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After the speech, she disappeared with Deep in tow, and Aryan told himself that it was for the best. They were an item now, and why not? He was a prince. She was a princess. It was a match made in heaven. He snatched a kebab off a passing platter and bit into it savagely, as he tried to convince himself that he was happy for her. Ecstatic, in fact. The kebab tasted like sawdust, for some reason that he refused to acknowledge.
Dr Jay joined him at his table, and the man looked miserable.
“Are you all right, Jay?”
To his horror, the man that his mother had picked out for Nivy burst into noisy tears.
“Your sister… she was…”
He was sobbing too much to make sense. Aryan wondered what Nivy had done to the poor man.
“Pull yourself together, Jay. People are staring,” he said sternly.
It didn’t make any difference. Jay put his head on the table and cried like a baby.
Aryan groaned as he realised that it was up to him to do damage control. If his mother heard about this, she would skin him alive. Ever since he had remembered, he’d had only one brief in life - keep your sister out of trouble.
He threw his napkin down and stalked over to the door that led into the courtyard. He’d last seen his irresponsible sister head in that direction. Although what she could have done to make a grown man cry was something beyond his understanding. All he knew was that he was going to pay for whatever it was.
And he did.
It wasn’t just that his sister had kissed Jessie’s brother, His Highness Veerendra Singh, Maharaja of Devgarh in front of people, and was now engaged to him. It wasn’t even that his mother had shown up uninvited, and created a scene that would go down in the annals of Devgarh’s history as the most embarrassing spectacle anyone had ever created.
The thing that made Aryan Sharma rue the day he was born was the fact that because his family was now tied to Jessie’s, he had to stand by and watch silently, as she got engaged to Deep.
CHAPTER6
JESSIE
It was nine am on the day of my roka. I was where I should be, sitting at my dresser, agonising over whether my earrings made my face look fat. My eyes fell on the Kundan set that I had picked out and I wondered why I hadn’t realised that it was so ugly.
There was a knock at the door, and Ma poked her head in.
“All well, Jayshree? Why are you still not ready?”
“It’s not my fault, Ma. I can’t wear this ugly jewellery,” I wailed, bursting into tears.
“But you chose this set,” she argued.
“I know! I chose everything. My clothes, my jewellery, my makeup… everything. But I still hate it all,” I cried, with tears running down my face.
My mother sighed and came to stand behind me. I grabbed a few tissues and wiped my face, making sure not to meet her eyes in the mirror.
Ma rested her chin on my head and stared at me unhappily.
“Jayshree?”
I sniffed loudly.
“Look at me, please.”
“I’m a bit busy, Ma,” I said, blowing my nose hard and loud.
“I can see that. I’m just wondering… do you think you also… maybe… hate the other choice you’ve made?”
Could shebemore obvious?
“Oh, stop sounding so hopeful, Ma. I’m going to marry Deep, come what may. I… well, I have no reason not to.”
