I have been reading a few stories here and got inspired. I only read Ragsan stories (I am quite honestly bored of the current swara avatar in the show). So this story will not have all that many scenes for swara or laksh. I will try my best to update regularly, but unfortunately I cannot promise daily updates.
********
She sat on the bed, with her dupatta covering her face, supposedly waiting for her newly wed husband. Actually truth be told, she wasn’t really waiting for him, she was hoping he didn’t turn up. That he would turn up and expect her to perform wifely duties was one of her worst nightmares. One that she had been dreading since this marriage was fixed and forced down her throat. Her family had been well meaning and hoped for her happiness, but she had had little say in this marriage and little wish in going through with it. But what happened a month back had changed the course of her future. She had been uprooted from her studies back in Cambridge and dragged back home to Kolkatta. If only things had been different.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the opening of the door. Someone entered the room. She assumed it was him. She heard the door being closed and locked. She brought her knees close to her body and wrapped her arms around herself a bit tightly. She heard him pace about for a while before he stopped.
“Look I have nothing against you” he said in a firm baritone voice “But this marriage is a sham according to me!”
She was a bit taken aback hearing this.
He continued, not waiting or expecting any response “I was forced into this marriage and I am stuck with it. I am in love someone else. I cannot have the place of a wife in my life or my heart.” He took a deep breath, one that she could hear, before continuing “As far as I am concerned, you can enjoy the status of being the bahu of the family. When we are out with others, you can have respect and tag that comes with being my wife. We can pretend to be husband and wife all you want in public, but I cannot give you any real rights of wife in my life”
While this wasnt what she had hoped to hear, it was at least far from the nightmares that she had been having. Without meaning too, she let out a breath of relief and sagged a bit.
She wasnt sure what happened next and why, but all of a sudden she felt her dupatta thrown over her head to reveal her face. She has a bit shocked and moved back a bit looking at his face. She had never seen his face before. She has been studiously avoiding looking at him in each and every function and even during the marriage. This was the first time she saw him. That he was tall she away knew, but now she could see that he was fair and had short straight hair. His eyes overflowed with anger and his jaw was clenched. She moved back a bit.
“Did you hear what I said!” he exclaimed quite loudly
She nodded her head confused by his reaction. He has after all made a declaration all by himself, was he really expecting her to acknowledge it now?
“Do you understand what I am saying? Can you talk?” he shot at her.
In times of difficultly, some people choose flight as the option and some fight. Thanks to the lessons of her past, she had learnt something far mort important, when a fight was worth it and when fighting would not change the end result. She was stronger for it. Just then, her strength came through and she answered him in a calm voice “I understand”
He was taken aback and almost confused by her reaction. She wasnt surprised. He wasnt excepting her to be calm about it, but then again he didnt know her and her past.
“Fine! We are clear about things then” he said, a lot more calmer now before he walked towards the wardrobe, picked up some clothes and went off to the washroom to change.
She sat there for a few minutes, before getting up from the bed and going towards the dresser to take off her ornaments. Of all the ways that she has expected it this night to play, this was not it, but then she knew life never was exactly as one expected it to be.
By the time she got her clothes from her back, he had already changed into his night clothes, laid down on one end of the bed and switched off the lights by his side.
She went to the bathroom and freshened up and changed herself. As she looked at herself in the mirror, she shook her head “Ragini, It may not have gone as you expected. Yes there could have been a lot better ways it could have gone, but it wasnt your worst case scenario. And as look as it wasnt that, you can handle anything. You know that”
She took a quick breath after that small pep talk and went back out into the room. taking care that there was ample distance between her and her husband, she slept at the other edge of the bed and switched off the lights. Despite being married to him, and just now only seeing his face, there was very little that she knew about him.
All that she knew was that he was part of the Maheshwari family that were once rivals with her family. This marriage a way to strengthen the truce that had been recently agreed between the two families. Like her, he had been dragged back from Los Angeles where he had been staying. And that his name was Sanskar.
“Welcome to your new life” she thought in her head before falling asleep
******