I am seeing red. No matter how much I try to calm myself I can't. I just want to beat him to death. What did he think of me?

How dare he try to behave as if I am his wife?

Ewww.

I am repulsed by that thought. He is my sister's fiancé. They both love each other. It's not even been one day; he is trying to exercise his rights as my husband. How dare he move on from my sister? Did he even love her?

When I got down from the cab I saw that his car too entered the gates. I ignored him and called Kavya to open the door. By the time he parked the car and came to me Kavya opened the door and I walked in.

"Ananya, wait. It's not what you think" he came after me.

"Kavya, I will be sleeping in your room", I ran immediately to her room and closed the door.

I sat on her bed and tears started flowing. Why is this happening to me?

She knocked after five minutes, "Pinky, open the door. I am alone"

"Don't call me Pinky and I need to borrow your pajamas" I told her when I opened the door.

"Left cupboard", she pointed.

When I came after a shower she nodded at her bed. I went and laid on her bed without saying a word.

"My brother is a fool. He is not good at communicating. I am sure what he said and what he meant are totally different. He is a socially awkward person" she told me softly.

"Do you know what he said?" I asked her.

"I don't know what he said. But, I know him. And I am on your side. If I were in your place, I would have run away. I won't tell anyone a thing about your fight. Sleep. You have to do pooja tomorrow"

When I woke up the next day, Kavya brought my luggage from his room. I took a shower and came to see Lakshmi aunty in the room. She gave me a saree and some jewelry.

"After the vrat, you need to cook something sweet Pinky. With that, all rituals will be completed"

"Okay aunty"

"Mom" she replied. I looked at her confused.

"Call me Mom", she told me softly caressing my cheek.

"Oh... and wear Mangalsutra" she left saying that.

Someone knocked on the door as soon as she left. I opened it to see him.

"May I come in? I need to talk to you" He is wearing a white kurta holding the same box as of yesterday. His gaze traveled to the mangalsutra on me and lingered there before meeting my eyes.

I don't want to create a scene in his house. So I gave him the way to enter the room. He closed the room and turned to me.

"Listen Ananya, last night I did not mean to insult you. I am just telling you about me. I am sorry if you are offended. I am not asking you to be my wife. But, let's not fight at least. We need to work together too. Let's not make this difficult for both of us by fighting. This gift does not mean that I am asking you to start a life with me. It is just a ritual that I need to gift you. Don't put too much meaning into it. I am doing it for the sake of my family. As you said yesterday, we just need to be polite with each other to not hurt our families further. I will never ask you to do something that you don't like. Again, I am sorry. Please wear this for my family", he left the box on my bed and left.

Why is this so complicated? I let out a sigh and got ready.

He and I sat next to each other during the vrat. We both didn't look at each other. There were one or two awkward movements when we were asked to do the aarti and when he was asked to apply sindoor on me. Other than that everything went fine. I made kheer guided by my mom. Yes. My family came for the pooja. They are feeling extremely guilty for what happened. After some discussion we decided to not blame anyone and to accept the situation.

I mean who would you blame?

My parents? They did what they thought was good for Sharanya by drafting this contract. In fact they asked Sharanya to wait for one year more before getting married. she didn't listen.

Sharanya? She just wanted to prove to my dad that she is happy in her life even though she is not his favourite. She wanted to come out of her siblings' shadow. All her life she wanted to get approval from him and when the chance came she took it.

The devil? In fact, he is the one who is the main victim here. The girl he loved ran away from their marriage.

So, we just have to blame the consequences. No one deliberately did this. Everybody did what they thought was right including me. So I decided not to sulk anymore and to think what I have to in the future.

I have to find a way to come out of this marriage without hurting my parents and his family. Staying with the devil is Sharanya's best chance at happiness. I am not going to destroy that.

After the pooja, he and I went to his apartment near the hospital where we are going to stay. I have a night shift and he has a morning shift tomorrow. Thankfully no one objected that. Everyone knew that we both need some space and they are giving us that. I am also grateful that they are not forcing us to stay in the same room.

The car ride is silent as usual. We both don't need to pretend since no one is here. The apartment is a simple two bedroom house, with a cozy kitchen and living room. The door opens to the living room and to the right there is a kitchen, pooja room, and dining room and to the left there are two rooms opposite to each other.

"You can use this room", he pointed to the left bedroom. It is a simple room smaller than my room at home but bigger than my hostel room.

"These are your set of keys and this is the security card for entry into the building. Seventy-five and seventy-six are our parking slots. I have sent you the security's phone number in whatsapp. You can contact him if you have any trouble in the building when I am not reachable", he explained.

"Yes, sir"

He opened his mouth as if he wants to say something but then closed and left to his room. I shrugged and left to my room. After one hour I got ready and came into the living room to leave for work. He is watching TV. He stood up seeing me and switched off the television and picked his car keys.

"I will drop you"

"Sid is coming to pick me up sir. You can rest"

"Oh, okay. What about your dinner?"

"I will eat later sir. Not hungry now. What about you?"

"Don't worry about me. I can fend for myself. Be safe and um...call me if you need anything" he told me awkwardly.

"Yes sir. Good night".

I then left for my work.

Next morning when it was time for the rounds he was there. We just wished each other as usual. It is Natasha mam's birthday apparently so she ordered pizzas foe everyone. We are all eating sitting in the residents' common room including our devil. Me, Hussain, Nidhi, Tanya, Samar along with Dhruv Sir and Ishaan Sir who are our other chief residents.

"Show me the marriage pictures", Tanya demanded me.

I almost choked on my pizza. And the devil stopped eating mid-bite and stared at us. If it's any other time I would have laughed at his expression. But, now, even my expression mirrored him, I am sure.

"What?" I asked her.

"Your cousin's marriage you idiot"

i forgot that I told my colleagues that I have to attend my cousin's marriage.

"Oh...I ...umm...I..." I looked at him apprehensively. Now almost everyone's attention is on me.

"I didn't click any pictures. I forgot in the...you know...I will show you once I get them" I told her.

Everybody knows that I have a sister. But they hadn't seen her and I am not going to do that in the near future and also since the devil didn't want any of them to know about their marriage, I told them that it is my cousin's marriage. So I will show her some of my cousin's wedding photos whose marriage happened last year.

Soon enough the conversation moved on to other topics.

*************