A New Life (Part 13)

Hi guys, I’m glad you all enjoyed my last post. I hope you enjoy this next part.

Part 13

[This is going to be two weeks after the previous part]

Day of Lori Function

“Ma, why did you call us all here?” Tej asked Dadi as everyone else looked on.

“Nothing of major, I just wanted to tell you all that tomorrow is Lori and it will be special this year. This will be the first Lori of Billu and Anika and I want them to do the Pooja together.” Dadi tells this to everyone as Shivay and Anika look at each other. Anika looks away when she sees Shivay looking at her.

“But Mummyji how can they do the Pooja together?” Pinky questioned her.

“Why not Pinky? They are husband and wife, are they not?” Dadi argued back.

“Yes, but only for some more time. And anyways the media will be here and it will be a grand function here, how can Shivay do the Pooja with this cheap girl when the world knows Shivay is married to Tia?” Pinky asked Dadi.

“I don’t care what the world knows. I want Billu to do the Pooja with Anika, and only Anika. As per this house, Billu and Anika are married, and therefore they will be doing the Pooja together. I don’t care if the media is here and other business tycoons, all I know is that Billu’s wife is Anika and only Anika. As long as she is bearing his mangalsutra and sindhoor, only she has a right on him as his wife.” Dadi stands her ground in wanting Anika and Shivay to do the Lori Pooja together. She walks over to Shivay and takes his hands in hers and drags him over to where Anika stands between Om and Rudra. She makes him stand beside her and takes Anika’s hand in hers and places it in Shivay’s hand, joining them together. “The two of you took 7 rounds promising each other that you will stand by each other no matter what. Billu I want you to do this Pooja with Anika today and let the world know that she is your wife. Anika, I want you to stand beside Billu tonight to do this Pooja” she tells the two who are looking at her with a little hesitation.

“I will not let this cheap ladiki stand beside my Shivay in front of the world. Tia and Shivay will do the Pooja.” Saying this Pinky leaves from there as everyone else looks on.

“Don’t worry puthar, she will come around one day or another.” Dadi consoles Anika.

“But Dadi…” Anika tried arguing with Dadi, but it was useless as Dadi started walking away from there. One by one each of the family members left and only Shivay, Anika and OmRu were standing thre. Anika looked at the three brothers with a frustrated glance before leaving as well.

“Well Shivay, what are you going to do? Om asked him as he came by to stand beside him.

“Don’t know…” Shivay replied to him as the brothers just laughed.

Later that day….

Anika’s POV

Anika was in the room getting dressed when Shivay walked in. He stood rooted in the spot just watching her. She looked amazing in her teal green sari and her hair in a loose bun to the side, the simplicity in her is what made her beautiful. Anika was just applying sindoor in her mang when she noticed Shivay standing behind her. She felt awkward with him standing behind her. She didn’t know what to do. Shivay who was standing quietly behind her all this time, started walking towards her causing Anika’s heart rate to beat faster. Soon he reached her and stood closely behind her that they can each feel the heat radiating from the others body. Shivay took the sindoor from Anika’s hand and filled her mang himself, while looking into her eyes through the mirror. Anika was shocked with this action, but at the same time felt a little happy within her.

Ever since the kidnapping, something between them has changed, and she knew it herself. She loved the attention that Shivay was giving her and how he takes care of her. At first she was mad at him for forcing her to move back into his room with him, but as days went on the way he took care of her for every little things that were troubling her showed how much he cared for her. She wanted him to acknowledge his concern for her, but obviously the great Shivay Singh Oberoi will not. Things have gotten better, but that didn’t mean it changed everything between us. No matter what, at the end of the day, the real truth is that I will be leaving this house sooner or later and he will be marrying Tia, as his business deal was greater to him than anything else. At nights when he holds me to himself, caressing me and whispering to me that he’s got me and that he will not let anything happen to me, I treasure it, as I know this is all I will have to hold onto when I leave from this house. This is why I continue to ignore him, as I don’t want to fall in love with him and have my heart broken. My world has been very small for some time now, with just Sahil and myself, and I have to remember that that is all I will have till the end.

I felt his breath on my neck and realized that I had zoned out. His closeness was causing me to shiver, and fall into him for support. His hands that were on my shoulder slowly made its way down caressing me as he went only to encircle my waist. I closed my eyes as I felt his forehead touch the side of my head and his lips near my ears. I didn’t know what was going on, I didn’t know if he could get any more closer to me. I could feel his breath on my right ear and then, “Anika puthar?” we both jumped and moved away from each other as if we had gotten some sort of electricity shock. I looked up to see him looking at me and quickly avoided my eyes and quickly made it over to the door and opened it.

Dadi stood there with her hands up as if she was just about to knock on the door, “Puthar, are you ready? Where is Billu?” She looked past Anika to see Shivay standing there, “oh, Billu, are you ready? Shall we go?” She asked him as she pulled Anika along with her.

Shivay was just about to leave when he got a call.

“Billu, leave that for now the Pooja is about to start come now.” Dadi called out.

“Dadi you go, I will come.” He looked at the two ladies as he picked up the call. Dadi shook her head and asked Anika to come along. Anika looked back to see Shivay looking at her with a smile. She blushed and left as fast as she could all the while listening to Shivay’s laughter.

