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The smile on his rugged face feels way too real. The possessiveness in his eyes, too tangible. His acting skills are too genuine.
I can’t decide which version of him made my heart race faster and my skin shivering.
“Who is he, Bianca?”
“Why is he calling you his wife?”
My dad and mom ask at the same time as they gather their bearings. His voice is an angry lash while hers is a bewildered whisper. Their gazes, however, hold the same horror.
“I’m Dash Stern. Your daughter’s fiancé,” Dash confidently replies. Our joined hands are resting on his thigh while he lays his other arm on the back of my chair. His fingers lazily graze my upper arm while I stare between him and my parents mutely. “Nice to finally meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Chopra.”
My dad bristles, nostrils flaring, and ignoring him as he demands from me, “Is this true? When and why did you get engaged without telling us?”
“Very true and real, sir,” Dash replies, unperturbed by my dad’s blatant disregard of him. His voice, proud and unflinching. Laced with an unspoken message saying he’s not so easily dismissed. He pauses until my father meets his gaze before continuing, “I’m afraid it’s all my fault. I proposed to Bianca last night because I couldn’t wait to make her mine. The heart wants what it wants, timing be damned.”
“And you didn’t think her parents’ blessing mattered?” my dad questions.
“It’s her heart and the rest of her life I’m after. She’s going to be my wife no matter what.” The possessiveness in his words floors me. He deliberately lets his declaration simmer in the air before adding, almost as an afterthought, “With all due respect.”
My father doesn’t visibly react but I feel him sizing Dash up silently. His expression settles into the one he poses in front of his colleagues and rivals alike. Make no mistake, he is angry having been spoken back to by Dash, but there’s also no denying he’s just as impressed.
Had Dash cowered—an impossibility—he wouldn’t be sitting here. I’ve seen most men shrink in front of my dad, so a stranger standing up to him is a true show of integrity and strength in his eyes. Especially if the said man is going to be his future son-in-law.
Even if it’s fake and until Arya is married.
Although this is only the tip of our carefully crafted lie, we would be under the laser focused microscope of my family, who will be searching for the tiniest of cracks. A tear, to be exact. It’d be nothing short of scandalous if we got busted.
“Bianca,” my mom sharply says, yanking me back to the present. “Tell us this isn’t true.”
I’m taken aback by her sullen mood, and guilt settles in the pit of my stomach when I see hurt flash across her eyes.
“It is.” My voice sounds scratchy and raw like someone squeezed my neck too tight. I can’t believe I’m the one losing my shit and flailing like a fish out of water instead of Dash, even though it was my magnificent plan. “I thought you’d be happy, Ma.”
“Happy? I feel like I don’t even know my own daughter.” She replies, her bob cut swinging as she shakes her head in bewilderment. “You’ve been against the idea of marriage since the start and now you’re telling us you’re engaged? You didn’t even have the decency to tell us you’re seeing someone. Your father and I have raised you better than this.”
Dash tenses beside me at my mom’s harsh scolding while tears sting my eyes.
Embarrassment rolls through me as he witnesses the moment with a front-row seat. I’ve never felt so small in my entire life. My fingers instinctively tighten around our hands on his thigh and there’s a pang in my chest when he squeezes back.
The small gesture gives me little strength as I face my livid mother.
I’m not the least bit shocked when Dad remains quiet. Of course, he agrees with her and honestly, I expected this reaction from him. Definitely not from my always-polite-and-sweet mother, whose pride and poise never allow her to have an outburst in public.
I take a hold of Dash’s other hand on my bare arm when he leans forward to speak in my defense. I can’t decipher if his instinct to stand up for me is all part of the loving fiancé act or if it means more.
Don’t be stupid, Bianca.
Of course, it has to be all for show. Because the alternative is too hard to swallow and I’d be crazy to imagine he actually cares for me.
I have to give him credit for his acting skills. He has me fooled for a second.
His whole body remains coiled tight as I answer my mom, “I didn’t plan this with the intention to disrespect either of you, Mom. I’m even more hurt that you’re making me feel guilty for falling in love and insinuating that I’m incapable of choosing a worthy man for myself without your help. And I definitely don’t like you insulting my fiancé, whom you haven’t even tried to get to know first or spoken two words to.”
She reels back in shock, mouth agape at seeing me stand up for myself. Something I have never done against my parents, much less for someone else. Whoever said that courage comes from the unlikeliest of places or… aperson,was spot on. Dash was the last man on earth I would’ve expected to be that someone for me but strangely enough, he is.
Also, a tiny part of me doesn’t want him to see me as weak. Someone with no backbone.
Or without a mind of her own.
