-52-
Only after dropping her off at the Hooda mansion did the men finally let out a deep sigh of relief. They certainly weren't expecting such a fireball in the form of their now-precious bhabhi. She was quite literally ready to burn down anything that dared to stand in her way.
"Brother, you should be careful," Karan warned Raghav the moment he entered the room after all the wedding rituals concluded, while the ladies were busy making preparations for the visit to their family's kuldevi.
Raghav looked at him while unwinding his turban, ruffling his hair and letting out a long-overdue sigh at finally escaping the clutches of the crowd. "What are you talking about?" he questioned, his voice weary.
"Bhabhi is just waiting for one more mistake from your side. Trust me, brother. Tumhe patang ki tarah faar ke rakh dengi vo agar ek aur galti hui tumhari side se. Tumhari gardan hogi or bhabhi ke haath honge.
Or jis tarike ki harqate bhai sahab aapki chal rahi hai na I think aap suhaagraat tak bhi nahi tikne wale," Shivaye chimed in, shaking his head as he piteously looked at his elder brother.
(She'll tear you apart like a kite if you make even one more mistake.
Your neck will be right in her hands. And given how you've been acting, brother, I don't think you'll even survive until the wedding night.)
"Suhaagraat? Shivaye, are you out of your mind? Bhabhi khaa jaegi ise agar kamre mein bhi ghus gaya to unke saath," Karan gasped dramatically, shaking his head in disbelief.
He joined his hands as if offering a silent prayer to the Almighty for the sheer safety of his dear friend.
([First night?] Shivaye, are you crazy? Bhabhi will swallow him whole if he so much as steps foot into her room.)
"Tum log meri side pr ho ya uski? Do you even know why I did all that? I couldn't just stand by and let her break off the marriage simply because she was in the mood to do so," Raghav snapped back at them, successfully silencing their theatrics in a single stroke. (Are you on my side or hers?)
"Phir bhi bhai, marrying her like that was clearly going overboard. She wasn't just 'in the mood.' Any girl in her position would have reacted the same way to what she's facing, if not worse. You ought to be far more understanding of her feelings," Shivaye spoke up in a much calmer tone,
clearly grasping the sheer depth and complexity of the entire situation. (Even then, brother...)
"I'm telling you, you stand no chance of getting through to her—at least not for the time being. Did you even look at her face during the rituals? She looked like a bloodthirsty tigress who would hunt Raghav Hooda down even on a full stomach, just to watch him suffer for what he did.
She is going to play you hard. If eyes could spew actual fire, you'd be nothing more than a pile of ashes by now, and the helpers would have already swept you right out of this mansion without a second thought," Karan stated, letting out a tired sigh.
Raghav fixed him with a cold, piercing look as he sat down between the two of them. "You think I don't know that? I know her far better than you think I do. And right now, she is quite literally thirsting for my blood," he muttered, leaning back against the couch.
"Well, until the actual formal wedding takes place in front of society, her family has requested that you two don't share a room. This is going to be far too much fun to watch," Shivaye said, nodding to himself with a smirk.
"Yeah, Bhabhi talks as if Raghav bhai is the absolute biggest pervert on the planet. I mean, seriously, look at him. Our brother lives like a total ascetic," Karan remarked, scrutinizing Raghav with genuine pity for his innocent friend, only to be sharply nudged in the ribs by Shivaye.
"Karan, my friend, you don't know what our bhabhi knows. There's no smoke without fire. Raghav must have done something we have no clue about that led Bhabhi to conclude he's this starved," Shivaye told Karan, who stared back at him for a long moment before turning to glare at Raghav,
blinking in sudden realization.
Raghav held his gaze without so much as flinching.
"Haaye, Raghav, tujhe bilkul sharam nahi aai? Naam tu bhagwan Ram ka leke baitha hai, par hamari bhabhi par nazar teri Ravan jaisi hai. Tu beshaq Ravan ban ja, but mind you, main apni bhabhi ke liye Lakshman jaisa dewar rahunga," Karan declared, narrowing his eyes at Raghav,
unable to digest how his seemingly stoic friend could display such hunger for his newly wedded wife.
