Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9
RANVIJAY
I f we lived in different times, nobody would blink an eye if I pulled out my sword and laid waste to this whole palace. It would be expected of me since that’s exactly what a Rajput was expected to do when faced with a deception of this proportion. Because that’s what this wedding had turned out to be. A right royal deception.
I didn’t know who the woman in the bridal outfit was, but I knew for sure that she was not Kavya. She was not the woman I was supposed to marry. I didn’t know where Kavya was or why the woman had taken her place, but I had realised too late that I had married the wrong woman. I might not have noticed a lot about Kavya, but she had bombarded me with her mehendi pics, along with the typical cheesy drivel about how she’d asked the artist to hide the letters of my name within the design. I had rolled my eyes and sent her a thumbs-up reaction. I mean, what else was I supposed to do? I had no intention of playing Where’s Waldo with her mehendi on my wedding night. From what I’d observed about her, the less we conversed with each other, the higher our chances of marital happiness.
But the point was that my bride’s arms should have been covered in mehendi. The woman I married today had no mehendi on her hands. Not a trace. If that wasn’t a giveaway, I didn’t know what was.
And now she’d gone to change her outfit. What did she expect? That I was going to accept this bride switch so easily? Did I have idiot written across my face?
I beckoned my friends closer. Isha took one look at my face and began to edge everyone else away.
“Let’s give the bridegroom some space, please. It’s already very hot in here. Kaki Sa, would you like some juice? Raksha will take you to your seat.”
Between Isha and Raksha, they cleared the mandap until only Veer and I were left. Isha soon joined us with a worried look on her face.
“What’s wrong? I can tell something’s seriously wrong. You look like you’re one step away from declaring war on all these people.”
I leaned forward, and so did they.
“That was not Kavya,” I whispered.
Isha’s eyes flew wide open in surprise. She cast a quick look at the staircase that led upstairs.
“Who was it, then?”
“I don’t know, but I want to find out. The bride didn’t have any mehendi on her hands,” I explained, and that was enough for both of them to understand what had happened.
“Fucking hell,” breathed Veer. “What do you think happened to Kavya?”
“Do you think the Goels had something to do with this?” whispered Isha. “Maybe they kidnapped Kavya just before the wedding and supplanted her with another woman in an act of revenge. Should we tell her parents?”
I snorted in derision.
“Her parents are part of this deception, Isha. They knew exactly what they were doing. Didn’t you see how Kavya’s mother held on to that thick veil? She didn’t let me raise it enough to see the bride’s face. The only conclusion we can draw is that I have been scammed.”
“What do you want to do? We can ask them to call the bride here right now and show her face,” said Veer.
“Yeah, let’s do that,” chimed in Isha. “Let’s make a scene of epic proportions.”
I smiled. It was a nasty smile that made Isha and Veer take a step back warily.
“Let’s do one better,” I suggested. “Let’s catch them unawares. Cover me.”
Before either of them could react, I jumped off the mandap and headed for the stairs.
“Stop him,” cried Kavya’s father, trying to follow me. “Move out of my way, boy!”
“It’s okay, Raja Sa. Ranvijay is simply eager to see his bride again,” said Veer sweetly, blocking his way. “Here, have a glass of mosambi juice.”
Isha and Raksha kept pace with me as I made my way down the crowded corridor that was suddenly full of women who tried to block my way.
“Jamai Sa, please wait,” stammered a woman. “Baisa is still changing into her bidai outfit.”
Raksha shoved her out of my way, and I ploughed along determinedly.
Another woman barred the door, and Raksha pulled her out of the way as I put my shoulder to the door and threw it open with a bang. Someone shrieked loudly.
“Who let him in?” screamed Kavya’s mother. “Please leave, Jamai Sa. Kavya will be ready for the bidaai in five minutes. I beg you to leave.”
Her words barely registered with me as my eyes travelled all over the room. Kavya was sitting in a big chair in front of the dressing table, frozen in fear as my eyes met hers. She was dressed in an elaborate outfit, and I checked her hands just to be sure. As expected, they were covered with maroon mehendi. Yeah, that wasn’t the woman I had married.
My eyes swept past Kavya, and I smiled in dark satisfaction as I spotted the woman I was looking for in a corner. My bride.
She hadn’t had the time to change out of her outfit yet. A maid was helping her take off her jewellery, and it was kind of funny to see the way they were both frozen in the act of pulling off her bangles. She hadn’t even had time to take off her veil.
I took a step towards her, and Kavya unfroze.
“Baby, I’m right here. Where are you going?” she cooed, trying to sound unfazed. But I could hear the terror in her voice.
“I’m going to my wife,” I told her with a feral grin.
She blanched and let out a low wail.
“But… but… I am your wife, baby,” she tried again.
This time, I let out a loud laugh and everyone in the room flinched with fear. All except her. My bride. She stood tall and watched me walk up to her. Her face was still hidden, but I could tell by her stance that she was bracing herself for an explosion.
Defiance in the face of extreme danger.
If I wasn’t furious enough to burn this whole fucking place down, I would have admired her pluck.
I raised my hand and touched the mangalsutra I had tied around her neck not ten minutes ago. And that’s when she flinched.
