A Loveless Arranged Marriage Chapter 19. All's well that Ends well

  Previously, we saw that Deepa had returned home, and Rishi was very happy to see her. After that, they both went to their native places. During this period, Rishi tried to drop some hints about his feelings for her, but she didn't understand them. Let's see what happens next.

  It's been about two weeks since their vacation. It was the month of March, and the day was March 13. The sun was blazing down on the earth, making it a hot, sunny day. In Rishi's house, Deepa was sitting in the living room with a laptop on her lap. She appeared quite nervous about something, and at that moment, Rishi came from the kitchen with a glass of orange juice. He handed the juice to her. Deepa took it, and Rishi asked, "How much time is left for the result?" Deepa replied, "Just 2 minutes." Rishi said, "Don't be nervous; everything will be fine." Deepa responded with a simple, "Hmm," but as the time drew near, her nervousness only grew.

  At 10:30 a.m., the UPSC website released the results in a portable document. Deepa quickly downloaded it but was too anxious to open it right away. Rishi noticed and asked, "Hey, Deepa, what happened?" Deepa replied, "Nothing." Finally, she opened the document and began searching for her number. As the search box looked for her number, her heart pounded faster.

  The search showed 1 of 1 result. Deepa froze when she saw it. Rishi, realizing what had happened, shouted, "Hey, Deepa, you passed the civil service exam! Congratulations!" Deepa, still in shock, quietly replied, "Ahh, thanks," as tears welled up in her eyes. She couldn't believe she had passed the UPSC exam.

  At that moment, her father called. Deepa answered, and her dad asked about the result. With tears in her eyes, she said, "Dad, I passed the UPSC examination." Her dad proudly responded, "That's great, dear. I can now proudly say that my daughter is a civil servant. Congratulations, Deepa." She replied, "Thanks, Dad." Her mother and brother also congratulated her, and she ended the call.

  After the call, she turned to Rishi and said, "Rishi, I’m so thankful to you. Because of you, I was able to accomplish my dream." Rishi replied, "No need to thank me," but Deepa continued, "I can't imagine how I could have achieved this without your support." Rishi, thinking it was the perfect moment, decided to propose. He said, "Deepa, I want to tell you something." Deepa asked, "What is it?" Rishi was just about to say those three words when Deepa received a call from her tutor, who congratulated her and asked her to come to class.

  After the call, Deepa said, "Rishi, I got a call from my tutor. He asked me to come to class, so I'm heading there. But what were you going to say?" Rishi hesitated for a moment and replied, "Oh, nothing, Deepa." And with that, she left for her classes.

  After she left, Rishi remained on the sofa, thinking to himself, "Once again, I wasted my chance. Why do I get nervous in front of her? Now I understand how Ibrahim must have felt. But in my case, she's my wife, and I should have expressed my feelings to her. No, that's wrong—we were never meant to be a couple; it was just a contractual relationship, nothing more than that. If I reveal my feelings to her, will she accept me? The answer is no. From my point of view, she's the love of my life, but for her, I’m just the person she married for her parents' sake. It’s better if I simply bury my feelings for her in my heart. That’s the only right thing to do. I don’t want to ruin our relationship by bringing love into it. But will I be able to move on from this? Well, maybe after 2 or 3 days, I’ll start living my lonely life again—but I don’t want to live that life."

  At the same time, Rishi received a call from Arvind. Arvind asked, "Hey Rishi, what was the UPSC result, man?" Rishi replied in a low voice, "She passed the examination, Arvind." Arvind responded, "Oh, that's great! But what’s wrong with your voice? Are you feeling okay?"

  Rishi replied, "I’m fine." Arvind continued, "Okay, so what have you planned for her?" Rishi asked, "What should I plan?" Arvind retorted, "You’re so clueless, Rishi! Deepa passed her civil service exam, and you haven’t come up with anything? What kind of husband are you? Okay, is she with you?"

  Rishi replied, "No, she went to her classes." Arvind said, "Okay, that's perfect. Listen, before she gets back home, let's host a party to celebrate her success. Before I arrive, order a cake and get some decorations."

  Rishi responded, "Okay." Arvind said, "Great, Shahina and I will be there with our daughter in a few minutes." Then Arvind hung up the phone. Rishi, momentarily forgetting his feelings for Deepa, left to buy the things for the party.

  A little later, Deepa returned home. When she opened the door, she was surprised. She saw her friends Suguna, Manoj, and Christy; Arvind, Shahina, and their 1-year-old daughter; Rishi’s colleagues Ibrahim, Sunny, and Akshaya; Hemant uncle; and their neighbor Jayanthi and her son. The house was decorated, and everyone was there to celebrate Deepa's success. They all congratulated her, and the party began. The house was filled with joy. Everyone was having fun and enjoying the party, except for one person—Rishi. He felt sad inside because he knew Deepa would be leaving his life soon.

  After some time, the party came to an end.

  The last ones to leave were Arvind's family. After everyone left, Rishi went to his room and returned with a file. He saw that Deepa was in her room, talking to someone on the phone. He waited for her to finish the call. After she ended the conversation, Deepa said, "Sorry for making you wait, Rishi. I was talking to my friend." Rishi replied, "It's fine. I came here to give you something." Deepa asked, "What is it?"

  Rishi handed her the file and, with a fake smile, said, "These are divorce papers. It’s time to end our marriage. It’s been over two years since we got married for the sake of our parents. Now, we need to go our separate ways. Deepa, go through the papers and sign them. Tomorrow, we'll go to the lawyer's office."