(Haaye, Raghav, didn't you feel even a shred of shame?
You walk around taking the sacred name of Lord Ram, yet you lay eyes on our bhabhi like Rawan!
You can play Rawan all you want, but mark my words, I will strictly be a Lakshman-like brother-in-law to my bhabhi)
"What on earth are you even blabbering about? Take a breather," Shivaye cut in, rolling his eyes at the overly dramatic dialogue that flew straight over his head.
"He's harboring filthy thoughts about our Bhabhi! How can you just brush that off?" Karan gasped, looking utterly betrayed by Shivaye.
"So...? She's his wife! Do you expect him to look at Bhabhi like she's his sister? Of course he's going to have all sorts of thoughts about her. Stop burning out your tiny brain over it," Shivaye shot back, rolling his eyes once more.
Raghav stared in exasperated silence at the two men who had been by his side since childhood. At this exact second, he wanted nothing more than to smother them both with a pillow for daring to discuss his wife, especially when they knew how precariously balanced his world currently was.
"Bhabhi, please don't worry. Just rest. Bhaiya won't be coming into this room tonight. Maa and Dadi are busy preparing for the visit to our village," Dhara said softly, attending to Jayasvi inside one of the guest quarters.
It was undeniably luxurious, yet nowhere near as grand as the master suite occupied by Raghav as the sole heir to the Hooda empire.
Jayasvi, however, had no idea—nor did she care in the slightest.
Dhara helped Jayasvi settle onto the edge of the plush bed, gently adjusting the heavy trail of her veil so she could lean back against the headboard to relieve her aching back. She then knelt down and unbuckled Jayasvi's high heels so she could finally relax.
"Bhabhi, Maa mentioned that you'll have to remain in these bridal clothes until after we receive the blessings from our Devi Maa. Right after that, you can change into something much lighter," Dhara added, doing her best to make Jayasvi feel welcomed.
"Are you truly, genuinely sure about Rishabh?" Jayasvi asked after a heavy silence. Her eyes remained closed from sheer physical exhaustion, yet she needed to understand the underlying dynamics of this household.
Dhara's mouth snapped shut at the mention of his name.
She looked at Jayasvi hesitantly before finally voicing the thoughts consuming her mind.
"Bhabhi, to be completely honest... I feel deeply embarrassed speaking about this in front of you, of all people. I know my own selfish desires caused you so much pain, but please trust me, I never wished any harm upon you. My feelings for Rishabh have always been complicated.
I like it when he texts me, when he calls me, when he gives me his time. But deep down, I also recognize the sheer difficulty a marriage with him would bring into my life. I don't mean to sound harsh, but I simply cannot see myself living a middle-class life. And more than that,
I refuse to become a financial burden on my brother," Dhara confessed, laying bare every conflicted thought in one go.
For the first time, as Jayasvi opened her eyes to look at the young girl, she didn't feel the surge of anger she expected—even though she had every right to. After all, this chaos was set off by Dhara's own secret courtship with Rishabh behind closed doors.
Yet, Jayasvi understood the messy complexity of human emotions all too well. What she was experiencing within her own heart was no less chaotic.
"Are you angry with bhai?" Dhara asked timidly after another long stretch of silence. The room was so deathly quiet that Dhara could hear the crisp rustle of Jayasvi's heavy lehenga against the silk sheets as she shifted position.
Jayasvi exhaled a low sigh, her tense shoulders dropping slightly.
"You know what, Dhara? Jab bhi mujhe tumhare bhai par thoda trust hone lagta hai, vo koi na koi aisi cheez krdete hai jo pehle se bhi zyada kharaab hoti hai. Tum hi batao aisi situation mein what can I even do?"
she murmured, her voice laced with exhaustion.
(Every time I begin to build a shred of trust in your brother, he does something that turns out to be far worse than his previous mistakes.
You tell me, what am I supposed to do in a situation like this?)
