Arranged Love

20. The Final Showdown

Disclaimer: All the characters written below are imaginary and a work of pure fiction. There is no resemblance to any incident or situation and is written as a work of fiction.

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(A/n: Thank you so much for 1k+ votes. I know it's a small number compared to the number of votes the marvelous books out there get but it means a lot to me. I had never thought that I would write a book and get this response. So thank you so much. This wouldn't have been possible without all you lovely readers❤️❤️)

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Smriti's POV -

"I always wanted to be a designer." I stare at the ceiling as I confess to Vivek who is lying down beside me on the bed.

After having his soup, Vivek didn't exactly know what to do. I told him to go and sleep, but he didn't want to till I didn't sleep. I then gathered a lot of courage and offered him to lie down beside me for a while, to which he acted like he had heard a ghost sing. After a lot of persuasion, he finally agreed, and then we simply stared at the beautifully designed false ceiling of the room.

"Oh, a fashion designer?" Vivek offers, his gaze still fixated on the ceiling.

"Nah, product designer." I sigh.

"Sorry, I assumed." He now looks at me sheepishly. I look back at him and smile tiredly as I remember my past. The past that never ceases an opportunity to let me forget it.

"I had always been the apple of my family's eyes. The first girl child of the Singhania family, brilliant in studies, always good at extra-curricular activities, a confident child, extrovert, everything that my family wished for in their child. I always knew what I wanted in my life. I had always been headstrong...until my 10th class." I close my eyes as I reminisce the old happy days of my life.

"I saw how my parents and my Dadu wanted bhaiyya to become an engineer and forced him to take the science stream instead of commerce. So I always made it a point to keep my parents informed about my future choice of subjects since 8th grade. But unfortunately, they never took me seriously. They thought that I had just hit my teenage and, like any other child of my age, my career choices were like passing clouds." I sigh.

"Then?" Vivek softly nudges after a minute of silence. I was trying to collect my thoughts in the last sixty seconds of my life. 

"Then, in the 10th class, I was all ready to fill my choice of subjects for 11th and 12th that would shape my career. I knew I had to take engineering graphics and computer science and get rid of ridiculous biology and chemistry...umm no offence to you, but yeah, that created a war-like situation in the family. What my parents thought were just passing clouds were now changed into an opinion of me being a rebellious teen. Throughout my 10th, they kept telling me how Bhaiyya is doing well in life after listening to them and getting into engineering and I too should only think about either being an engineer or a doctor. I was also quite headstrong, but my parents mistook it as me being stubborn. My everyday fights with them started reflecting in my mind and Dadu's unconditional love for me made him forget about his irrational demands. His love for his first granddaughter made him persuade my father into letting me do what I wished for, but Dadda being Dadda, asked him to stop interfering in our lives. The tension soon increased between all of us and Dadda forced Dadu, my only support system,  to go and live with my bua for a few days, which turned into 2 years. By this time, I had lost my battle completely. I had to take up subjects of my parents' choice in 11th and 12th and naturally I couldn't perform well academic wise, barely managing to pass in exams. My parents therefore thought that it was best to cut down all my extra-curricular activities so that I just focus on my studies. This obviously ruined my personality, confidence, my life, everything." My voice cracked at the end.