A newly wed bride sat on the bed covered with every kind of flower and waited for her husband to come. Hugging her knees, she thought about many times she had visited his room. Never in her wildest dreams had she thought that someday this room would be hers too. The proposal had come out as a shock to everyone, mostly Khushi.
Arnav Singh Raizada. She had always been in awe of his achievements. At 32, he was one of the youngest billionaire in India. He had been termed as arrogant, rude and ruthless in business world but she knew better. She had seen him with his family and her family too, for that matter and quickly denied every word that he was described in those magazines. He was anything but that. Though he didn't sweet talk but concern for everyone in his eyes was always visible. His actions spoke louder than what his words couldn't convey. It wouldn't be wrong to say that even before the proposal, Khushi had developed a soft corner for him. He was an introvert and couldn't vocalize his feelings, his father had told her. Even in the wedding festivities, she had seen how he wanted to say something but every time stopped due to something or the other.
He was the handsome and eligible bachelor that every girl's mother wanted her son in law to be. Young, rich, and extremely good looking. What more could they want? But never had he looked at any girl for more than once. Why had he chosen her remained a question to her? No, she didn't lack confidence in her but out of all those sexy models which could be his trophy wife, he had selected her to be his wife. The man was an enigma. The song hot and cold suited him. She had seen him as ASR to a quivering Aman who was every now and then fired and hired again. She had seen the peaceful look on his face while gardening and the angriest when HP had accidentally kept a wrong file in his suitcase the next moment. She had also seen him as chottey for his father, a responsible brother for dhruv and a buddy for his son.
She loved his family to the bits. She had met them a year ago in another party and had instantly liked his father, Anuj Raizada. Their fathers were friends from a long time but their families were meeting each other for the first time. That one meeting had changed into many more and now here she was sitting, on his bed as his bride. She fell into easy camaraderie with his father over their mutual love for lucknowi culture and dhruv though younger to her by three years, they had bonded quite well. She was one of his best friends as he put it. His son, correction their son was altogether a different story. Yes he had a son too. Aarav Singh Raizada, junior ASR was just a Xerox copy of his father. He had not instantly warmed up to her but instead he had taken his own time and once when she was painting, he had quietly sneaked into her room and had observed her. He loved painting and so did she, so they have spent hours doing that. He had grown so fond of her that they were now inseparable. However, Arnav and she had never quite talked and their meetings were limited to hellos and byes.
Aarav was Arnav's best friend's son. He and his wife had died in an accident leaving a year old Aarav all alone. Having no extended family, the authorities had decided to put the poor child into an orphanage when Arnav stepped up and took the responsibility of little Aarav. Though it was tough to adopt a child considering his single status, but ASR had ensured that the child belonged to Raizada family by hook or crook. Aarav knew about his parents as Arnav didn't want to keep the biggest fact of his life hidden from him but he had easily chosen to ignore the truth and had said: "For me, you are my dad and everything." At 8, the maturity of the child had won everyone's heart and he was loved equally by not only his paternal family but also his maternal family i.e. her family.
She was fidgeting with her heavy dupatta when she heard the door opening and closing and she didn't dare to look up, scared. He sighed and sat on the bed maintaining a decent distance between both of them. Thank Devi Mayyia for that, otherwise he would have definitely heard her heartbeats, she thought. He cleared his throat to get her attention and when he did, what he spoke literally shook the ground beneath her.
"Khushi we're married but I can never give you the love of a wife. Yes we'll continue to live like a couple but I can't give you the rights of my wife."
"Then why did you marry me?" She uttered still coming out of the shock that had been given to her on her wedding night.
"For my family. They love you and you are what they need in life. You care about them too. I'm sorry but I hope you can understand me. Let's change and sleep, okay?" He said and giving a squeeze to her hand got up to go and get his night wear from the cupboard.
When Khushi came out of the washroom, she saw Arnav looking at the bed awkwardly and gave a small smile to her which she ignored and proceeded towards the bed. But instead of lying on it, she picked up her pillow and blanket and changed her direction towards the green recliner in the room.
"What are you doing?"
"If you can't give me the rights of your wife then how do you expect me to sleep with you on that bed?" She spoke with her back turned towards him so that he knows that she hadn't at all accepted what he had thrown at her and there was in no way she was going to take all this crap silently like a damsel.
"What the!? I just told you and you didn't have any problems. What happened now?"
"Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful piece of information with me when I am already married to you. You know I respected you could have told me when we met during the wedding functions but no, you just made a mockery out of this marriage. I won't sleep on that bed until you accept me as your wife."
Arnav looked at her guiltily and then taking a deep breath, spoke: "Look I am really sorry about all of this. It's not you, it's just me. You are a very nice girl Khushi. And you're already my wife, everyone knows that but I'm just asking you not to expect more from this relationship."
"Oh from the experience I have had just now, I know better not to expect anything from you. Honestly, I'm tired so please let me sleep." She retorted sarcastically and lied down on the recliner yawning. She could feel him glaring at her back but who cares? Serves him right for doing this to her.
"Khushi get up and move to the bed." After getting no response from her he tried again, losing his patience: "KHUSHI? Don't test my patience. Get up before I pick you up and dump you on the bed myself."
"FINE!" He was about to pick her up when she turned around and glaring at him spoke in a dangerously low voice which showed how serious she was.
"Don't! Trust me I'll scream the house down and you don't want anyone to know what's going on here."
"Suit yourself!" He left her there and went on to sleep on his king sized bed too tired to fight with this stubborn girl that was his wife now.
Book Talk
Anupamaa
Vasudha
41