Unnamed Thoughts

1. 'Covincing'

Sonakshi sat up breathing quickly in the middle of the night. Everything seemed blurry as she closed and opened her eyes again. If she could remember anything at the moment it was her mother and father's dead bodies in front of her eyes, covered in blood. It had been an horrific accident almost a year ago. They left her alone, penniless, and orphaned. If it wasn't for her husband's parents, only God knew where she would have been right now instead of this wonderful air-conditioned room.

Her husband, Dev Dixit, had given her everything. A nice home, a happy life, loving in-laws. If he couldn't give her one thing it was the love she had always expected from the man she was married to. Not to mention, she never thought that Dev Dixit would be her husband one day.

Their marriage hadn't been planned. She was engaged to Dev's elder brother Jatin Dixit for over an year before he died, during the horrific 9/11 attack. She still remembered sitting in her room looking at her ring. Thinking about the man she loved, Dev Dixit, and the man who she would soon be getting married to, her love's elder brother, Jatin Dixit.

If Dev loved her then she would have rejected Jatin without thinking even once. But she knew he didn't care for her for more than a casual friend then. She was always told by her mother, "respect the one who loves you, not the one you love." Thinking that she first rejected, then accepted his proposal.

Jatin had called her thirty minutes before the first plane had hit the world trade center to tell her he was missing her a lot in New York, that he loved her so much.

She didn't love Jatin ever in her life not even after he died. But she cared for him as her closest friend, she cherished him like she didn't cherish anyone else in her life. She'd known him, but properly met him through the Academic Decathlon team his senior year. When he'd proposed to her on Valentines Day a year and a half before the attack she was shocked. Her instant answer was, no, I can't marry you. It would be your answer if you were madly in love with someone else all along.

Sonakshi Bose had loved Dev Dixit for as long as she remembered. The Bose's and Dixit's were great friend despite the difference is their status. While the Dixit sons were born with a golden spoon in their mouths, Sonakshi wasn't. She'd seen her parents fight over small issues that revolved around money. They had to think three times before spending even a penny.

But Dev never paid any attention to Sonakshi, then. His goals in life were different than hers.

She remembered Jatin telling her once that Dev wanted to be a part of NFL. They both had laughed, Dev didn't have the height or the body built to play football in high school, let alone professionally.

He'd heard them then.

His freshmen year he played football as running back and then soccer after football. He hated Sonakshi from that day on.

Then, when Sonakshi came back on an assignment to California she met Dev again. She had finished her second year of law school and he his second year of Business Management. She'd said sorry and they were talking on regular terms, until Jatin proposed to Sonakshi.

Sonakshi knew that Jatin loved her while Dev would never. After saying no, she went back and agreed. She was her parents only child and her marriage to Jatin would allow one less responsibility for them.

After the 9/11 attack Sonakshi didn't know what to do. She had lost Jatin, the man who understood her, who loved her so much. She didn't love him but she knew that he would keep her happy. She respected him. Losing him was perhaps the biggest loss of her life, until her parents also left here in a car accident a few years later.

Then it was either the Dixit family or living alone forever. Six months after her parents death, Sonakshi and Dev got married.

Dev kept her happy, they shared a warm friendship, something very close. They lived in separate rooms since his parents had moved back to London, England again. She was a house wife and a very good one. He loved her for the great friend she was.