Chapter 4Revelations"The worst distance between two people is misunderstanding.""Woah. Anika." I gasped as we both bumped into each other. Our heads collided. "Where were you looking and walking huh?" I asked rubbing my head.
"Me? Where were you looking?" I shot back. "Ugh. Anyway, I have something for you." I said before I forget about it again.
"What?" She asked confused.
"Here." I placed a box on her hands. "Open it." I smiled. She opened it and I jumped inwardly as smile crept on her face. "Jalebis!" She squealed.
"Yeah. I bought it for you yesterday only but then with all the reception party and stuff I totally forgot to give it to you."
"It's okay. Thank you so much, Shivaay!" She smiled widely and went away already stuffing the jalebis in her mouth. Can she be any cute? I thought to myself. My phone beeped and I saw 1 new message. I opened it. At reading the text, I clenched my phone tightly and threw it away.
---I pulled out the chair and sat down at the dining table. "Arre wah. Everyone's here together for lunch today? What's so special?" It was very rare that everyone would be gathered for lunch. Since today everyone was there I was surprised. I scanned the table but I couldn't find Anika.
"Haan. I made sure everyone's here because today is Anika's pehli rasoi." Dadi replied. I looked at her wide eyed. "What!" This was not good. No wonder the lunch wasn't served yet. Anika didn't know how to cook.
"Oh I just remembered that I have to make an important call to make. I'll be right back." I excused myself and left.
"Shivaaay!" Anika ran towards me. "Raita phail gaya Shivaay. I haven't prepared anything and I'm sure everyone's waiting for lunch na? What do I do?" she rambled.
"Calm down. Okay? Now tell me what all is prepared."
"Nothing. Just the salad."
"Just salad. Cool. Sabka peth achhe se bhar jayega." I said sarcastically.
"Ho gaya? Mera mazak uda ke ho gaya? Will you please tell me what I should do now!"
"You calm down first. I'll cook some English dishes quickly." I rushed forward but she held my hand.
"Nahi!" She held my hand. "Dadi and Nani would want some Indian dishes only na. And it's my pehli rasoi. I'll cook."
"Okay. Okay fine." I pinched the bridge of my nose, thinking. "I'll tell you what to do and you do it okay?"
"Okay." She had already boiled some white rice so we quickly cooked vegetable fried rice.
Anika was pouring water into the atta. She tried to mix it but it was of no use. She clearly didn't know how to make a mould. I was standing right behind her when she lifted her hand to roll up her sleeve as she had aata on both her hands. She ended up pouring all the water from the jug she was holding. I swore under my breath.
"Arre. This jug was filled right now. Where did all the water go?" She asked herself looking into the jug.
I stood there soaked in water waiting for Anika to realise what she had done. Finally she turned around and looked at me from head to toe. She stretched her atta filled hand to wipe my face, I was about to stop her but I was too late. The aata was all of my face.
"Anika. What are you doing?" I stepped back. "Crap. I'm- I'm so sorry Shivaay. I totally forgot about this. I'll just wipe it off." She stretched her hand again, "No no. It's okay. Let's just forget about the puri's and serve what we have prepared till now okay.
That wasn't much, there was Russian Salad, Fried Rice, some raita Anika had prepared before and had forgotten about it and gulab jamuns.
I sneaked into my room making sure no one saw me and cleaned up. When I got down everyone was praising Anika. She opened her mouth to say, "No all the cre--" I cut her off, asking loudly "Oh so dinner is all served? I hope something is left for me." I said down and shook my head telling her to not say anything.
Everyone left and Anika was gathering up the plates when I grabbed her hand, "Anika, there are servants to do that."
"I know Shivaay. But I like to do my work myself." She said trying to free her hand.
"This is not your work." I replied. Before she could say anything I said, "Anika come with me. We're going somewhere."
"Where Shivaay?"
"You'll find out." I pulled her along with me and drove to City Apartments.
As she sensed where the road was going she said, "Shivaay stop the car!" I ignored her. "Shivaay stop the car or I'm going to jump out right now."
I pushed the breaks and stopped the car immediately. "Have you gone mad? You'll jump out of the car huh?" I glared at her but she just turned around and hopped off the car. I got off too and ran behind her. This girl was impossible.
