My Perfect Life

CHAPTER 3

Aliaa's POV

After that girl Ishika’s mishap and warning, Raj took me to a park which was isolated because of the afternoon. Frankly speaking, I didn’t even realize it when we came here. I was too busy to notice where we were going because that b***h Ishika’s warning was continuously playing in my head. I haven’t even said a word to Raj since then. Who did she call her love? Does Raj know her? Did they have a history together? I was so busy in my thoughts I didn’t even hear Raj saying anything.

“Huh, what?”

“I said, won’t you ask me anything about what happened there?” Raj asked worriedly.

Now how should I ask him about that? My mind said it was my right to get answers and my heart said you will be doubting Raj. If there was something, he would eventually tell me when he was comfortable.

“I am waiting for you to tell me the truth. I don’t want to assume anything,” I said in a cold voice, keeping my eyes trained on my lap.

After a few minutes, when I didn’t hear anything, I looked up and saw him sitting stiffly and clenching his jaw. I guess he is not comfortable.

I shouldn’t have bluntly said it like that. OMG, is he going to cancel the marriage as he thinks I don’t even trust him? Then what will happen to me? Do I need to listen to all the sad songs by Arijit Singh? How I wish I had some experience in these types of situations or at least any friend with whom I could share my problems. But Bhai had clearly forbidden me to talk to those friends who have a boyfriend because he thinks they will spoil me too. And I don’t lie to my family except for when it comes to eating chocolates. I was lost thinking about my future and I didn’t even hear when Raj started talking. I quickly started paying attention to him.

“Ishika was my college friend and girlfriend,” Raj started talking, his voice dripping with disgust. Huh, she deserved it. Wait for a second, did he say girlfriend? OMG, God Ji aap mere sath aisa kyu kar rahe hai? Aap ko main hi milti hu har bar, Mumma? (Why are you doing this to me, God Ji? Do you only find me every time, Mumma?)

“Are you listening?” Raj asked me when I was busy cursing God Ji for doing this to me.

“Ye-yeah. I mean, yeah. I am listening. If you have a girlfriend, then why are you marrying me?” I accused him.

“I said was,” Raj said to me.

“Huh?” I wondered.

“Ishika was my girlfriend. Past tense. Now we are not even in touch. We broke up after college ended,” Raj clarified. Oh God, thank you so much. You are the best. Now I don’t have to listen to sad songs by Arijit Singh.

“What happened? Why did you guys break up?” I asked him, doing a happy dance in my mind.

“It’s a long story. I loved Ishika very much. She was very beautiful. When I first met her, I instantly got attracted to her. She was the most popular girl in college. Then we became friends and, after that, girlfriend-boyfriend. But my parents didn’t like her. They said she would not fit into our culture. As you know, my family belongs to a conservative culture, so they wanted someone who belongs to our cast only. Even though my parents didn’t like her, I tried to convince them that she would fit in our culture, she is good and every other thing which I could say to convince them, I did. They even got convinced but they made a condition that she must prove herself as their daughter-in-law. But Ishika belongs to a modern family, so she denied me that if I want to marry her, I must leave my family. She didn’t want to be a housewife and then get pregnant in a year to give my family an heir.”

“Then, how did she come? Is she here now?” I asked Raj. I had to know about this. I even had to leave behind my cheeseburger because of her.

“Since our marriage has been fixed, she has been calling and texting me to take her back into my life because she is sorry and she even agreed to be a housewife for me and all that s**t,” Raj said grimly.

OMG, she wants him back. What if Raj wants to go back to her? No, no, no, this can’t happen. Raj likes me and hates her. Yes.

“But you guys have broken up, right? And she didn’t even respect her parents. Then why does she want you back?” I asked, panicking. I won’t let that happen.

“Yeah, we broke up and I am not going back to her or taking her back. I still haven’t told you the real reason for our break up,” Raj stated, holding one hand with his and his other hand cupping my cheeks. In other circumstances, this gesture of his would make me blush like a tomato, but not right now. I am in a panicked state right now as someone wants what’s mine.

“What reason?” I whispered.

“After giving me the choice to choose her or my family,, I chose my family, but also, I didn’t reject her completely because I thought she loved me and would get convinced after some days. After a week, I saw her at a party. She was standing near the poolside and she was looking so beautiful,” Raj said to me, now looking far away in the park as if living that dream. And making me jealous.

“She was standing there alone, so I thought I’d go talk to her, as it was a party her mood would be happy. I was walking towards her when I saw my biggest rival, Karan Sharma from the college, approaching her. I thought she would walk away from there or he would try something, so I started walking fast towards her. But I stopped when I saw Ishika smiling at him and then they were both kissing. f**k, kissing is an understatement. They were openly making out,” Raj said, cursing them while his expression changed from dreamy to disgusted.

