Call It What You Want

Preface

Please read this before continuing:

Shariq Raichand who will be in this chapter is not the male lead ❌

Today is my wedding day with the one person I hate, with the one whom I didn't want a relationship moreover a marriage and to grow old with him and to have babies.

No I didn't want this life. He had chosen my outfit for the wedding, his bride is the one who he claims he loves since we were at school & the wedding day & time is to his convenience.

But do I have a choice? No I guess. Everything is to his likings but I don't see my family or friends around.

It's only me, him, his two friends as witnesses & the priest in the mandap.
I guess there's no one necessary for a kidnapped bride during a joyous holy ceremony like a wedding, which notice my irony: happens once in her lifetime.

Surely Shariq Raichand gets what he wants. He says he wants me & I am his since the moment he entered Vishaka Private School and was a newbie with no friends. He says that he fell in love since the moment I, Shivanya Gupta helped him get notes & offered him her breakfast when noone did.

The priest starts to chant the mantra & tells us to continue the wedding ritual.

"Finally." Shariq sighs with a contended expression.

I offer him nothing but my silence.

"Do you feel the spark Shiv? Between us?"

That is the problem. I don't.

I wanted to shout at his face for the thousandth time. But I remain silent.

"We have travelled a long way together. I can't wait to finally make you mine today. This might scare you a bit, but this is the only way to make you agree to this wedding." He says like any of his reasons justifies what he's doing to me.

"Let's start this fresh. We are 24, we have a long journey ahead why don't we stop fighting, keep our differences aside and start our life as husband and wife?"

That's when I break my silence

"I don't want to marry you Shariq."
I whisper. A hitch catches in my breath

Silence

"What did you just say?" he growls like a cornered animal.

The priest stops chanting & his friends Kabir & Vishal stares at me like I am dumb.

Then Shariq speaks again
I tremble. "I need a moment with my future wife."

He looks at me with a fixed gaze that promises me with violence.

I am almost scared that he would strike me like he did before, to get me ready for the occasion.

Then the priest walks out without a backward glance. Probably the bribe Shariq has paid keeps his mouth shut & his opinions to himself without questioning any of this. His friends both gives me pitying looks as if it would save me from this monster and leaves.

I am alone with the one who swears on his life that he loves me. But he doesn't care that I don't share his feelings, that I want to live independently as a woman for a while before thinking about marriage.

He says that women belong to kitchen like he shares the view of his grandfather who lived in 1950s.

What a narrow-minded prick.

He is so blinded by narcissism that he couldn't accept the fact that I don't want to be with him. How can I fall in love with someone who doesn't share my basic views on life. Who's basically a walking contradiction of what I feel a man should be.

But Shariq Raichand doesn't care what I want. He want to consume me. His definition of love is what I believe is opposite of the very word. He cages me in, when I want to just fly and to be loved freely.
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Hey lovely people!

So there's an important issue to be addressed before continuing this story. This book is about Shivanya and Vihaan. Shariq Raichand will not ever play a main role in this. I do not romanticize abuse or non consensual relationships. So you can read this book confidently.

Someone in the comments thought Shariq is the main lead and was irked by it. Keep reading, I don't support such relationships in books or in real life.

Please don't report my book without reading the full story. I have put a lot of efforts in writing this story.

Let's spread love and criticize the ones where it's really needed.

Love,
- Sara Irfan 🌻