I grabbed her hand and made her face me. I could see it in her eyes that she was really angry. She tried to go away again when I pulled her hard and she crashed into me. I twisted her hand behind her back.
"Anika I saw how you ignored your parents yesterday. You should've seen Sunil Uncle, he was really hurt. Whatever they did was for your well being. Why don't you just understand that!" I said firmly, looking right into her eyes.
"Really Shivaay? Even you're taking their side now. They forced me into marrying you when I didn't want to." She said angrily. My hand loosened its grip on her hand. I looked away.
"I-I didn't mean that Shivaay. I don't regret marrying you." She said realising what she had just said. Her eyes had become soft. "It's just that I needed sometime after that as***le ditched me on our marriage day. I wasn't ready for marriage. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? I know I didn't love Samar, but I thought he was a really good friend. Little did I know he was using me to get back with his ex. I really felt bad." My blood boiled at the thought that someone hurt Anika so badly.
"I agreed to marry Samar for my parents Shivaay. They wanted this. My dad thought that Samar was the perfect guy for me. And my mom," She let out a single laugh. "Because she wanted Dad's business to merge with Samar's." A lone tear escaped her eyes.
"They cared about what the society would say Shivaay and not my happiness. That hurt Shivaay." She placed her forehead on my shoulder and cried bitterly.
"You know till now I thought my dad loved me Shivaay. Only my dad. Mom never cared about be. Most of the fights between them happened because of me. But after that marriage broke, I realised that I was a burden on them. That day I heard my parents conversation. My mom was saying that they have to tolerate me for some more months till they find a suitable groom for me. And my dad, you know what he said? He said that he'll get me married today itself. In the same mandap. As if I was project he'd complete before the deadline!"
I didn't know this. I didn't know all this had happened that day. I knew Sunil Uncle loved Anika dearly, then why did he do this? Anika had gone through a lot. She didn't deserve this. That day aunty had convinced me for marriage in such a way that I was under the impression that Anika didn't have any problem with the marriage. But when I saw her at the mandap I realised that I was wrong. She didn't want this marriage at all. She was forced. I even told uncle that I couldn't do this. I backed off but he said,
"Shivaay tujhe meri kasam. If you've ever considered me your father like and if you care about Anika. Please don't back off. Her whole life is at stake." He had made me promise. I thought this is why Anika was hurt. But there were a lot of reasons.
"Shivaay! You're hurting me." She flinched. I didn't realise that I had tightened my grip around Anika's arm. I was angry that all this had happened.
"I'm sorry." I apologised and let her go.
"For what?" I looked at her, her eyes accusing me of something. And I knew what. I looked away.
"Anika, I'm really sorry." I said in a low voice.
"Don't Shivaay. Just don't. You know what hurt me more Shivaay. You. Why on earth did you agree to marry me even after I told you to say no! Huh?" She grabbed my shirt with her free hand and shook me. I was shocked.
"Anika I was- I couldn't say no!"
"Yeah. You couldn't say no! You could Shivaay. You didn't have to agree." She yelled. "I know you didn't mean to, but you did Shivaay hurt me."
I grabbed her by the shoulder and I yelled, "I would never think of hurting you Anika. Because I lov-" I stopped realising what I was about to say. I was surprised that I had even started it. I let go of her and stepped back. I was about to ruin everything. I looked at Anika, at first she was surprised and then she masked it with confusion. I didn't know if she understood what I said or not. But I was going to pretend I didn't say anything.
"I didn't mean to Anika. It's all a very big misunderstanding." I told quietly and went back and sat in the car waiting for Anika to sit. After a few moments she did. Instead of dropping her at City Appartments I drove back to Oberoi Mansion. She could confront her parents some other time.
Note: Hey guys. So here's chapter 4. So I'm not really satisfied by how this chapter came out. But yeah. As I started writing down the last part it didn't end up how I wanted it to be. But hopefully it's fine? I know lot of build up for this chapter. But I hope you guys like it.
And thank you so much for all the likes and comments. It really does mean a lot. ❤️
Edited by -Rhea- - 8 years ago
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