I did not plan to publish chapter today but today is my birthday, so here's my gift to all my readers. Enjoy!
The chapter is unedited as I completed writing it today.

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Dharini's POV

Today is my mehendi ceremony. Two girls of my age came to apply mehendi on my hands and legs, one of them is married. I'm wearing a sleeveless suit. The girl wrote Sir's name on my right palm. This feeling is so different.

I was preparing myself that soon I will leave my parents, my home, my bed. But today when mehendi is being applied of Mishra's sir name, the thought of actually marrying in 4 days is sinking in. What if I don't live up to their expectations? What if I do any mistake? What if they treat me like the in-laws shown in serials? A shiver ran down my spine. I'm feeling suffocated. I'm just 18 year old girl, how will I manage everything on my own?

"Rini" mumma came and wiped my tears which I didn't know was there in the first place.

"It's okay Rinu. Don't be upset, when they know you, they will like you. I promise." she said while putting her palm on my head.

The dam of tears that I built broke and a sob left my mouth. She put my head to her chest to console. She didn't say a word, just patted my head until tears stopped coming out of my eyes and sobs almost stopped.

"Rini, we will be in one village, why are you crying? I'm sure Anav ji will love you and will never let you feel our absence and you can visit us wherever you miss us"

There she said it, visit us.

Like a guest.

My own home, where I grew up since childhood, after marriage I can just visit there, like a stranger and go back to the place which is supposed to be my home.
I am already feeling like a stranger. No one is telling me anything, Papa and Mumma are looking worried since they came here. When asked, they say everything is fine but it doesn't seem from their faces.

After mumma left because my aunt called her. Drishu came with food, as I'm unable to eat on my own, she started feeding me.

Anav's POV

Today is our mehendi ceremony. I'll not say that I'm so much excited to apply it on my hands and legs but every to be groom has to go through this ritual..so here I am, sitting on a chair when a lady is applying it on my palms and legs.

Whatever happened today was not good. What would Dharini's family be thinking about us? What would she be feeling? It was unacceptable.

Flashback

In the morning, before mehendi ceremony, both of our families are going to the temple and worship God and pray to shower their blessings on us and make the marriage hassle free. Today I'm going to see Dharini after 1.5 months. I'm quite excited to meet her.

As we reached our temple, I noticed my close relatives are also there. I was expecting that only didi, jiju, ma, baba, grandma and grandpa will be there but seems like everybody is here. Well..

As soon as I entered inside temple, I heard commotion behind me. When I turned, my breath hitched. There she is, my bride, my Dharini. She's wearing blue blouse with yellow saree, her silky curls are flowing with the wind, her tan skin is shining so brightly that even the sun would feel ashamed. Her blush made me realized I'm staring at her with mouth agape.

My bubble burst when I heard..

"Ye hai Dharini?" (This is Dharini?) Asked my eldest aunt with so much disgust that I couldn't control my shocked expression.

"She is dark, brother, did you not find any fair girl for our Aanu?" Other aunt asked.

Thank God they are still far so they didn't hear.

I noticed baba is angry so as my mumma and grandpa. But my grandma, her expression is not giving any hint as what she is thinking.

We gave our offerings to the priest who put it infront of God. We took blessings from God then priest.
After that, Dharini bend to take blessings from everyone one by one. By now, she must have felt the tension in the air. This is the moment I was most afraid about. I'm silent because this is my wedding and I don't want negativity. They showed their dislike of her infront me through their words but if they dare to say any hurtful word to her, I will not stay silent.

I took blessings from her parents and grandparents. Her mother's expression give away that she understood what is going on here. Then I saw Dharini, who's looking down, not because of shyness but because none of my relatives talked to her or even smiled at her, when I noticed this, how come she won't?

When we came back from the temple, one of my aunts asked baba again, her words- "brother, our aanu is like a diamond and she's like a coal, how can you choose her for him?"

"Enough, get over from valuing appearance only. I know that we couldn't find better match for Aanu than her." baba replied.

"She is saying right. The girl is tanned and not so much beautiful so that we could ignore her skin color." Dadi intervened.

"Ma, you wished for Aanu's wedding to take place here. Let every function happen peacefully. Don't make me regret my decision of holding Anav's wedding here. And those who are finding faults in my daughter in law should look within. I will not tolerate anymore negative words against my daughter in law." Baba replied in anger and said last part in high pitched while glaring my aunts.

Flashback Ends

Since then, my aunts are sulking in corner, my uncle decided to stay away from this matter while my cousins didn't like baba's harsh worsh towards their mothers but they also feel that aunts were wrong.

Anyways, today is my day and I don't want to ruin my mood by thinking of all this.

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Next day

Dharini's POV

Chachi told me that if my mehendi stain gets dark, my to be husband loves me. Rightnow I'm struggling with removing my mehendi as it is covering my arms. I guess I need Drishu's help.

"Drishu" I called her

"Yes jiji"

"Please help me to get mehendi off"

"Urgh jiji, okay fine"

She helped me remove it and I noticed the stain is dark.

All the blood rushed to my cheeks. If what chachi said is true, does he really love me?

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