Echoes Of Destiny | Multicouple ✓

16. WHISPERS OF SECRETS AND NEW LIFE

Samaira

Time stopped for a moment.

I could see the same brown eyes I had looked into countless times while we were dating—across a dinner table, in bed, out of it.

Those eyes that once made me feel safe, loved, and understood.

And now, seeing them two years later, felt like an impossibility.

I must be seeing things, right? That's the only plausible explanation.

My mind was playing a cruel trick on me. Soon I'd blink and this wicked dream would dissolve, replaced by the cold reality I expected.

But it never did.

The brown eyes stayed fixed on mine, wide with shock and disbelief.

Vrit kept staring at me as if I were the dream, a cruel one.

The marriage ritual continued, guests showered us with rice and flower petals, their blessings mingling with the mantras.

I was told to sit beside the Agni (sacred fire) for the pheras (ritual of walking around the fire, symbolic of the union and promises made between husband and wife).

Vrit sat down next to me, his presence too close, too familiar.

Breathe in, breathe out.

I tried to focus on my breathing, anything to keep me from spiraling into panic. But it didn't help.

What does this mean? My mind raced with questions, none of them making sense.

As the ceremony proceeded, I glanced at Vrit, needing answers, some explanation for this twisted turn of events.

His eyes were as shocked as mine, but after a moment of settling in, his jaw clenched and his fists tightened.

He looked away, barely glancing in my direction.

The ritual continued, the bhatji chanting mantras, guiding us through the traditional steps of the marriage ceremony.

Vrit was silent, cold, and visibly angry. I could feel it radiating from him, like a storm brewing just beneath the surface.

The tension between us was palpable, a chasm that couldn't be bridged with the usual blessings and ceremonies.

Two people completely detached, just here for the sake of a business deal.

I felt sick inside, a mix of emotions I couldn't even categorize—tears, anger, and confusion—all colliding at once.

It was like my whole life had flipped upside down, and I didn't know which way was up.

Why had Vrit never mentioned he was a Singhania? Why did he leave two years ago when I needed him the most? Even though I walked away first, it was because he never trusted me. And when I needed him to be there, he vanished, like a ghost.

Anger surged through me, the kind of rage that burns everything in its path.

I was just as responsible for our breakup, but he was too. His lack of trust, his disappearance—it all led to this.

What we once dream of a happy wedding has turned into a marriage, that felt more like a contract than a union.

I focused on the fire in front of me, trying to control the flames that raged within me.

I wanted to explode, to demand answers right here, right now. But I knew it wasn't the time. Not yet.

There would be a moment for confrontation, for truth, and for all the words that had been left unsaid.