I was done with this farce. I lifted her veil roughly with both my hands, eager to see this woman who thought she could scam the Maharaja of Mirpur. And just like that, all my illusions shattered.
Shivina.
I had liked her. I had protected her. I had been kinder to her than I had been to my fiancée. And she had betrayed me.
Shivina.
The woman who had haunted my dreams since I met her. The woman who had deceived me on my wedding day.
My gaze burned into hers with the force of all my hatred. She tried to look away, but I grabbed her chin and made her hold my gaze.
“Why?” I asked gruffly.
“Jamai Sa, it was just a huge misunderstanding,” began Kavya’s mother, hurrying to my side.
I held up a hand without even looking at her.
“I’m not asking why you lot did this. I’m talking to the woman who married me downstairs. Why did you do this? Why did you help them betray me?”
She had no answer.
“She’s just a paid hand, Jamai Sa,” scoffed Kavya’s mother. “She’s nobody. Please listen to me. It was just a small mistake on our part.”
My heart felt like a hand was squeezing it tightly. A paid hand. She had betrayed me for money.
So she wasn’t any different from Kavya, after all. Good thing she showed me her true colours before I enshrined her on some lofty pedestal.
I turned to Kavya’s mother, and she quailed before the expression on my face.
“Why do you keep calling me Jamai Sa?” I asked mildly.
“Because… well, because you are my Jamai Sa,” she stammered.
I nodded towards Shivina.
“Is this your daughter?”
“Chee, no! She’s a servant in our palace,” she replied, throwing a scornful look at my bride.
“Well, since I am married to her, how on earth can I be your fucking Jamai Sa? ” I roared.
She took three steps back and tripped and stumbled at the fury in my voice.
“RV, calm down. Let’s talk this through,” said Isha, who had followed me into the room, but I ignored her.
“How dare you people think you could get away with deceiving me?” I asked softly, trying to hold onto my temper.
“Baby, it was just a small mistake. We can correct it right away. I’ll go home with you after the bidaai, and we can get married in court as planned,” said Kavya, coming to stand by me.
“That might be slightly difficult because, you see, unlike you Dodiyas, my word means something to me. I made seven vows to this woman in front of the agni, and I intend to fulfil them all,” I promised grimly.
Shivina blanched at the threat in my voice.
“Hukum,” she began hoarsely.
“Don’t call me that,” I snapped. “Don’t ever call me that, Rani Sa.”
She looked like she was about to faint when I addressed her as Rani Sa. But that’s what she became when she chose to marry me. And that’s what she would be for the rest of her life. That was the price she had to pay.
“What the hell do you mean?” demanded Kavya. “I’m the woman you were supposed to marry.”
“Then you should have been at the mandap as planned,” I retorted, and she backed down immediately.
“Baby, I know you’re upset with me. But don’t take it out on Shivina. She’s way out of her depth right now. Just look at her. She looks like she’s about to throw up.”
That was true. But even as I thought my new bride was going to throw up all over my shoes, she took a deep breath and stood up tall as she met my eyes.
“Baisa is right, Your Highness. She was the woman you were supposed to marry. I was merely a temporary stand-in. My role here is done. Here, take this,” she said, putting her hands around her neck to unfasten the mangalsutra.
A visceral fury shot through me at the very thought of her taking it off and giving it to Kavya like it was a piece of costume jewellery. That little chain with the black beads was what tied me to Shivina, and she was about to discard it like a used tissue.
“Don’t you dare touch that mangalsutra,” I growled, and her hands froze in place. “You made your choice when you set out to deceive me, Shivina. And now you’re going to pay the price.”
“What price?” squawked Kavya and her mother.
“She’s coming home with me. As my Maharani,” I announced grimly.
“Over my dead body,” cried Kavya’s mother.
“I’m sure we can arrange that,” I replied coldly, and she gasped in fear.
“I won’t do it,” yelled Shivina, silencing the whispers that were going around the room.
“Excuse me?” I asked incredulously.
“I know you’re upset at being deceived, and you have the right to be upset, but I did not sign up for this! I agreed to stand in for Baisa to help her family out. I did not agree to go home with her husband,” she said fiercely.
I smiled the nastiest smile I could muster.
“But you’re not going home with her husband. You’re going home with yours, Rani Sa.”
“Do not call me that,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Or what?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I will not go home with you, and you cannot make me! It’s wrong,” she said, ignoring my provocative question.
Was she actually trying to grab the moral high ground here? After deceiving me? I couldn’t believe her audacity.
“So what do you suggest we do, Your Highness?” I asked, knowing that if she didn’t like being called Rani Sa, calling her Your Highness would probably make her even more furious. “I could sue the Dodiyas for breach of promise. Or I could call the police and tell them you impersonated my bride. Which option would you prefer?”
“The first,” she replied promptly. “Sue the shit out of them, but let me go.”
There were outraged gasps from Kavya and her mother, and I pursed my lips to hide an involuntary smile. It looked like my bride had a sharp tongue, after all. She wasn’t as saintly as she looked.
“Not a chance, wife. You’re stuck with me for life. Just like I promised during the saptapadi. And if there’s one thing you should know about me, it is that I’m a man of my word,” I drawled.