7

"I can't come Right now baby." Mukund said, literally stopping Anahita's heartbeats. She frowned, shaking in anger. "What do you mean?"

"Actually....Anu... Something came up and..."

"Fuck you!" Anahita cursed loudly, "What do you think I am doing Mukund? I married a guy whom I don't like a cent just because you asked and now you are asking me to wait. Are you mad?"

"Baby I ju-"

"No, don't baby me. Just tell me what are you doing? You said we will run away from here and now you're leaving me in -"

"I am not leaving you Anahita. I am just trying to make everything right."

"How? Like this. Like leaving me with Yuvraaj." She scowled, "Mukund, I am married. You should know what will happen after that. I am still staking everything for you and you are just averting me." She blew up. It was anger or frustration, she couldn't decide it.

"I don't know why it all is happening Anahita. It's like the whole world is against us." Mukund sounded helpless.

"What a lame excuse!" Anahita seethed, "If you don't want me, just tell me but don't circumvent, don't fib, don't deceive me Mukund."

"Just shut up Anahita." Mukund growled, "I love you and please stop being dubious. I know you're not in good state but I am also not in better. You don't have any idea how it feels to ask your love to get Marry to someone else. You just have no idea. Only I know how many times i wanted to run to you but I can't."

"Then why?" Anahita demanded.

"Don't. I don't want to fight with you baby. Just remember one thing, you are mine and I want to keep it that way. By no means, should you allow him to touch you. Do you understand?" Mukund said sternly making her roll her eyes.

"I know that better than you Mukund." Getting cosy with Yuvraaj was the last thing on her mind.

"I love you Anu..I love you so much. These five weeks will slip past in snaps and then, I'll fly to you. You just have to keep your trust intact in me." He tried to make her understand.

"I'll try mukund. Bye!" She perched on the bed, staring her Mehandi adorned hands. No options had she had to choose among. Neither could she go back, nor could she accept the relationship. The ultimate alternative was to, wait.

Impassive, she padded to the dressing table. It was thoughtful of her mother in law that she'd already adjusted armillary sphere stand on the side with the maximum space, so that anahita could place her stuff there. Mentally thanking Mrs. Prakash, Anahita perched on the Ottoman and removed the heavy veil from her head, getting rid with Mundavalya in process. Her eyes noticed the bright red vermilion on her parting. She raised her hand to touch her parting, trying to believe what really happened because it was still so surreal for her.

Five Weeks. Thirty five Days. Eight forty hours. Fifty thousand four hundred minutes. Thirty lakh twenty four thousand seconds of endurance and then I will be able to freely fly in the vast welkin like a bird. She was never so deft and quick in her calculation as this time. Smirking, she began to get rid of her auspicious green and red bangles clinking in her wrists. Her eyes gawked at her bridal reflection in the mirror.

"All you've to do is to stay strong, Anu." She muttered to herself, unscrewing her oversized earrings and dropped them on the vanity table beside the pool of her bangles.
With a creak, the bedroom door unbarred and she uplifted her thick lashed smokey eyes to the mirror again. Her lips stretched in faux smile when the intruder stepped inside. How could she not feel his presence - the assassin of her happiness - and his scorching warmth that filled the void of the room instantly. A pair of warm, brown eyes examined the whole room before zeroing his wandering vision on the mirror and they shined in delight. Although tempted, Anahita was not so dimwit as to glare him or roll her eyes. Coyly, she smiled and embraced her gaze with his, working on to unfix the heavy piece of gold jewelry around her slender neck.

'A few days of pretension and I'll be out of this.' She mused, masking her afflicted expressions and steeled herself to penetrate her soft gaze in the smouldering ones, that were coming closer with each passing breath.

Clasping her gaze with his, Yuvraaj strode to her, unbuttoning his Kurta. Anahita stared at him wide eyes when he closed the moderate distance. She quickly got up and turned to him, fisting her Saree either side..

"You're still in this dress. Go and change!" Yuvraaj brushed past her softly and put his golden watch on the table.

"I was going to do that."

"Good!" He sighed, moving back. "There's an extra pair of towel in cabinet above washbasin. You can use that and don't leave the floor wet."

So he's already started ordering me around. Anahita greeted her teeth and lurched at him. "I don't leave the floor wet. However, just so you know, I don't take orders. So, you better don't order me again."

Yuvraaj glanced at her pleasantly and chuckled, "So it finally started han? This is how marital lie proceeds?" He inched closer and tucked her curly tendril behind her ear. "If you don't take orders, it will be fun teaching you wife."

"Is that a challenge?" Anahita asked, ten feet high.

"Uhunn." Yuvraaj shook his head, tipping her chin. "Husband and wife don't challenge each other; they participate together. They don't officiate, they supplement each other. They don't fight, Anahita, they make love." He exhaled moving back, letting her inhale that she didn't realise that she wasn't breathing. "The whole point of saying this is to explain you that I want you to complement me, stay with me, love me and understand me because that's what we have promised to each other while taking oaths. I will do the same but for that you've to get above from your immaturity. I wasn't ordering you, I just told you my knack that I believe you were not aware of. You can do the same." He finished and zoomed out of the roon, leaving her awestruck. The intensity and graveness in his words made Anahita baffled. She hadn't seen him this sincere and earnest before. The perfectly spoken lines etched deep in her heart. Marvelled, Anahita stood rooted still registering his words. Did he just hit his head somewhere and gained his brains?

Shooing off the thoughts, she took her clothes and sauntered to the bathroom. A fresh bubble bath and five hours sleep was waiting for her.

