THE WAIT - Chapter 9

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CHAPTER 9



ARNAV SINGH RAIZADA


I stare at the picture of my twin Dhruv Singh Raizada before I leave the mansion for my wedding with Khushi.

“I’m marrying her, Dhruv,” I speak to the picture hung on the wall of our drawing room. It’s a family picture which has both Dhruv and me standing on either side of Nani sitting on a recliner. Anjali Di is kneeling down at Nani’s feet.

The cold silence in the room doesn’t help me in venting out my thoughts to my brother who is no more in this world yet I continue.

“My feelings for Khushi are much more than what you ever had for her,” I murmur. “You saw her as your friend and companion. But friendships break, companions change.” I shrug. “The day I saw Khushi, I saw my life partner in her. And that never changes, Dhruv. She’s been in my heart, and my soul even ever since then. And from today she’s going to be my forever. I’ll fill her life with so much of love and happiness that she’ll never regret marrying me, I promise.”

It's only when I finish making this promise, I realize that my eyes are moist.

“Chotte?” Di’s voice breaks my reverie and I turn around to see my sister standing at the door, decked up as a bride.

It’s her wedding too day with Shyam. Seeing tears in my eyes, she realizes I was here to speak to Dhruv and it brings tears in her eyes too.

“I too wish he was alive to see this day when two of his siblings are getting married.” She smiles.


My heart flips. Had Dhruv been alive, I wouldn’t have been marrying Khushi. It just reminds me again that I’m hiding such a crucial fact from the woman I’m going to make my life partner. The truth of that night when we had kissed!! Avoiding my thoughts to go in that direction, I stride to Di and grip her arms.


“You are the most gorgeous bride, Di.”

Di smiles some more.

“When you see Khushi in her bridal attire, I’m sure this will change.”

My heart blooms with joy. Seeing Khushi as my bride, decked up for me, waiting for me to take vows with her and fulfilling all the rituals which will mark us as husband-wife for a lifetime is my only desire.


KHUSHI SINGH RAIZADA

Marriage! The most beautiful and life changing event of a woman’s life has knocked my door too. My cousin sisters and friends who are sitting around me in the room as we await to be called down to start the marriage rituals are praising my groom. A few of them wouldn’t mind to take my place had this proposal of marrying Arnav Singh Raizada come to their door. A few of them are testing my patience asking me to share a few tidbits of my Suhagraat details with them tomorrow. I know they are simply teasing me but what they don’t realize is that nothing they say or do right now is helping me shift my focus from the thoughts that have clouded in my head. I’m marrying Dhruv’s twin, the man who has no idea I was ever dating his brother. How can I step into a future with Arnav without coming clear about my past with him?


“Khushi,” Mumma enters the room. I hadn’t seen her since a few hours, she was that busy. Two weddings at a time keeps you occupied. “The brides are called downstairs. Come.”


My heart skips a beat. This is it then. I rise on my feet only to hear my mobile ringing. One of my friend checks it for me as the mobile is far from my reach.

“It’s from an unknown number..” she says and is about to pass me the phone when Maa takes it before me.

“She has no time to attend a phone call now. The mahurat is up. Let’s go. You can call this person once you are free.”


Saying that Maa and the rest of my sisters and friends lead me down. Without raising my gaze, I keep walking towards the altar with Maa and sit next to Arnav once we reach the Mandap. The moment I sit next to him, I feel his heated gaze on me, staring at me from the side, but I don’t meet his eyes. I’m too afraid he would read my commotion in them. When Arnav holds my hand as the priest asks us to do so during one such ritual, my body shivers. He realizes it and is about to shift his hand away from mine, when I press my palm into his, strongly, not wanting him to backoff. Though I don’t meet his eyes even then, we together fulfil the next rituals with me eradicating every other thought in my head and only focusing on the fact that I’m never going to look back in the past.


The first time I meet Arnav’s gaze is when he is tying the Mangalsutra around my neck. Seeing his face this close, reminds me suddenly of Dhruv’s expressions when he was gazing me the same way that night before he flew to Greece. That love.. that passion.. that scorching intensity in his stare is so glued to my heart that I’m probably imagining Arnav having those traits, those feelings and expressions for me like the ones Dhruv had, which scares me. But this is not the first time I’m finding the similarities. I’ve felt it every single time Arnav Singh Raizada has had his eyes on me.


Maa’s gentle pat on my arm pulls me out of my trance again and I realize its time for me to take the seven pheras. Arnav is already standing. I’m about to rise when Arnav stretches his hand for me to hold. I stare at it blankly for a few seconds before finally giving my hand in his and letting him help me stand up. With the priest chanting the mantras, and our family, friends and well-wishers showering their blessings on us, we take our marriage vows.