Shivay’s POV

Shivay picks up the call only to hear laughter on the other side. “Who’s this?” He questions the person on the other side.

“That’s none of your business. Just cancel this call and watch the video that I am forwarding you. I will call you back after you’ve watched it to tell you what I want from you. Don’t worry, it won’t be bad compared to the video you’ll be watching.” Saying this the person cuts the call.

Shivay looks down at his phone to see that he’s received a video message. He turns it on to find a video of Tej and Swethlana being intimate. He quickly turns it off and throws his phone away in anger.

The house line rings and Shivay answers the call, “what rubbish is this? Who are you?” Shivay questions immediately.

“That is none of your business. I will do all the talking here you just listen to what I have to say, do you understand?” The person says on the line. “Good. Now if you want to see your beautiful wife alive and this video to not appear on the 6 o’clock news, than I need you to do something.”

Shivay stood shocked hearing what the person was saying. “What, what do you want Mrs. Kapoor?” Shivay questioned.

“Hahaha, I knew you were a smart person Shivay. Good you found out who I was, well that is of no issue to me. You just have to do something very simple. All you have to do is show the world that Tia is your wife. Do the Pooja with Tia and not Anika, very simple don’t you think?” saying this the line went dead.

Out in the lawn (for the Pooja)

Anika’s POV

I left the room in a hurry while I could hear Shivay laughing behind me. I don’t know what’s happening to me but lately I’m not myself when he’s near me.

When I left him after he asked me to sign the divorce papers, I decided I wasn’t going to let him affect me anymore. I decided to give him the divorce and just leave everything and go, but all that went to bust when the judge said that we couldn’t get a divorce at the time since our marriage was still fresh. I then decided that I was going to close myself off to him. He had told everyone that I didn’t mean anything to him, and that he was going to marry Tia once the divorce was complete, so I was making it a reality on my side as well, once the divorce happened. I don’t know why but I had thought that after the whole Daksh incident things were getting better between us that maybe we could move on together, but of course the great Shivay Singh Oberoi only cared about his family name, lineage and blood lines. I’m not sure why I believed that he couldn’t be guilty of what he was being accused of, but what really got to me was the fact that he himself believed it to be true. I didn’t want to come back but had to on Didi’s request. When I left from here I made my heart numb and closed the chapter on the feelings I was having for him, but lately I feel as if the book is threatening to open up again, and I don’t know what to feel about it.

Dadi called out to me, pulling me out of my memory. I walked up to her as she told me that all the preparations were done and Shivay is waiting for me to do the Pooja. She pulled me along with her to the Pooja area only to give me the second shock of my life. We walk up to see Shivay doing the Lori Pooja with Tia as his wife. I can feel Dadi’s eyes on me but I couldn’t take my eyes off of Shivay and Tia. I can see the smirk rising on Tia’s face as they finished the Pooja and looked up.
OmRu walked up to me and stood by me, but in reality all I wanted to do was run away from this place, but I couldn’t even do that due to the dead grip that Dadi has on me. Why do I always let this man get to me? Why? Just when I thought things were getting better, and that maybe just maybe he’ll accept me as I am, but of course there’s nothing more important to Shivay Singh Oberoi than his image in front of the world.

I was looking at the couple with a neutral blank face not showing any emotions. I’ve become a master at hiding my emotions from everyone. I can clearly see the shock on his face, which then turned neutral as he looked at me. He turned away when someone called out to him and that was my que to leave. I took my hand out of Dadi’s grip and turned and walked back inside.

As I walk back inside, the night of our reception comes back to mind, of him telling his Dadi that the truth is that Tia is his wife to the world. I continue walking and somehow find myself sitting near the pool looking out to the dark sky. How did my life turn out to be this way? When did everything change?

Shivay’s POV

After the phone call, I walked outside with a determination. I called out to Tia and asked her to come along. I can see Mrs. Kapoor standing by looking at us. I took Tia with me and started performing the Lori Pooja, shocking the rest of my family. I didn’t see Dadi or Anika, but when the two of us completed the final round I looked up to see Anika and Dadi standing across from us. Dadi was shocked but Anika, she was looking at us blankly. I know I hurt her again, but I had to do this in order to save her and make sure that that video of Badai-papa didn’t get out.

I turned my head as someone called me. I finished talking to them and looked back only to see Anika missing from there. I scanned the area but couldn’t find her, I walked over to OmRu and asked them about it, but both of them gave me a look and walked away. I know I’ve disappointed them once again, but this is something I had to do. I walked around looking for her, but she was nowhere and I was starting to get restless. Where could she have gone?

I walked inside the house and looked around for her. I searched just about everywhere looking for her and was just about to call for security when I thought of where she may be. I quickly walked to the pool area only to see her sitting there looking like a lost child.

I didn’t know how I was going to explain this to her but I had to. I needed her to understand why I did what I did, I know if I tell her she’ll understand me and everything will be okay. I took a breath and started walking towards her but was stopped when her phone started ringing. It didn’t look like she heard it, but the continuous ringing must have gotten her out of her thoughts. She looked at her phone and looked shocked, then hesitation and a little fear came. I watched her pick up the phone with fear and fumbled out a scared hello. I wonder who it could be.