Ishaan Singhania is my personal tormentor sent from hell.
First, he makes me fall in love with him without his knowledge and then friend zoned me.
Second, he spreads rumors about me being a whore and gets my marriage canceled, causing my Papa to g...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Naina's P.O.V.
"Naina, do you know what they say about the color of your henna?" Drishti Didi teases, causing all of the girls in the room to giggle. I roll my eyes at all of them. I know what Drishti Didi is going to say.
"What, Drishti Didi?" I ask.
"The darker the shade of your henna, the more your future husband loves you," she gushes as I mouth what she says.
Everyone in the room giggles like a bunch of five year-olds and I roll my eyes at them.
Ma gives me a pointed look. She must have saw me mouthing what Drishti Didi said. "Behave," she mouths to me.
I didn't want to be here and I had so many things to do back at the office. They needed me there but I couldn't leave the mehendi ceremony. I am the bride so I couldn't miss it.
It's been a couple of hours since the mehendi ceremony started. The mehendi ladies have been working on my legs and my hands ever since the ceremoney started and the poor ladies haven't even taken a break yet.
"What's your future husband's name?" One of the ladies questions.
There is this tradition where the starting letter of the groom's name has to be hidden in the design of the mehendi. After the wedding, the groom has to find the letter in the mehendi.
I'm tempted to lie about his name but I know Ma would kill me. "Ishaan," I tell her.
She smiles as she puts a capital "I" in the middle of a mandela on the side of my hand.
"Your henna looks so pretty," Priya gushes.
"Thanks." I shoot her a small smile.
Ananya sighs as she sits down next to me. "Why can't you smile Naina? It's your mehendi ceremony and some of your cousins are getting suspicious that something is wrong."
I scowl at her. "I'm not going to fake my emotions just for society's sake and to please some so-called cousins."
"At least do it for your mother," Priya pleads.
I look over to Ma. She was talking to my aunts and she had a huge smile on her face. I know she was over the moon.
"Fine," I grumble to my friends. I place a fake smile in my face and show them. "Happy?"
"Yes! Very," Ananya says as she pinches my cheeks and I scowl at her.
• • • • •
A few hours passed by in the mehendi ceremony and I was ready to take my henna off. I couldn't do anything without messing it up.
"Can I get this off?" I ask Ma showing her my dried henna.
"Wait till tonight at least beta," she says in her nice voice that she only uses when we have guests over.
