Eternal love

Chapter 1

Love was always a distant dream for me. I was born cursed, or so said the people around. 10 days into giving birth my mother died of complications while my father drank his way through. The extended family blamed me, they had to say I was doomed from birth. My father's fortune in business dwindled and his resentment for me grew. I only had my daadi for support. She was the only one, to whom I was never an inconvenience rather the apple of her eyes. She nurtured and nourished me, loved me too. She would often regale me with stories of prince and princesses and would always talk about a happy ending. I would cling on to her and her stories breathed new life into my being. They were the elixir to my soul.

My father Rakesh Agarwal in the meantime had grown all the more distant. He denied to spare me a glance even for a second. He had sent me and my daadi to our Shimla residence while he stayed back in Delhi with his new wife and daughter. Yes much like the fairytales I loved to be regaled off, my life too now bore certain similarities with Cindrella. I too had a step mother who despised me and a stepsister who abhorred me. I was a pariah to them. Hence I was thankful to my father when he decided to send me off with my Daadi. We lived a quaint life surrounded amidst nature. My school was life my refuge where my friends Preeti and Pandit kept me entertained at all times. I would laugh for hours seeing their antics. They were my happy soldiers. Life was good. I felt surrounded in a happy bubble with my friends and my beloved Daadi. Days were turning to years, the seasons changed while we grew. Soon we were 18 and in college. But one thing remained unchanged that's our bond that had strengthened with the years and our laughter.

Like I said earlier life was good. It glided along happy moments. In all of these I had flitting visits from my father who never bothered speaking with me. he refused to look in my direction on the dinner table. Though my Daadi tried in vain to engage him in small talks, telling him how I had graduated valedictorian in school and in college I was the topper too. She seemed so proud of me but all my father did was just nod. Rather he would counter the attempts and talk more and more about Kamya. His daughter. Yes he would proudly address her as his while I was simply Naina Agarwal to him. Yes my father would address me with my full name. I was almost an unknown person to him. It would hurt from within. I would cry my heart out and often the next day my head would throb forever. In such moments I remember my Daadi coming to my room my caressing my head and telling me that one day I would be loved too. That a prince would come on a white horse and he would heal me and love me and I would just smile at the thought. Thought that was dream and I knew my life was not to be like one in the fairytale yet I smiled for my Daadi.

I maintained an exterior of ignorance and went along in life caring for those who were my own like my daadi and my confidantes Preeti and Pandit. We were soon getting at that point where love was no longer a distant dream or story but a reality. Preeti and Pandit had slowly graduated from being friends to being more than that. Yes to my pleasant surprise they were head over heels in love with one another. And their parents were delighted at the match. It was all decided. After her graduation Preeti was to move to Mumbai to pursue further studies while Pandit was to move to USA for his MBA. And after his return they would get engaged and eventually married. I was overjoyed at the news and while I told my Daadi about the same, she started to weave new dreams of my Prince. I just laughed them off. All I wanted was to study further and expressed my desire for the same to her. She smiled and nodded and soon I found myself on a flight to Mumbai along with Preeti for our post graduations.

Yet gain life trundled on while we were immersed into the monotony of classes and lectures with flitting episodes of fun and laughter. In all of these my father was always missing. He never bothered coming in for my graduation ceremony and neither did he congratulate me for my admissions in Mumbai. As if I was a nobody. With time I had learned to brave this very storm and I hence I just went along. But little did I know, the calm that I was now used to was soon to be shattered. That my shelter my refuge was to be swept off and I was to be thrashed off along an unknown coast where I would be lost in a mele of strangers.

I was in my class, the professor was droning on about Freud while me and Preeti were busy playing tictoc on our copies, when suddenly I saw the peon rush in and whispering something to the professor. Both looked alarmed and suddenly I knew that a nightmare was to begin. A never ending one. Daadi had suffered a heart attack and before they could shift her to emergency, she had passed away leaving all of hers to mine. I was left alone. Suddenly I felt the weight of it all and I knew I was left an orphan. I never expected anything from my father and hence when he offered to take me in, I was appalled or rather shocked. But what about my studies? I was in my second year of post graduation I couldn't leave it for the world. The father jolted me with yet another piece of news. He had sold off all that he had in Delhi and had been living with his family here in Mumbai for long now. I couldn't believe my ears for a while. Is this the reason why Daadi was so keen that I take up the very course Preeti had chosen in Mumbai? And my father knowing I was here all the while, never bothered visiting, not even a single phone call did I receive from him! I was suddenly numb. Moved on automaton, life was no longer the same. It felt like I was actually stuck in a modern Cinderella. My stepmother and her daughter despised me from the word go and wouldn't leave a stone unturned to insult me at every given opportunity. Kamya the golden princess was showered with love, she was the apple of everyones eyes. Beautiful yes she is, and is often hailed for the same. I had heard my stepmother often making comments about how she would be swept off her feet by the most eligible bachelor. Though she flunked her exams yet she was adored while my miseries kept on piling but the worst was yet to come.

Enter the Prince. I remember my Daadi harping about the prodigal Prince, how he would be perfert with the perfect looks and smile. That he would glide on the wind and make all the girls swoon while he would have his eyes only for that one. Gosh! How me and Preeti would laugh in private making a joke of our own at the description. But never in my wildest dreams had I thought that the description would come true. Yes it did! I remember seeing in through the curtains since I had been forbidden to step out of my room. Some prospective groom was coming to see our beloved Kamya. But like they say the human mind is ever so curious hence when I heard the slamming of the car doors and the main gate squeaking I couldn't stop myself from peeping through and I saw him, Sameer Maheshwari. As luck would have it, in that very instant he looked up and saw me gaping. He smiled and that knocked the wind out of me and before I could gather myself he winked in my direction. Out of fear I just turned and swore never to look back again but god and my life had other plans.

That was some 2 months back. The day when I first laid eyes on him.

And today, I am in his room sitting on his bed. The room smells of roses while its decked up in candles. My heart is thumping within. That day I was a curious girl trying to have my share of peep of him and today am his wife. I am Naina Sameer Maheshwari. While we exchanged garlands yesterday, he gave me mysterious smiles and even held on to my hand tight during the course of wedding. My husband is an enigma to me and am yet to understand as to how am here in this place as one of his own. Am yet to understand the series of events that followed with his advent. How in a second my life was not the same. The wails of Kamya, the shrieks of my stepmother, the devastation of my father at the knowledge that Sameer had chosen me instead is still all fresh in my mind.

When I had asked him about his intentions, he had simply smiled and said

"when I saw you, I soaked you in, you were ingrained in my being and I knew that it was just a matter of time but you were to be mine"

I couldn't understand and am still in daze.

The laughter of the ladies and the shuffling of feet told me that my husband was at the door. It immediately accelerated my heartbeats. I don't know what is to come or what is to happen? A part of me is scared. I have never had it easy. Though as a child I had a penchant for fairytales but there is no cranny in my brain that believes in the same. What if he turns out to be devil and has an ulterior motive?

That's the first chapter

I know I have left a lot of questions unanswered but I plan to answer them in the coming updates

Hope you all enjoy.