Always Is Not Forever (Breaking Myself - Part II)

4. Adyant's Life

[ A D Y A N T ' S P O V ]

"How do I look?" Kiara asked, her eyes stuck on the mirror, but my eyes didn't wander from her face and the hesitance visible in those plain eyes. "Bro?"

"You look like a monkey," I cracked, slightly smiling at her annoyed expression. "First wedding?"

"First wedding," She laughed under her breath, rubbing her arms with the hands. "I have no clue how Muslim weddings work. I am so tense." She swirled to face me and the lehenga flew with her. "What if I ruin something? What if I don't go according to their culture? What if his mother hates me more?"

"You can run?" I suggested sincerely. I was still hoping she would refuse at the end moment, develop cold feet and ask me to take her out of the wedding.

For the predictable future, I booked the tickets of Australia. Just in case.

"Adi." Rolling my eyes, I caught her by the shoulders, scrutinised her tensed expression of disrespecting a culture she didn't belong to, but yet, had the courage to embrace it for the love of her life. "Where is papa?"

"He will come." Slipping my head to the back of her neck, I embraced her. "You look ravishing, sis. Let his mother hate you if she desires. Abeer loves you." Breaking the chains of my arms, I stepped back, fished the pendant I held in my clothes pocket and presented it to her. "It belonged to grandma." Gasping, Kiara's jeweled hands brushed the gold. "Papa gave it to me a long time back. Mamma never touched her jewelry because she thought she didn't have any right on it."

"That's our mom," Kiara chuckled.

"Everyone says you look like her." From the pictures I had seen, I couldn't agree more. "But you behave like bhua." Both of us laughed. "Grandma is not here but I thought she would have loved to give it to you."

"Help me?" Breaking the lock, I tied the silver chain around her neck and trudged to her back to lock it. "I wish we had met them. Both of them."

"I wish it too." She was getting married. In real. "They sounded like good people." Even after what Hitakshi exposed three days back. How did that woman know so much about my family? It was fishy, too much fishy to know the details we had kept hidden under the walls of our houses. "I have no idea how bhua and papa coped up. I cannot even think one of them die, and they lost both."

"Yeah," She dragged a heavy breath. "Adyant?" I hummed. "Why are you being rude to Hitakshi? She is not your secretary here."

"I know."

I tried to avoid looking into her eyes. "We work on the same floor, Adi. I see the way you look at her but I don't know how to say it is okay when she is married." And that was the problem of everything in the world, that even after knowing how wrong it should be, I couldn't stop being attracted to her. "She is going to hurt you."

Already done.

"Stop worrying about me."

"How can I not when for the first time in my life I am seeing you in love?" As she turned, I endeavour to break her concern. "You can lie to everyone except me." She slipped her hands to my face and held it in her palms to break into the emotions I keep lockdown. "I was your sister before being a daughter or a wife."

"Because we were in the same womb?"

She nodded, chuckling. "If you love her and she loves you, then I am happy for both of you, but if she is not ready to be with you and fight for you, then you can move on. You deserve better. Remember what you used to say?"