First Love

Chapter 25

On the day of the engagement Anjali was dressed in green and purple shade lehnga. The lehnga was simply designed using gold sequins, zari, resham, beads, stones and fancy thread work. It was simple yet elegant. Everyone complimented on how beautiful she looked, and Aditya felt proud at all the compliments that were given to his wife. He was also looking handsome in his gold sherwani that she had picked out for him on one of her shopping trips.

They had posed for a photo at the photographer's insistent, Ramila seeing them both posing for the picture had asked the photographer for extra copies of the photo.

A short while later both Anish's and Sonal's family arrived with their respective close relatives. Anjali noticed her father, aunt and Riya arrive right after them. After greeting both families she became busy making sure all the guests were served refreshments. While doing this she noticed two things simultaneously, one arrival of Nick Malhotra with an older gentleman and other one of Sonal's relative observing her carefully.

The lady had similar features as Sonal's mother so Anjali assumed it must be Sonal's aunt. After making sure everything was running smoothly Anjali joined the group of ladies. Ramila turned and gave her a smile. She then turned and introduced her to Sonal's relatives.

The lady who was Sonal's aunt gave her a calculating look and turned to Ramila. "Ramila, so this is your daughter-in-law. I must say you are a very brave lady to marry your son to someone who could only bring bad luck to him and your family." There was a pin drop silence among the group.

Anjali notice her aunt and Riya standing few feet away, smirking at her. Few feet from them stood her father, brother and Aditya. Judging by the expressions on her brother and Aditya's face they also heard what Sonal's aunt just said. She felt her mother-in-law stiffen and Hina auntie put her hand on her back.

Sonal's aunt turned to her sister. "Are you sure you want an alliance with Mehta family? From what I heard their company is also having many problems, and if their elder daughter-in-law is manhoos, then it won't be long before they are out on streets. We should think about our daughter's future."

Anjali was frozen in place, she wished the floor would open up and swallow her whole. Because of her entire family has to suffer this humiliation. She saw Aditya take step towards her, but she quickly shook her head discreetly to stop him.

The anger on her mother-in-law's face was visible as she glanced at Anjali's aunt and Riya. "Parul, I don't know what or who gave you this idea, but we do not consider our daughter-in-law unlucky. Furthermore we believe in destiny not luck. If it is destined to happen then it will, nothing or no one can stop this. It is all in lord's hand."

What shocked her more was the voice she heard next. "I think Ramilalaben is right, you shouldn't listen to people's gossips, there is nothing to gain from it." It was her father, and she could not believe that he actually involved himself in her family matters. Anjali glanced at her brother, who just shook his head, as if to say not now.

There was an uncomfortable silence among the group of people. Finally Anjali turned to Ramila. "Maa, I will go get Kajal, she should be ready by now." Ramila gave her slight nod, Anjali turned and hurried towards the stairs.

Aditya watched Anjali rush away from the group of ladies. He wanted to go after her, but refrained, she will only breakdown if he tried to comfort her now, he decided to wait. He was confident that she would pull herself together for their family.

Ten minutes later Anjali and Kajal descended the stairs. Kajal looked beautiful in tea green lehnga embroidered with gold resham work in floral pattern accentuated with almond shaped synthetic crystals and maroon, tea green and tangerine velvet trim along the embroidered hemline.