  After saying that, he left the room. As he walked away, his eyes filled with tears.

  After Rishi left, Deepa continued staring at the divorce papers. As she looked at them, she thought, "After two years, my marriage is coming to an end, but while looking at these papers, I feel a kind of pain inside me. I should be happy, but instead, it’s making me sad."

  She set the document aside and tried to sleep, but she couldn’t. Her mind wandered back to the nice moments she had shared with Rishi. After a while, she eventually drifted off to sleep and began to dream.

  In her dream, she found herself in a beautiful garden. The environment was autumnal, and the leaves on the trees were yellow and orange. She was sitting on a garden bench next to her ex-boyfriend. As she sat there, Deepa noticed that the sky began to fill with dark clouds, and the sunlight around her started to fade. Then, she realized that her ex-boyfriend was slowly disappearing. As soon as he vanished, it began to rain. Deepa remained seated on the bench, completely drenched in the rain. But then, she noticed something strange—the rain was no longer falling on her. She turned and saw that there was an umbrella over her, and Rishi was holding it.

  The moment Rishi sat beside her, the rain stopped, and the dark clouds began to move away. Flowers bloomed around the garden, birds chirped, and the trees were full of green leaves. The atmosphere turned warm and pleasant. Everything seemed perfect until Deepa noticed the sky filling with dark clouds again. When she turned around, she saw that Rishi was starting to disappear, just like her ex-boyfriend.

  She suddenly woke up from the dream, her body drenched in sweat and her heart racing. She was gasping for air, but after a few moments, she calmed herself. She lay in bed, recalling the good memories she had with Rishi. As she thought back, she started to notice subtle hints of Rishi’s love for her. Confused, Deepa thought to herself, "Was Rishi hinting that he was in love with me? No, I don't want to confuse myself. It was just a coincidence. How could he fall in love with me?"

  As she thought this, her eyes began to fill with tears. Later, we see Rishi and Deepa having dinner together, both in a somber mood. Deepa broke the silence, asking, "Rishi, can I ask you something?" Rishi responded, "What is it, Deepa?" She then asked, "After we get divorced, will you miss me, Rishi?"

 Hearing her question, something inside Rishi told him that this was the right moment to confess his love for her. But instead, with a fake smile, he replied, "I think not, Deepa. After all, we never fell in love with each other. Our marriage was like a contract." Deepa forced a smile and replied, "Yeah, that's true," but deep down, she felt a pang of sadness.

  After that, Rishi asked her, "Did you sign the divorce papers?" Deepa replied, "No, Rishi, I haven’t checked the papers yet. I’ll sign them tonight."

  They finished their dinner in silence and went to their respective rooms. In his room, Rishi lay in bed, crying softly. Deepa, in her room, also cried with the divorce papers lying beside her. She tried to sign the document but found herself unable to do it. At that moment, she realized she was already in love with him.

  The next morning, Rishi was getting ready, his mood heavy with depression. After getting dressed, he went into Deepa’s room and saw her sitting on her bed, staring at the divorce file beside her. Deepa didn’t even notice Rishi entering.

  "Deepa, it's already 10:15; we need to go now. The lawyer is waiting for us," Rishi said. He turned to leave the room, but before he could, Deepa spoke. "Rishi, I want to ask you something."

  Three months later, we see Rishi having lunch with his colleagues when his phone rang. He glanced at it and smiled before excusing himself to take the call. He stepped out onto the balcony and answered.

  From the other side of the call, Deepa’s voice asked, "What took you so long to answer, sir?" "Sorry, Deepa, I was with my friends," Rishi replied. "Hmm, ok. Did you have your lunch?" she asked.

  "Yes, I did. What about you?" Rishi asked. "Yeah, I had mine too, but Rishi, I’m missing you," Deepa said. "Oh, is that so? Well, I’m not missing you," Rishi teased. "Hey!" Deepa exclaimed, and Rishi quickly added, "Just joking. I miss you too."

  Deepa then said, "Okay, my class starts in two minutes. We’ll talk later." "Alright, Deepa. Bye," Rishi replied, and they both ended the call. Now, let’s go back three months to that day. Deepa had asked Rishi, "Rishi, I want to ask you something."

  Without looking at her, Rishi said, "Deepa, we’ll talk later. Right now, we need to go to the lawyer’s office." "No, I need to talk to you now," Deepa insisted. "We’ll talk later," Rishi said, preparing to leave the room. But before he could, Deepa suddenly rushed up behind him and hugged him tightly.

  "Rishi, I need you in my life. I want to share my life with you until eternity. I don’t want to lose you. You brought back all the happiness I had lost. I don’t know how my life will be after this, but I need you. In short, I LOVE YOU, Rishi," Deepa said, tears filling her eyes.

  Rishi turned around and softly said, "Deepa, I need to say something too." He gently cupped her face in his hands and continued, "First, I want to ask for your forgiveness. Yesterday, you asked me if I would miss you after our divorce. I said no, but the truth is, I wanted to say yes. I LOVE YOU, DEEPA, and I don’t want to lose you."

  In response, Deepa slapped him lightly and said, "Then why did you say no?" Rishi apologized, "I’m sorry for that," and the room fell into silence for a few moments. Then, they shared their first true kiss.

  With that, the story of "A Loveless Arranged Marriage" comes to an end.