I squeezed his hand a little bit which was holding mine to let him know that I was here for him. And that b***h, she is going to be my first enemy.

“After seeing that, I walked away from her and understood that she had broken up with me on that day. She gave me the choice.”

“I am sorry this happened to you,” I said to him, making my voice a little depressing so that he thought I was genuinely sorry, but from inside I am doing my happy dance. I was actually a little bit thankful to Ishika for being a b***h, or else I would never have ever gotten to marry Raj.

“Don’t be, it’s in the past,” Raj said, returning my squeeze of his hand.

I forgot how close we are sitting. Now that I know that Raj hates Ishika and she is not a threat, I am replaying everything that happened since Ishika made her grand entry in my story.

OMG, how I behaved in front of Raj! Talking loudly and coldly and giving cold and hard glares. What Raj must be thinking about me now is that I am a bad girl, not a shy type of girl which I am usually. I was busy in my thoughts when a voice broke my chain of thoughts.

“I am sorry that Ishika talked to you like that,” Raj said to me, the emotion being evident in his voice. Oh God Ji, he is feeling sorry. It means he doesn’t hate me.

“No, no, it’s not your fault. And I didn’t feel bad, trust me,” I replied, looking down blushingly when I saw Raj looking at our entwined hands which are now on my lap.

“You know, you look so beautiful in this dress and on top of that, when you blush, it just drives me crazy,” Raj said, giving me his best dazzling smile, which blew me away. I looked down and covered my face with my hair so that Raj didn’t see me blushing profusely.

“I-I think we should leave now as it’s getting late,” I asked Raj hurriedly so that Raj would stop teasing me about my blush.

“Yes, we should get going. But I have to talk with you regarding something very important,” Raj said in a serious voice. Now, what had happened to him? Does he not want to get married to me?

“What happened?” I asked Raj, inside praying to God Ji that he wouldn’t call the marriage off. And he still loves that Ishika. Because I have seen in films after this stupid ex-girlfriend’s entry, the hero wants to go back to her, leaving the heroine alone and heart-broken. Even if he had said that he didn’t want to go back to her, he never said that he didn’t love her from his mouth. I just assumed that he still doesn’t love her because I want him to love me like I do.

“I want to talk about what happened today,” Raj said seriously. Please don’t say you still love her, please don’t say that.

“I wanted to say that please don’t tell anyone about what happened today here at home.” I opened my tightly squeezed shut eyes.

“Kyu (Why)?” I asked Raj. Lying at home is bad manners. I don’t lie with my family except for eating chocolates.

“Because I don’t want any problems to arise in our marriage,” Raj said, sitting in front of me on his knees, holding one hand and cupping my left cheek with his other hand.

“See, if you tell them about what happened here, your family will enquire about everything and I don’t want anyone to know about that one stupid mistake I committed by loving that vixen.” But I have a question. Should I ask?

“Why didn’t you tell me anything about Ishika before?” I finally asked him the question, unable to keep it in anymore. I didn’t want to ask because it might make him uncomfortable, but now that I knew about it and he wanted me to lie, I had to know the full truth.

“I never thought that phase would come again in my life and when Ishika started sending me calls and messages, I wanted to tell you but I was in New York and I wanted to talk to you face-to-face. That is the reason I wanted to spend the whole day today, taking you out so that I can tell you everything about my past, but then Ishika came and ruined everything.”

Now that I think of his reason, it seems genuine because I also never asked him about it, did he have a girlfriend or anything about his past. I was happy knowing that I had met my prince charming. I never thought that in my fairy-tale, problems would also be there.

“But why don’t you want me to tell my family about everything? You know I never lied to my family. If you are worried about what my family will think of you, then don’t. I will handle them. But lying would be bad,” I explained. Even if I try, they will know eventually.

“I just don’t want some problem occurring in this marriage. If you tell them, there’s a 90% chance the marriage will be delayed,” Raj said frustratedly, standing up and running his hands through his hair.

“But why will my family delay the marriage or, even if it gets delayed, what will happen that you are worried about?” I shot back, on my feet myself, not understanding his reason for frustration.

“Because I want to make you MINE as soon as possible. Do you get me?” Raj replied, grasping my upper arms, and shaking me a little while bringing me close to him.

I won’t lie that I didn’t feel scared. I had never seen Raj lose control and behave like this. At that time, what I was seeing and hearing seemed like he wanted to make me his possession. The way he was looking at me, it seemed to me like he would eat me up or kill me. God Ji, save me.