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

I cry hard hugging Maa and Dad during my Bidaai. It’s the most difficult phase for any bride to leave her home and shift to her husband’s family forever. I’m still lucky that this distance is not going to be too far. Staying in the same city, I can still get to meet my family as and when I miss them. Since it was Shyam and Anjali’s wedding too along with us, before leaving for Shantivan, I hug them and wish them for their new married life just like they wish me and Arnav for the same.

The post wedding rituals at Shantivan are minimized due to the delay we had in reaching home. Everyone is exhausted and Arnav’s aunt, Manorama Maami quickly shifts me to Arnav’s bedroom and my dread begins.

I stare at myself blankly in the mirror reflection. The Sindoor on my forehead, the veil covering my head, the Mangalsutra shining around my neck and the bridal lehnga which I’ve still adorned on my body are screaming at me to accept the reality and bury the remains of my past with Dhruv so deep in some corner of my lonely heart where even I cannot reach again even if I want to. Arnav is my lawfully wedded husband and I’ve vowed to be his dutiful wife in every sense.

I shut my eyes to erase every other thought and just focus on the present.. my reality.. that I am Arnav Singh Raizada’s wife and no matter what my past was, I would not drag its shadow in my future. When I open my eyes again and look in the mirror, my heart skips a beat seeing Arnav in the room already. He is leaning against the door frame, in his maroon sherwani with his arms crossed on his chest. This is it.. The beginning of a new phase in my life, the end of the previous chapter. Will I be able to handle such a drastic change? Will I ever give Arnav what he truly deserves from his wife? From me? Will I be able to keep the promise I gave him? With all these thoughts clouding in my head I fail to realize when Arnav reaches behind me and stands close. It is only when his breath fans my nape, I’m on a high alert. Our eyes meet in the mirror reflection.. His gaze steady on my face, as if reading the commotion of my heart. To avoid showing off my turmoil, I start taking off my earrings.

“These .. these are too heavy on my ears.” I break the silence between us, pulling hard the earring, but to no luck. In fact the hurry in trying to take them out makes me hurt my ear and I wince in pain. The moment I decide to be gentle on myself, Arnav holds the earring in place while gently taking off its screw.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Mrs. Khushi Singh Raizada,” he whispers leaning far closer to my face than before. “You are mine..” He adds, taking off one earring and then shifting his fingers over the other to take it off. “That’s enough for me to live with until you are ready to share yourself with me.”

ARNAV SINGH RAIZADA

The moment I say that, Khushi steps away nervously and starts taking off the necklace, lowering her gaze from mine.


“Th..aank.. thank you..” she murmurs taking them off one by one. She takes off her bangles and God knows why I just can’t keep my gaze from lingering on every movement of hers. The moment she unhooks her waist chain and pulls it off her waist, I swallow feeling my throat parched.


When I raise my gaze from her waist to her face again, I realize Khushi is already staring at me again, with so much fear in her eyes that if I don’t move away, she might burst into tears.

“Uh…” I clench my jaw. “I.. I’ll go change too.”

She nods blankly, her fingers automatically moving at her nape again to unhook the last jewelry on her body. The moment I realize she is about to take off the Mangalsutra from her neck, I grab her wrists.

“Don’t..” I almost yell but instantly curb my frustration as I realize I scared her off even more. “That should stay on you Khushi..”

She looks down at the Mangalsutra and realizes what she was about to do.

“At least for tonight..” I add, not wanting to force her to wear that marital chain everyday. If she wants to take it off, she can.. but not tonight. Tonight she is my bride.. and I want her to end the day and begin this new phase of our lives wearing that chain on her body which declares her as mine..

“I’m sorry..” she swallows. “I didn’t mean to take it off.. I..”

Her phone rings on the dressing table which makes her jerk and move towards me. She is too scared at the moment to have me in the same room as hers as her husband. I understand. And though I hate this resistance between us, I accept its going to be a part of our lives for the coming few days.


“Pick up your phone..” I tell her realizing she is totally blank what to do.

“Huh.. yea.. my phone.. sorry..” she turns around and the moment she answers the call, her phone battery goes dead. “The battery drained.” She tries unlocking her phone but nothing works. It’s a dead black screen.

I take the phone from her.

“Will keep it for charging. Go change.”

Khushi nods weakly before grabbing some clothes from her bags and rushing into the bathroom. I wonder who could call her at this hour of the night? Everyone who knows her might also know she got married today which means they wouldn’t disturb her at least tonight. Never mind. I shrug and putting her phone for charging, I make my way to the walk-in closet to fetch my night wear.


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.