Discordance

Chapter One

"Maa, I am tired of these games you play. Please stop, I am not interested" Abhimanyu reprimanded his mother in an even tone as he rushed down the stairs, his mother Manjari, following him with a downtrodden expression on her face. Logically he knew it was all an act but this had all come to a head when his mother had fallen ill last year and they almost had a cancer scare. Since then, Abhimanyu had done everything in his power to make sure he could give his mom everything she wanted and to keep her comfortable. Except this.

"Games? I am playing games?" she asked affronted, pointing her finger towards herself and Abhimanyu almost broke character smiling slightly. "You send all the girls I make you meet to the streets. God knows what you tell them, but somehow, I am the one playing games. The audacity of this man" she groaned lifting herself on her tiptoes to pull his ear.

"I don't tell them anything except the truth. It is not my fault that they run for the hills. But it's good that they do because I. AM. NOT. INTERESTED." He made sure he enunciated each word carefully, but Manjari just rolled her eyes.

"You will like this one. She is so lovely that the whole family thinks she will be a wonderful addition to our house." Manjari's words made Abhimanyu groan. He was known for his patience; nothing ever fazed him and he never ever raised his voice but this forced arranged marriage meetings were taking a toll on him.

"If you like her so much, adopt her as your daughter but please leave me out of it." He muttered as he rounded the dining table where everyone was sitting.

"Maa leave him alone, he is not interested. You need to stop with this, especially when you know why he doesn't want to get married." Anisha, Abhimanyu's cousin came to his defense, but her words had caused the normally chatty bunch of Birlas to quiet down, nobody knew what to say and Abhimanyu hated this. Hated the pity!

"That was a while back" Harshvardhan Birla cleared his throat "Plus Manjari is right Beta, you've finished your fellowship and are working full time as an oncology surgeon for Birlas, you're 30, I think it is time you took this seriously." Abhimanyu opened his mouth to claim that he was just settling in etc etc but Harsh Birla raise his palm "Look soon enough I will have to step down as the CEO and you will have to take the baton, I just think you should think about it as a partnership, someone who will stand by you and not run away when you need them."

Abhimanyu knew exactly who the dig was meant for and it took everything in him not to defend HER, a habit still hard to let go of even after all this time had passed.

"Your dad has promised me a world tour and I can't enjoy life if I have to worry about you. Please na Abhi, meet her once, she's amazing!" Manjari had heart eyes just talking about this latest specimen of hers and Abhimanyu felt the first inkling of fear run through his veins, his mother had never waxed such poetic claims for any of the other girls.

"But Maa.." he began but everyone on the table could tell that Abhimanyu was almost ready to say yes.

Harshvardhan grabbed Manjari's hand and grinned at her, "Call the Goenkas!"

"Abhi beta you will like her, she is our friend's granddaughter and extremely sweet and kind." His Anand Chachu added "We have known them for a while, and I have a long standing business relationship with them. Even Parth and Shefali like Akshara."

He grabbed a paratha from the table mumbling how he would eat it on the way and tucked tail to run out of the house, Neil, Nishtha and Parth Bhai's hoots following him all the way outside.

Abhimanyu was about to unlock his car and get the hell out of there when he heard Anisha yell for him to wait, she was the only one who seemed to get him.

"Bhai, you don't have to say yes. Chachi is fine now, don't get emotionally blackmailed into this. This is such bullshit" she groaned sounding affronted, "Especially when Chachi knows why you-"