Dhara nodded slowly, placing a gentle hand over Jayasvi's.
"Bhabhi, I understand your perspective completely. But please try to see... you can judge me all you like, but Bhaiya was raised under the strict discipline of Dadi, who taught him from childhood never to look at another woman who isn't his wife.
And Bhaiya would rather die than go against Dadi's command. What Aneri Kashyap did was utterly vile, and the way Bhaiya handled it was undoubtedly worse, but that doesn't mean he set out to humiliate you.
You would have walked away and broken off the marriage entirely if he hadn't taken that extreme step," Dhara explained.
Though it pained her to admit it out loud, she knew that, in her brother's mind, it was the absolute truth.
Jayasvi blinked, staring back at her before a small, hollow smile formed on her lips—hiding a deep well of bitterness and heartbreak.
"You really think it's that simple? You think I was walking away from this marriage just because Aneri whispered some absurd poison in my ear? I've said it before, Dhara, and I will say it again: what your brother exhibits isn't love—it's pure, possessive ownership. That is not affection.
All he wants is to stamp his label on me as his wife. If he truly cared about me, he would have been transparent about Aneri and her obsession with him from the start. But he hid it. He didn't think I deserved to know... Tell me, Dhara,
how am I expected to call a man my husband when he doesn't harbor an ounce of trust in me? A man whom I cannot bring myself to trust either?"
Dhara lowered her gaze, nodding silently as she sank into her own thoughts.
She knew that no matter how many excuses she made, she could never truly justify her brother's drastic actions as right.
Yet, she couldn't view Raghav as entirely villainous either.
Human emotions were fractured, driving people to commit the most desperate, unhinged acts.
"Don't worry... you won't have to share a room with him until the formal ceremonies are completed," Dhara offered softly, trying to soothe her.
Jayasvi let out a dry, humorless chuckle.
"First of all, Dhara, it amuses me how utterly confident you and your family are when it comes to Raghav. How naively you assume he'll fall in line and do as he's told. He didn't consult a single soul before forcing me into this marriage so abruptly. Not a single person could stop him.
Not your Dadi, not your mother, not your father, and certainly not you. So what on earth makes you think you can stop him from claiming what he wants the moment he sets his mind to it?"
Jayasvi questioned her without a hint of hesitation, past the point of holding back.
Everyone had witnessed Raghav's unyielding dominance, and pretending otherwise was an exercise in futility.
Dhara opened her mouth to reply, but the heavy wooden door creaked open.
Vandana walked in carrying a warm glass of milk.
"Jayasvi, child, it's going to be a long journey ahead. Please drink something. Setting off on an empty stomach will only make you sick," Vandana said gently, handing her the glass.
"Who's causing trouble now?" Dhara asked her mother, having overheard snippets of a tense phone call earlier.
Vandana sighed softly, gently stroking Jayasvi's hair.
Jayasvi took a few hesitant sips—only because she felt dizzy and knew that starving herself would only weaken her further.
Besides, hunger always made her irritable and reckless, and she couldn't afford to lose her composure in enemy territory.
Every minor sound in the room was beginning to grate on her frayed nerves; all she craved was to be left entirely alone, far away from prying eyes.
"Your Bua Dadi has turned the whole family upside down. Your Dadi is currently on the phone trying to pacify her. Bua Dadi claims no one has shown her an ounce of respect since her brother passed, and now she wasn't even formally invited to her own grand-nephew's wedding.
She's accusing us all of casting her aside," Vandana explained, weary from the endless family politics.
"Who keeps leaking every piece of news to her anyway? You really need to screen the household staff properly. I'm convinced one of them is running straight to Bua Dadi with gossip. Even the media hasn't gotten wind of this sudden marriage,
yet our own relatives cling to every rumor like bloodsucking leeches," Dhara huffed, shaking her head as she braced for the inevitable drama.
"Right now, our sole focus must remain on ensuring Jayasvi and Raghav receive the blessings of Devi Maa without any further disruptions. We can worry about managing the rest of the family later," Vandana replied softly, offering a reassuring look.