"I promise you won't regret this decision, she isn't bad" she reassures me
"It's fine, mhm let me talk to aunty okay" I say wiping her tears
She nods walking in the room with me, sudha aunty sitting on the floor holding looking lost.
"Sudha darling, why so gloomy?" I ask sitting beside her
She tries to smile but she couldn't
"I will marry her but only if you smile and promise to protect me from all of ma's scoldings okay, is that a deal?" I ask
"Manu beta tu kyu kar raha hai yeh?" She asks
"Pata hai aunty, yeh chotu, she was in your stomach when I used to ask her to speak but she would never"
"be honest Manu" she says seeing me bluffing
"Shh it's not time to talk about these things aunty, come on cheer up and get her ready. mai barat lekai aunga aur ap dance karogi okay" I say wiping her tears
"Thank you" she cries
"Shh aunty don't cry, sudha dalring I hate tears' she chuckles wiping her face getting up
"You are blessing manik, I love you and I love that nyonika has given you such good manners" I smile kissing her head walking to mom
"Ma tell cabir and get him to call Neha, she will have my sherwani delivered in 20 minutes. And I need just a few minutes with nadnini" I say
"She won't talk, she is barely responding to me" aunty says
"It's okay, she can listen. Please"
"It's bad luck to have the bride and groom look at each other manik let's get you changed and you can talk to her later" my mom says
"Please ma, mhm okay give me her number and I will call, jsut put the phone on her ear okay" I say to which she nods
Mom and I walked to our room where cabir starts talking to mom as I grab nandini's number calling her
"Hello" aunty says picking up
"Hi, can you pass her the phone?" I ask
"She won't say anything manik, I don't know if she will even say anything" she says
"put the phone in her hands on speaker"
"Okay it's in her hands" she says
"Nandini" I whisper
All I heard was her breathing
"It's manik" aunty says
"Aunty can you please give us privacy jus for a second?" I ask
"Sure" she says
I hear her steps walking out of the bathroom
"Nandini say something"
"We have to talk, I know you are very numb right now" I mumble but nothing
She doesn't say anything at all
"We need to talk nandini"
Not hearing anything I sigh cutting the call
"Manik are you sure?" Cabir asks
"Yeah, I don't have anyone anyways plus you know aunty has done so much for us"
"No that's not what I'm asking, I am asking if you are okay with this"
"Yeah, are you?" I ask because he is an important part of my life and I want to make sure he is also okay with this
"Yes, gosh I love nadnini, she is so sweet. I just want to make sure you will be okay and you can commit to her"
"You love her?" I ask
"Yeah, last month when I came here to help ma, nannie was aorund a lot and her and I worked on a lot of the wedding stuff"
I just hum grabbing my sherwani that had just arrived
"Manik get ready, I am going to give nandini her outfit and cabir you get the rings, I already called Sharma uncle, he should be arriving in 20 minutes with the rings"
We both nod and get on with getting ready and other things. It felt like everything was going so quick, I was just getting ready and now I am sitting in the mandap looking at the pandit as he reads out the vows or whatever it was.
Everything went by so fast and so ridiculously quick, we exchanged garlands, and rings but it felt so real and it hit me that I was married when I was asked to put sindoor in her mang. As soon as picked up the sindoor and was filling her mang, some fell on her nose causing both our mothers to smile for some odd reason
we both bend down touching both our mother's feet and then we hugged and touched a few other family member's feet but nandini hadn't said a single thing, she didn't even look at me
"Manu thank you' sudha aunty says with tears
"Don't cry Mumma, I don't like tears in either of my mother's eyes plus both of you are cry babies' I mumble causing them both o chuckle
"You don't know what you have done for me today manik" she says
"Mumma you have done everything for us too, we wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for you so this is nothing and you don't ever need to worry about nandini. when I said yes to marrying her, I didn't just say it, I mean it ma. She is my other half now, she is my wife and I promise to take care of her till my last breath. I know things stared on a very weird tone but I promise it's only up form here" I say huggin her
"You raised him so well nyonika" she mumbles to my mom
"You should see him cranky" I frown hearing her
"Hey, I am a married man be wise of your words ma"
"Shut up, go feed my daughter some food and I will see you at home. Your car is right outside, no need to mingle with others" I nod grabbing keys from cabir
Him, ma and Mumma all head out to our house to get the house decorated while I grab nandini's hand walking to the car
She was walking lifelessly, her cheeks had dried tear marks, not a single noise comes out of her mouth so I just silently drive home knowing I can feed her there and have her comfortable in pyjamas.
"I thought I told you to feed her first" ma says as I ring the for bell standing there with nandini's hand in mine
i just shake my head to let her know not to mention anything right now and that I will deal with it. She nods understanding and lets us in
"Ma we will talk tom"I say
All three of them nodded understanding so I take nandini upstairs after they all kiss her head, Cabir kissed her head too making me smile a little.
YOU ARE READING
His Burden
RomanceA little short story on arrange marriage of two individuals, one who was about to get married to someone else and the other was a guest at the wedding, but both of them end up getting married.