***

Muffling the turquoise quilt, Anahita yawned lazily. The refined sunbeams through the translucent window paved path to her side. She blinked and rubbed her drowsy eyes, turning to other side to save herself from the light. Her tresses fell over her face in the process when she pressed her face further into the pillow. Exhaling in sleep, she clutched the side pillow and relaxed. She frowned in her sleep as she sensed fingers on her face. Jerking open her eyes, she witnessed Yuvraaj close to her, with a laptop on his lap and his fingers on her forehead.

"You were squirming, so I thought to help you with this." He touched her hair that had covered half of her face and smiled. "Did you sleep well?"

"What are you doing here?" Anahita stared at him, getting up and glanced at the table clock.

8:30am. She was sure that her mother in law wouldn't create a fuss about how she overslept when she was supposed to wake up at around 6 or something after marriage as her mom had warned her umpteenth time.

Judging her expression, Yuvraaj mocked, "Don't tell me you are feeling what those girls feel in Asian Drama after marriage."

"What?" Anahita faced him.

"That 'Oh-I-don't-know-if-I-got-married' moment when they wake up next to their husband."

Anahita rolled her eyes, throwing the quilt away and wore her slippers. "My memory serves me well. So, don't worry I clearly remember everything and that bullshit happens in Asian Drama only."

"Glad to know." Yuvraaj muttered, resuming to his work while Anahita took off her clothes from her bag and threw it on the bed.

"I actually need some space in your cupboard. That's full with your stuff, you need to shift that." She said.

Yuvraaj glanced up at her, scratching his arm. "You can have the right side of it, I've already made some space for you there."

"Three drawers and half of the cupboard isn't what I was asking. I want you to shift your whole stuff in another cabinet. So that I can have that whole cabinet for my belongings."

Yuvraaj twitched her lips, "Why are you so cranky? Manage for now and I will make some space. You don't have to fight over that lame issue."

"Because I want to clear a few things first off, Yuvraaj. I don't have time for this crap for the whole day." She said with a straight face.

In jolly mood, Yuvraaj laughed, putting his arms behind his head anend leaned back. "I am well aware now that I've got married to a spitfire."

His laughter hammered her head, his playful words slayed her conscience and his smile that made her guilty which was something she didn't need to think of.

"Good for you because I don't like chasing and the fuck related to it." Another snapping rolled out of her tongue before she could stop. Yuvraaj's smile wore off, his eyes squinted and his hands dropped on his sides. His demeanour changed drastically. "Anahita, there is one thing you should know that I don't appreciate this language. I am warning you not to curse except times in our bedroom."

"Except times? What times precisely!" She frowned putting her hands on her waist, "And what is this 'I don't appreciate this language' shit? Do you think I'm gonna get change just because the Almighty, Mr. Yuvraaj Prakash married me?"

Yuvraaj was taken aback with her sudden lash out and he piped down, couldn't hacking it how to respond to her incoherent floundering.

"I've had have enough. Okay? You and your dad have ruined my life." She glared him, her jaw clenched tightly. "Now you want to control me? You're mistaken. I am not your toy, understand?"

"Mind your tongue anahita." Yuvraaj growled back, "No words against my dad." Yuvraaj was a kind who would hear nothing about his family. The respect and prestige mattered for him the most.

"Just shut up okay!" She snapped, "I give a shit about you, this marriage and your family. It's a mistake and I would rectify it soon. By no means, I am going to stay in this trap, you can fool my dad but not me."

"I don't need to fool a girl who is born as fool and keep your volume down. I don't want anyone to hear your abominable yelling, alright!" He retorts back with same fervour. "And what the hell are you talking about? What's my fault if you consider yourself a fool?"

He couldn't believe it; first morning post their marriage and they were fighting, brazing it out.

"Of course! I am a fool that is why I am trapped here with you. That is why I love my dad even after what he did to me. That is why I'd to be your wife when I love someone else." She yelled. Her broken voice cracked the ground beneath Yuvraaj's feet. He exhaled shocked.

"You didn't want this marriage?" He couldn't help but ask.

"No!" She averred, her eyes deep red, "I never wanted it. Why would I want to marry you when I hate you? You are the reason dad rejected Mukund. You are the reason he didn't meet him and you're the reason for I ran from my home." She divulged everything, taking the burden off her chest. Her words shattered Yuvraaj's expectations, his ego got jabs after jabs. Her wailing let off his self esteem, her accusations relumed his insides.

"You hate me?" His voice came out in whisper. Trying to compose him, he tightly shut his eyes, "Do you really hate me so much?"

"Yes. I hate you. I hate you so much because no one cared about me. I hate you because you married me. I hate you because you're the reason of my miseries and all the hurdles I'd to face." She cried. "Dad doesn't want to see my face, mom didn't even call me once. I have lost everything only because of you."

"I'll free you from this marriage then!" Yuvraaj spat angrily, catching so much acrimony against him in her eyes but Anahita laughed humorlessly, wiping her tears. "You will leave me? Huh! I will leave you. Just five weeks and then I'll go away with my Mukund. You don't bother."

"What?" Yuvraaj barely registered her words. His wife was telling him that she would elope with her boyfriend. What could be more maddening for a husband?

"Yes. I am not going to tolerate this injustice. I will not succumb to your stupid wishes. I will flee away. Just five weeks Mr. Yuvraaj Prakash and I'll be out." Anahita sniffed in anger.

"If you had to leave me, why did you marry me?" Yuvraaj greeted his teeth.

"I was deprived off options. Concussively, you should be thankful to me that I saved our families prestige by taking those rounds with you." She chided with nose in air. Yuvraaj took a sharp intake of oxygen to calm himself and closed his eyes, "Dare you anahita if you use that tone again with me! You won't like the consequences."

Anahita was afraid with the coldness of his tone but she tenaciously counterfeited it by looking away.

Peeps! New chapter rolls down. Views and Votes please :)