Book 1 in the Series "Shadows"
Mannat Kaur Sandhu is a CA and a professor of Business in Genuis Gems University, established in Delhi. She is a sunshine girl, loving, caring, and smart. She is doing her PhD in business. She has a boyfriend, Ranvijay...
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I stood in the middle of my small apartment, still wearing the heavy red bridal lehenga, my dupatta draped over one shoulder, and the marriage certificate in my hand was binding me to the reality. I stared blankly at the wall, the silence of the room swallowing me whole. "I am married," I whispered.
"I am... married. And that too, to Shivansh Singh Rathore."
The name tasted strange on my tongue-foreign, sharp, and powerful. I blinked slowly, as if trying to wake up from a dream I never meant to dream.
A billionaire. Cold. Ruthless. Calculated.
Now, he was my husband.
I sank onto the edge of my bed, fingers tugging off the earrings one by one, my mind reeling with the whirlwind of the last few hours. I had been ready to be a bride today-but not his bride. My life had changed in a blink, yet here I was, staring at nothing, trying to convince myself it all wasn't an illusion.
Could I ask him for help? Maybe. Ho sakta hai voh meri madad kar den. He is rich, powerful and, influential.
{Maybe he can help me.}
But no.
This is my problem, not his.
My failures. My humiliation. My scars.
I wouldn't burden a stranger with the wreckage of my past just because he held a piece of my future.
Yeh haar meri hai, dhokha mera hai, badla mera hai, toh yeh badla bhi main hi lungi. Shivansh aur meri shaadi bas ek zarurat thi. Mujhe badla chahiye tha aur Shivansh ko apne liye ek dulhan. Prr, mujhe abb tak yeh samajh nahi aa raha hai ki voh kyun shaadi ke liye itni jaldi kar rahe the?
{This defeat is mine, the betrayal is mine, and the revenge is mine, so I will take this revenge too. Shivansh and my marriage was just a necessity. I wanted revenge, and Shivansh wanted a bride for himself. But, I still don't understand why he was in such a hurry to get married?}
He was the most eligible bachelor in the country; he could get any girl he wanted. Then why the hurry? All he had to do was announce that he wanted a bride, and I am sure millions of girls would have lined up. But then why was he in such a hurry? I wanted to know the reason, but I can't; we had promised to stay out of each other's personal matters.
For now I can't think about all this. I need to deal with my problems on my own... like always. I have been on my own for too long now. Aur main apne newly wedded husband par apni musibato ka pahad nahi tod sakti, hum toh abhi ek dusre ko jaante bhi nahi.
{And I cannot break the burden of my troubles on my newly wedded husband; we don't even know each other yet.}
Shaadi ko ek ghanta hi hua hai. Aur meri doli kahan aayi hai... mere apne apartment. Ladkiyaan shaadi ke baad sasural jaate hain aur main... khair chodo. Mujhe toh unki family ke baarein mein bhi kuch nhi pata. He is a very secretive person. No one knows much about his family. He rarely comes in front of the media, and he never gave any kind of interview. He has never ever been in any kind of scandal or controversy. He is a lethal, secretive, and unfathomable kind of person.
