SERENDIPITOUS|✓

Prologue

"Radha, I love you and only want the best for you," Radha's mother cooed, sweetly and fakely.

"That being said, shouldn't you trust and obey me?" she asked further, her hand threading into her daughter's hair, petting her affectionately, but the bitterness in her voice, just gave away her pretence.

And as if that wasn't enough, she continued, "Your father and I have raised you in such a good environment, Radha, we've wasted all our money on you and now you must love us back. So just stop sulking and go pack your bags. Tomorrow the driver will come and take you to the Rathore mansion." Her voice echoed through the room as she retreated from there without so much a glance at her daughter.

Radha, on the other hand, was left, standing there confused, terrified and hurt. Her tummy kept churning inside because of the fear she felt. A funny, unpleasant feeling rumbled inside her belly and all of a sudden she felt nauseous.

Reality hit her harder than she had imagined.

She wasn't hurt.

She was just surprised and sad about how her mother spoke to her, on how she never got to see the sweet petals of her mother's voice hidden behind the thorns of her sneer.

She was surprised because they didn't think that she loved them enough, didn't see the love that dripped out of every action she did for them, didn't see the love which she had collected for them all her life.

But none of that mattered now, did it?

A long, tired sigh escaped Radha's lips as she began to stress over her mother's words, the decision her parents had taken for her. Her hand automatically flew to her forehead, rubbing it harshly.

Rathore's were the family in which Radha was going to get married. Their family was extremely rich and cultured or so people thought.

Rakesh Rathore was the main man of the house while his son was the person Radha was getting married to.

Mala Rathore, Rakesh Rathore's wife, was a strict traditional woman who had it imprinted in her mind that it was her duty to train her son's soon to be wife- to be a perfect woman.

Middle-class people were afraid to encounter them while the Rathore's too were terrified of getting in contact with small and poor people or so everyone thought.

Needless to say, Radha's family was one of those middle-class people who, the Rathore's had graciously accepted to meet. Their first and only encounter being at Radha's college where Radha had mistakenly bumped into Mr Rathore, making him stumble slightly though she had immediately recited an essay long apology in return.

That did it.

Mr Rathore thought that not many people, in today's world, cared to apologise after bumping into someone and if Radha did then she was capable to be the wife of his son.

She remembered her parents telling her all this.

Talking about her parents, it took almost no effort in convincing them. The money, the promise of eighty lakh rupees, alone was enough for them to declare that the Rathore's were good people and we're very suitable for becoming Radha's in-laws.

Radha, as usual, didn't have any say in this and that was because she indeed was very respectful to her elders, especially her parents. She loved them more than anything and was ready to do anything and everything for their happiness was ready to follow any decision they took for her.

Too bad, that her parents also loved, but only themselves. Happiness mattered to them too but only their own.

Now Radha did know a few parts of this story. The part where she would get married in a rich house would give happiness to her parents and would be the best daughter ever.

But,

Her parents hid the part where they told her how they needed the money. How their daughter's happiness wasn't their priority and how happy they were that Radha was finally going and they wouldn't have to spend a single rupee more on her. No more Radha, no more burden.

They forgot to tell her.

The last thing Radha wanted was to cry over something which gave her parents happiness. And yet here she was crying, anyway.

She stiffly went to her bed and laid down. Her head squeezed the pillow with its weight as well as all the pressure which it was filled with whilst her hand fisted the bedsheet loosely. Her eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the darkness in the room but did eventually.

She numbly stared at the ceiling while a tear rolled down the side of her eye barely missing the ear and then dropping on the bed. She thought for a few minutes. She thought about what happened and about what was going to happen.

It was safe to say that she was scared.

Extremely scared.

Her raven hued future had no light to create the shadows of happiness.

Everything was going to get tenebrous and all she could do was watch. . .

She was terrified of going in a completely unknown place to completely unknown people. But no one understood this. People just made the rules for her and she just followed them. People took her as a sheep meant for following and so she acted like one. No one, till date, told her to be the lion that she was and so she never became one.

But only she knew how much strength it took to love someone who didn't love you back. In her case, it was her parents. Maybe if she didn't love them, then she would've given this proposition a second thought but she loved them too much to consider any other option, the option of her will.

And just like that seconds and minutes passed with her laying on the bed. Once she was calmed down, she stood shakily and went to her wardrobe, packed a few clothes, a few pairs of shoes and two of her books - just to travel into a world which wasn't hard as hers - her gaze didn't miss the silver pendant that slept on the table of her dresser. Her hands stilled for a moment as she slowly strolled towards the dresser. She gently picked up and looked at it intently as if wishing it to help her.

Nothing happened though.

She was going tomorrow and that was final.

Shaking her head disappointedly she wrapped the pendant around her neck and immediately hid it with her scarf. If her parents saw this then maybe they'd take it and sell it, like her every other possession. She'd not want that.

Once she was done packing, she glanced at everything. She went around her small room and smiled at every small thing she saw, as if bidding goodbye to it, for a while or forever.

A while, two months.

She was proposed and ordered to stay with the Rathore family for two months, where she would learn about how everything worked there, would learn to adjust there. In the middle of the second month, she would get engaged and at the end of it, she'd be happily married.

Her future was all planned, just perfect, innit?

She sighed sadly at her mind's sarcasm and went to rest so that tomorrow she could once again paste a fake smile on her face.

A small, helpless laugh bubbled out of her mouth while laying on the mattress.

She just remembered that she didn't even know the name of her soon to be husband, knew nothing about her future.

So funny.

"So funny indeed. . ." she murmured silently in her nearly black room and drifted to sleep thinking that it was the last time, last time she would have to do something for her parents happiness. Maybe after this, she'd be free. Maybe after sacrificing her whole life, nothing would be left to sacrifice of her. Maybe after this, her parents would see, how much she loved them.

Maybe.