Vows Of Vengeance

Chapter 8

Seeing the turn of events every guest present there held their breaths. The Raisinghania were shocked by the turn of events. Seeing Mrityunjay leaving after Aradhya, they also felt that it was best to leave quietly. Similarly, all the guests also left quietly with Raisinghania. Now, only the Diwan family remained, each member grappling with the aftermath in their own way.

Pihu's heels clicked sharply against the marble floors as she stormed down the corridor, her heart pounding with a mix of rage and despair. The grand hallway, adorned with portraits, now felt like a tunnel closing in on her. Each step echoed her frustration, her footsteps chasing away the shadows of her past that she had fought so hard to escape.

She reached her room and slammed the door shut, locking herself away from the world that had betrayed her once again. The heavy wooden door muffled the distant sounds of the celebration still echoing through the mansion, but it couldn't silence the storm raging inside her. Pihu's hands shook as she began to tear through her room, throwing books, vases, and anything within reach across the space. The pristine, orderly room she had always kept as a reflection of her perfect façade was now in shambles, a mirror of the chaos within her soul.

Her eyes fell upon a framed photograph on her dresser-a picture of Mrityunjay, staring right at her, the one that had haunted her dreams for years. Pihu's breath hitched as she stared at his face, the man who had been the centre of her every waking thought, the one she had moulded her entire life around, only to be rejected time and time again. Her hands clenched into fists as she thought about the lengths she had gone to win Mrityunjay's heart. She had followed him to college, taken the same major, even befriended his supposed girlfriend, all in a desperate bid to be near him. But every move she made had only pushed him further away, until she had no choice but to resort to manipulation and schemes. Even then, he had chosen Aisha, and now, Aradhya had come back to claim what was never hers to begin with.

With a guttural cry, she grabbed the frame and hurled it against the wall, watching as it shattered into a thousand pieces. The glass splintered, just like her dreams, scattering across the floor in a sparkling mess of broken hopes. She collapsed onto her bed, her body trembling with the force of her emotions, tears she had held back for years finally streaming down her cheeks.

"How could she do this to me?" Pihu whispered, her voice trembling with the weight of a lifetime of hurt. "How could she take him from me? Aradhya... she wasn't supposed to come back... not after everything I've done."

After years of planning and scheming, when Pihu had finally seen a glimmer of hope-Aradhya had returned to snatch it all away. The rage that bubbled up within her was a toxic mix of jealousy, resentment, and an overwhelming sense of betrayal. But what stung the most was not that Aradhya had taken Mrityunjay from her, but that she had done it so with such ease, with the same effortless grace that had always made her the favoured child. Pihu's efforts, her sacrifices, had never been enough. How could she compete with someone who didn't even need to try?

The memories she had buried deep inside began to resurface, pulling her back into the darkness of her childhood. She had always been the lesser one, the overlooked daughter who had to fight for the smallest crumb of affection from her father. Every smile, every word of praise had been reserved for Aradhya, the favourite daughter. Shorya, her own brother, adored Aradhya in a way that made Pihu's heart ache with jealousy.

When Aradhya had finally left, Pihu had hoped to step out from under her shadow. But Aradhya's absence didn't diminish her presence; it only intensified her memory, turning her into a haunting ghost within the Diwan mansion. Their father's study was adorned with Aradhya's pictures, and even Shorya gazed at those portraits with an unspoken longing that deepened Pihu's resentment.