s death. Soon, one by one reach and gives us their wishes and blessings which we take together.

“We have talked to the priest. Chotte and your marriage will be on the same day as Anjali and Shyam.” Nani informs.

The moment she says this, I am tongue-tied. So soon? In less than two weeks?

“What happened, Khushi bitiya? Aren’t you happy?” Nani asks me seeing my confusion.

“Uh.. Nani.. Whats the hurry? Having two weddings together will be exhausting you all. Our marriage can be pushed to later.”

Dad laughs as soon as I finish that sentence.

“Khushi, you have no idea how much eager we all are to see you both married. So, don’t worry about our exhaustion.”

“Right,” Nani nods. “And to be honest, the Priest said there is no good mahurat for next 8 months if we missed this one. So, why delay the wedding so much when it can happen within two weeks?”

They are right but all I thought was getting more time to adapt to these changes coming in my life.

“You want us to wait for 8 months?” Arnav suddenly asks, going against the family’s idea.

He cares. He cares for me and my wishes. That mere thought fools me again and I nod in denial before replying. “No.. two weeks is fine..” I murmur.

Arnav swallows, staring all over my face which suddenly heats on its own, before asking the family to prepare the agenda for the two weddings together.

****************

A week later

We came back from the farm house a week ago and then started the rigorous preps of the two weddings in the Raizada and Gupta family. Right from shopping, packing my bags to be taken along with me to the Raizada house, designing of my wedding lehnga and the rest of the jewelry that I would adorn on my marriage, everything was ready. It felt like my life was going fast forward around me, only I was at the same place.

“Here she comes..” I hear the giggling voices of the women as I walk down with Mumma towards the living room of my mansion. Today is my Roka ceremony. The first ceremony which marks the beginning of my pre-wedding rituals. Anjali and Shyam’s Roka was already completed before. So today Anjali is enjoying her brother’s pre-wedding ritual to her fullest. She reaches us and quickly gives me a hug before whispering in my ears.

“You are glowing, Khushi. Or is this because Chotte hasn’t blinked once ever since he saw you getting down the stairs?”

What? He hasn’t blinked? My eyes instantly scan around and finally meet his. Even in such a crowd, he is uniquely identified and it’s not because he is wearing a traditional attire, but because he had a personality which always stood out from the rest. It is only when I see him, I read the dreams he is imagining to be real in the coming days. I already am aware of his expectations from his wife, so it saddens me now thinking have I fooled him for my selfish reasons? I told him I had a past but it is important for Arnav to know that man I loved in the past was his twin brother. I shouldn’t hide that fact from him. Ever!!

I don’t realize in all these thoughts when I am made to sit on the couch and the rituals begin. I stare blankly at the red veil placed on the Puja thali which Anjali is circling around me. She applies a small tika (dot) of vermillion on my forehead and showers some rice grains on my head. Nani then hands me over a small decorated basket of sweets, dry fruits, flowers, jewelry, some cash inside the shagun envelopes and Lord Ganesh Idol.

“Khushi bitiya, welcome to our family,” she says, helping me place it on my lap. Everyone claps around me while I try not to look panicked.

“Chotte, come here,” Anjali calls out for Arnav who so far had been standing with my father a little aloof from us.

I try to keep my eyes low when Anjali takes the red veil from the Thali and hands it over to Arnav.

“Put this Veil on Khushi’s head, marking the complete of the Roka ceremony,” she says. My heart beats frantically as I realize he is going to abide that command. I suck in my breath as Arnav drapes the veil on my head, bending down, leaning closer. Out of my own accord, I gently raise my gaze to look at him and find his gaze meeting mine that very instant. Heat blooms in every nerve of my body as I see a soft smirk falling across his lips. I’m going to become his wife soon. I willed myself not to think how our future together would be, and divert my gaze towards my parents who are smiling with tears of pride and joy in their eyes.

If I tell Arnav the truth and he denies marrying the woman his brother loved once, I’m going to break so many hearts. Could I risk that?

ARNAV SINGH RAIZADA

My gaze drops on her lips again on their own accord and knowing she too has been noticing me admiring her lips, makes it even more challenging. It’s one of the best day of my life. I am getting married to the woman I always had feelings. The woman who has shown the courage to forget her past and embrace her future with me. The only woman I have kissed ever. The only woman who owes my heart, body and soul. She has promised me a lifetime but will that promise sustain when she would get to know about the most truth I am hiding from her? That she had met me, Arnav Singh Raizada and not my twin Dhruv that other night after her breakup with him, and in her inebriated state she had kissed me and let me touch her intimately?

Cold sweat washes over my face as I recall that night in the club in London where this had happened between us. Despite all my attempts that night to tell her that it was me and not Dhruv, I’d failed the very minute her lips had crashed against mine. Khushi had every right to know this truth because she was still living in that false hope that Dhruv had returned back to her after their breakup, which is why her love with him was incomplete after he died. She hadn’t moved on from him. She never would. I delayed it enough from giving her that truth. But now, when I know she is going to be mine forever, and I would do anything to keep her happy and contented throughout her life, give her all the happiness of the world, would telling her truth even matter? Yes, it matters. It will give Khushi the closure she needs. But what about me and her? I don’t think Khushi would ever forgive me for hiding it from six months. What if she cancels the wedding? No!! I step away from Khushi and the rest of the family who are still blessing her for the Roka ceremony. After getting this close to the woman I desire, I can’t risk of losing her ever again! Not in this birth.. Not in this lifetime!! And with that dilemma ringing in my head, I walk away from the crowd, to breathe and compose myself again.

To be Continued.

NEXT PART 

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𝘽𝙇𝙐𝙍𝘽
𝐀𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐚𝐧 𝐑𝐚𝐢𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐚
I know to make money, a hell lot of it, and that’s what has made me the man I am today. But a tenacious woman named Alisha Sethi, owning a prime property that I wanted in Mumbai’s hottest real estate sector, stood in my way. Though I kept women at bay, there was something in her I couldn’t ignore. Alisha’s one condition smashed down the barricades of my heart, and despite all the hot and cold conflicts, she turned into an obsession I couldn’t get over. No matter how far she planned to test me, lest did she know when I was dared, no one but me won the challenge.

𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐚 𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢
I firmly believed my prince charming was just a dream away. But all I got was a pompous and demanding as hell real-estate billionaire, Armaan RaiSinghania, who was continually hounding me to negotiate a deal with him for his next project. I’d sworn never to give up fighting for what I believed in, and yet, one night, one earth-shattering moment changed it all. I’d waited for a romantic lover and got a fiery inferno instead. Armaan might live in the illusion of winning me over, but lest did he know the game had just gotten interesting.

𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐚’𝐬 𝐟𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐚𝐧’𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐭?

𝑨 𝑭𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒗𝒔 𝑰𝒄𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒛𝒛𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝑨𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒂𝒏 𝑹𝒂𝒊𝑺𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒂, 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑨𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒂 𝑺𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊, 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆.