Chapter 3

Mahima's POV

We don't have to tell anything to anyone. He will get married tomorrow as decided. " Uncle said.

What ???

" What?? How? " Dhruv asked. Everyone was shocked at what uncle said.

" Everything will remain as it is, except the bride. You will marry Mahima now. " Uncle said and my heartbeat stopped.

" No!! " He shouted.

" Yes!! We know Mahima since forever... She is living with us for the last seven years and she saved all of us from this situation. Thanks, beta. " Uncle said sternly to him and then smiled at me.

" No!! I can't marry her. " He said with such an expression as if he was disgusted.

" You have no other choice. I trusted your choice once, will never do it again. " Uncle was too angry to hear anything.

" But this is not fair... It is not my fault that they duped me." He pleaded.

" But it is your responsibility to check on the credentials of someone whom you were going to bring into the family. You didn't even know that her parents were fake. How can you be so ignorant? We all could have been killed or in jail because of some false allegations. They were planning to destroy our family. " Uncle was shouting at the top of his voice now.

" I will definitely teach both of them a very good lesson. But please don't do this to me. I don't even like Mahima." Dhruv said.

" I don't want any discussion on this point. My decision is final. As it is, I promised her dad that I will get her married to my son. " Uncle said.

" Then get her married to Dheer. They even like each other. " Dhruv said.

" No!! You will get married to her. I don't want you to find, another one like that fake girl. " Uncle was adamant.

" But I can't even bear her for five minutes. How will I spend the rest of my life with a girl like her? " he said.

" Spend time with her, you will definitely fall in love with her. She is a gem of a person. Perfect to be our daughter-in-law. " Aunty said.

" Then why can't you get her married to Dheer. They are quite compatible. I am sure they would make a good pair. They even like each other. " He said. I looked at Dheer, but he didn't give any reaction.

" No!! You will have to marry her as I promised. " Uncle said sternly.

" No !! She is not even close to what I want in my wife. I... "

" I don't care what you want, I have seen what type of a girl you want. I can't allow that. " Uncle interrupted him in the mid of the sentence.

" I will never accept her as my wife." He said with resentment.

" Then you will have to manage on your own as I will disown you. You have to decide right here, right now." Uncle said.

" What?? You will disown me for this girl... For the promise, you made to her father?? How can you do that to me?? " He was arguing.

" Because I don't trust your ability to judge a person anymore. I don't want you to bring another such girl into our family, who would spoil the loving and peaceful environment of our home. " Uncle said.

" I don't want to spend my whole life with her. She is not even presentable. What would my friends say?? I would not be able to even introduce her to them. " He said without thinking that I was in the same room.

" You have two options in front of you. Pick up your choice and let me know. Right now!! If you don't choose her, I will get her married to Dheer and give him all the responsibilities of my entire empire." Uncle said.

" You can't do it!!! We both are your sons. " Dhruv said in an angry tone.

" Yes, I intend to give responsibilities to both of you. But of course, one of you will be the CEO of the company. And if you dare to defy me, you will not only lose that upper hand, being the elder son but will have to lose your directorship and all the benefits you reap because of them. I will disown you and he would become the only contender to be the CEO. So chose wisely. " Uncle said.

" This is sheer blackmail. " Dhruv shouted.

" Think whatever you want. You expect me to hand over my business to you. I expect you to marry the girl of my choice. " uncle said firmly.

" FINE !! I will marry her, provided you give me in writing that I will be the CEO of the company. " Dhruv said.

What was going on? For god's sake, I was also there.

"Ok! I will get the contract ready but it will come with some clauses which have to be followed. If you don't follow them, you will lose everything. " Uncle said.

"You can not divorce her for at least three years and marry another woman. Or Dheer will become the CEO." Uncle said the first condition.

" And what if she wants to divorce me?? " He asked with a raised eyebrow.

" She is not that kind of girl. But if you abuse her or ever raise your hand on her. You will be disowned. You have to treat her with respect. " Uncle said.

" I need to talk to her. " He said but didn't even look at me.

" Of course! Go ahead. " Uncle said.

He caught my hand and pulled me out with him and took me to the nearest room.

" Tell dad that you don't want to marry me. " He said looking away. Of course, he can't bear to look at me.

" What!! I can't! " I said.

" Why?? " He looked at me as if he would kill me for saying that.

" He is like a father to me. He has been taking care of me since my parents died. I can't say no to him. " I said.

" Yeah, of course!! Why would you? After all, you are getting a lifetime chance to be married to the future CEO of our group. " He said sarcastically.

" I don't believe it. You know nothing about me... I don't care much about money. I am quite contented with what I already have. I would not have refused even if uncle had asked me to marry the clerk in your office. So it doesn't matter that you are going to be CEO or not. I can't refuse anything to him. " I explained to him as I did want him to misunderstand me.

" Why can't you say that you like Dheer? " He asked.

" I am not in a position to say anything. I am under his debt. " I said.

" But you can say that you love him. " He insisted.

" I don't!! " I said.

" What?? "

" I don't love him. He is my friend. " I said.

" Rubbish!! Anyway, I don't even like you. You will never be happy with me. " He said threatening me subtly.

" How can you be so sure? " I asked because I was hurt to hear, what he thought about me.

" Because I can't even stand you. I don't even want to see your ugly face once in a year, how can I see it every day, first thing in the morning." He said.

" I am sorry... I can't help it. " I shook my head and said.

" I will ruin you. You will regret that you didn't say no to dad for getting married to me. " He threatened me but I didn't say anything.

" I will make your life miserable. You will never be happy, I will make sure of that. " He was getting very annoyed.

" Listen, I can't help you. You can persuade uncle if you want. " I said to him as I was feeling bad for him.

" Fine!! I will marry you tomorrow but mark the day in the calendar as the day when your life will change forever. I will never treat you as my wife. You are no one to me. Don't you dare to even dream about having any relationship with me as that will never happen. You spoilt everything. My life, my happiness... everything. I will make sure that your life is ruined. " He said and went out of the room.

I sat down on the couch and cried. What was my fault in all this? I was just trying to stop him from getting into a marriage that would have brought only problems.

But I had no option as uncle had already decided. He has been like my father since my parents died. So I could not say no to him and as I had a crush on Dhruv earlier. So maybe when he cools down, he will understand.

Aunty told me to come with her and she did all the rituals and ceremonies with me like Ganesh Pooja, Roka, chunari, and haldi in my room. A Heena artist came and applied beautiful Mehandi designs on my hands and feet.

Aunty tried to get a new wedding dress for me as Mayesha was very slim and shorter than me. But there was no time left for that and as that many alterations were not possible, so she got a new blouse stitched for me. Which was delivered in just 2 hours.

It was my wedding day and the beauty experts were helping me to get ready and in about one hour, I was ready.

My friends brought me to the stage where we exchanged the garlands and after all the rituals and ceremonies, I was finally married to him.

He was so angry that he didn't even look at me once. He just kept doing everything mechanically.

Once the Pandit Ji announced that we were married now. He just bent towards me and said,

" Congratulations!! You got what you wanted. But don't get very happy. From now on, your life is going to change. You will regret your decision to marry me. Welcome to the hell, Mrs Dhruv Goyal."