My arranged wedding

Aniket's birthday

The house is decorated beautifully for Aniket's birthday. In the previous night, Tanya announced to the household that Aniket would make it in time for the party. Everyone rehearsed eagerly for their presentations.

Shalini, Asha, Suhasini and Priyanka rehearsed ceaselessly while Vedant, Shekhar and Shagird looked on to encourage them stopping once or twice to sing a song off key or throw a makeshift pom pom at them.

When Shalini agreed to dance for the party, Asha expressed her gratitude to Vedant and was convinced that he was Shalini's soulmate.

The elders of the house were not aware of this as it remained as a surprise for all of them.

Shagird, Shekhar and Asha were able to bring Vedant and Shalini closer than they thought and whenever Shagird asked Vedant about his fondness for Shalini, Vedant would leave the room with a filmsy excuse or try to change the topic.

The guests finally arrive for the party some of which included Manish and Saraswati Bhopali, their two kids; Vikram and Rohan as well as Akhil Taneja and Manohar Roy, Suhasini's husband.

Tanya waits by the door with a tray to welcome Aniket who finally comes to end his family's wait. She welcomes him with the tray while Chetan takes in his bags and everyone wishes him a happy birthday in unison.

He is led to a special seat where gifts are presented to him. Shalini approaches him with with her gift and tells him she bought him something to write all the memories they will have till she leaves the house and how much she loves him as tears trickle down her eyes.

She wipes the tears off and manages a smile telling him that there was one more thing she planned for him from herself, Asha, Suhasini, Priyanka, Shagird and Vedant.

The lights suddenly goes off and when it comes back on, everyone sees a group of women with veils covering their faces. The music comes on and the ladies give an outstanding dance performance admits whistles and claps.

At the end of the performance, the ladies remove their veils and everyone applauds them while being surprised to see Shalini dance before a large audience after a long time.

Ria embraces Shalini and everyone takes turns to do so, Vedant spins her around and hugs her while everyone looks on in sheer adoration.

"You were so poise and steady."

"I didn't think I could pull that off."

"But you always dance."

"Not in front of this familiar crowd."

"You'd make an excellent ballerina."

"Or a toe dancer." Asha puts in and Shagird drags her away.

"We'll never know." He laughs and she walks away to change into another dress, a light pink glitter tulie long dress.

Aniket calls it the best gift he's had in a long time.

"Your grandmother would be so proud of you." Priyanka says and Shalini replies whilst looking at Vedant "It's all because of Vedant. If it hadn't been for him, I wouldn't have given that beautiful performance today."

As the show goes on the master of ceremonies stops mellow music from playing and announces "There's one more person to gift our amazing celebrant. That person is ..." He reads off a paper "Rajkumar Harish."

The man, Rajkumar Harish walks confidently to Aniket and gives a mischievous smile to him. The Maheshwaris and Garodias look at each other in shock.

Shalini gasps in disbelief and Asha holds her paled hand and Shekhar fumes in anger.

"What is that bastard doing here?" Surjeet asks angrily but Ria tells him to calm down, she holds his arm to keep him from moving.

Raj holds out an envelope and when Aniket refuses to take it from him, he takes Aniket's hand and puts the envelope in it. Satisfied, he walks up to Shalini and ignores Asha.

"You gave a good performance my dear just like you always did, I must confess i missed seeing you move." He takes a look at her family surrounding her and he scrunches his nose "I perceive I'm not welcomed here so guess what..."

Shalini says nothing and he continues with a dry chuckle "I will see you later." He says and walks past her.

Once he is gone, Shalini leaves the hall where mellow dance music is now playing to her room and stares blankly at the mirror.

Could this really be the Raj I knew three years ago? Why is he here?

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