First Love

Chapter 5

Later that day as Anjali was putting her clothes away her eyes fell on her diary again. She put the clothes aside and slowly reached for the diary. It had been a gift from her brother on her sixteenth birthday. She had made some happy and some sad entries in it. Some of her most private thoughts were locked in that diary. But at the moment she was more interested in the envelope sticking out of it.

It will be Rakshabandan in few days, and this will be the fourth year when she won't be able to tie the Rakhi on her brother's wrist. This is the fourth Rakhi that has been returned to her without even the envelope being opened. She went back to her closet and placed the envelope with the three from previous year.

She opened her diary to the page where she had made an entry four years ago.

Dear diary, today I lost my brother. I never thought he would turn his back on me, or believe someone else over me, but today he proved me wrong. He left me to go to America with his wife, stating he would never return. I don't know where I went wrong.

Anjali wiped the lone tear from her eyes. God knows she had never tried to come between him and his wife, but he, along with his wife, chose to believe whatever they were told by her aunt.

Her aunt had left no stone unturned to create distance between her and her brother.

First sending her away to college, then when that did not work and Anjali came back, she told her brother and her father all about what happened at college. Even that didn't stop her brother from defending her and saving her from her father's temper.

When things calmed down, and Anjali started attending local college, her aunt once again saw her chance slipping away from her, so she talked her father into marrying Anjali off to one of her older, divorced nephew. Her brother had figured out why their aunt wanted Anjali to marry one of her relative. Her aunt was aware that Anjali would inherit substantial amount of money once she turned twenty-five years of age. Their mother had left all her wealth in Raj and Anjali's name in a trust fund. Each was to inherit the money when they turned twenty-five.

Once her brother met the would be groom, he had outright refused the alliance, going so far as telling his father that, if he forced Anjali, then he would take her and leave home forever. Her father had immediately backed down. He couldn't stand the sight of Anjali, but he adored her brother.

Her aunt hadn't given up though, when she couldn't get Anjali married into her family, she turned her attention to Raj.

Her brother met Nisha at a party, and they instantly fell for each other. They dated for six months before he introduced Nisha to the family, and that's when they found out that Nisha was related to her aunt.

Anjali had been very excited that her brother was getting married. She had looked forward to getting to know her sister-in-law, and becoming friends with her. Things had gone well for a while, but then her sister-in-law started accusing Anjali of always trying to come between her and Raj. No matter how many times she tried to assure her sister-in-law that it was never her intention to come between them, her sister-in-law had not believed her. She complained to Raj with lies about Anjali, telling him that Anjali was mistreating her because she was jealous of her.

Then her sister-in-law had claimed that Anjali had been responsible for miscarriage of her baby. She claimed that all the stress that Anjali gave her and always fighting her on things caused the miscarriage. She also told anyone that listened that what can they expect from her, but bad luck, after all didn't her mother die after giving birth to her. And on that day even her brother had looked at her with accusations in his eyes.