"What is it Maya?" Ranbir gritted his teeth, and clenched his fists. He couldn't stand the sight of her any minute longer. He didn't want to waste any time with Maya that he could spend with Prachi.

"Ranbir, do you really love Prachi?" Maya asked, feigning the hurt in her voice. She needed Ranbir's wealth. Sure, she scolded the saleslady and attempted to act jealous but that was only because she needed to make sure everyone thought of her and Ranbir as a couple. She needed money if she were to ever succeed with her plan, and Riya was the key to getting it. She would marry Ranbir, then only divorce him if Riya agreed to give her $100, 000 each month.

"How many times do I need to tell you Maya?! I love Prachi and will only love her for the rest of my life, even longer than that!" Ranbir replied.

"Ranbir, listen, that Prachi is cheap and a middle class bi.," Maya began, however a shout interrupted her.

"Maya! Don't you dare call Prachi that or else it won't be good for you!" warned Ranbir.

"Did you just threaten me because of that Prachi?!"

Ranbir took a deep breath, to calm himself. He couldn't yell at Maya, she was the only way out of this mess. He didn't want to even see her, especially after what she was about to call Prachi. But he had to endure her presence for a little while longer, if he were to ever talk with his beloved again.

"Maya I just yelled at you because I'm in a bad mood and you insulting Prachi just increased my bad mood." Ranbir lied, not even trying to sound convincing.

"Okay fine. What if I make a deal with you?" Maya asked with a devilish glint in her eyes.

"And what deal may that be exactly?" Ranbir replied, with a raised eyebrow.

"I will back off from this marriage but after a while I will return and ask for something and you will have to give it to me," Maya said.

"What will you ask for?"

"You will find out about it later," Maya replied.

"Okay. Deal," Ranbir said after thinking for a moment. Anything would be better than staying away from his love. If he married Maya, he wouldn't be able to meet Prachi but if he didn't marry Maya at least he would be able to talk with Prachi even if she refused for marriage.

"Bye for now then. I'll go and tell mom and dad to cancel the marriage." Maya said, and left with a smirk on her lips.

Ranbir pondered over what Maya's condition could possibly be. He just hoped he didn't regret it, he would do anything for Prachi but - but what if the condition was related to Prachi? He shoved that thought at the back of his mind and decided to celebrate, he was finally free of Maya. He could finally focus on attempting to make Prachi fall in love with him. He wouldn't force her, even if she never reciprocates his feelings, but it wouldn't hurt to try, would it now?

Prachi rushed out of her hiding spot and glared at Ranbir, in a way that made him gulp. He was scared but not in the way Prachi thought. He was afraid he had done something that'll make Prachi go away from him, and only he knew how much it hurt when Prachi declined his calls. He had barely managed to calm Prachi down after his proposal, he didn't want her to distance herself from him ever again.

"What did I do now?"

"You agreed to Maya's condition, when you don't even know what she'll ask for. I know that you wouldn't just agree to anything, even someone as silly as you would at least want to know what she was going to ask for. So why did you agree?" Prachi asked, infuriated with Ranbir's carelessness.

Relief washed over Ranbir, Prachi was mad at him because of this! He couldn't help but smile in the situation. Prachi cared for him, even if she only considered him as a friend. She may deny it her actions show the care and concern she feels for him. She wouldn't be upset if he didn't do something that was a possible threat to him in the future, if she didn't care for him.

"Ranbir, please don't tell me you have no sensible reason for saying yes to Maya's deal," Prachi said, exasperated and irked by the smugness on Ranbir's face.

"I do have a reason! If I don't get married to Maya my parents would be ecstatic and they won't need to worry as they'll have no idea about this deal, I'll just tell them that my plan succeeded which technically speaking wouldn't be lying as it did succeed," Ranbir replied, telling only part of his reason.

"And why did you yell at her, what if she refused to back out from the marriage!" Prachi said, raising her voice a little.

"Prachi, my mood was already bad and she insulted you! How could I remain quiet? If she insulted any one of my other friends I would have done the same thing and I bet you wouldn't be angry at me then because the person probably would've been someone who was a mutual friend to both of us. So why are you angry at me because I defended you?" Ranbir questioned.

Prachi recalled his confession on Holi. Though her first impression of him was wrong, she had never thought of him as anything other than a best friend. She was overwhelmed by the fact that he had though, she was glad that he wouldn't pester for marriage or being in a relationship. She wanted to keep in contact with him, but she couldn't if all he would do was ask her about her answer.

She didn't know why but for some reason she couldn't bear the thought of not being able to talk to Ranbir again. Initially, she had hated him but with time she came to understand he wasn't all the bad. She had actually started liking him to a certain extent, as a friend of course. She couldn't ever imagine being with him as anything more, he didn't have the bulk of the qualities she wanted in a life partner. He was a great human being, but he wasn't right for her. They would argue uselessly over most topics and that's something she didn't want in her married life. She had hoped Ranbir wouldn't treat her differently to his other friends; however, somewhere deep down, her heart disagreed with this thought of hers.

"Would you really act the same way if it were Shahana, Maya was insulting instead of me?" Prachi whispered, slightly worried about what Ranbir's answer would be. She didn't love him, that was certain, and she definitely didn't want to be treated differently to how anyone else would be.

"I would've definitely been angry at Maya but if my mood was better than it was today then I probably wouldn't have yelled at Maya instead I would've controlled my anger," Ranbir said.

'How can I remain quiet when someone insults you? Prachi, though you may not like it, I love you and I can't deny that. Perhaps if it was someone else I wouldn't have reacted so rashly, but Maya was associating such a horrible word with you! How could I remain quiet?'

Ranbir thought to himself, sighing.

Prachi frowned, bemused but she decided to not pester Ranbir any further and instead she just asked the reason for his bad mood.

"Because I thought that my plan wouldn't work as Maya would refuse to believe that I loved you," Ranbir partly confessed.

Ranbir sighed in relief, Prachi believed his reason. Sure, his reason had some truth to it, but it wasn't the main cause of his bad mood. Someone had done it again. It aggravated him a lot when he found out. He already despised that person. This just added to his list of reasons for hating them.

Prachi opened her mouth, but Ranbir quickly interrupted, anticipating that Prachi would ask him a question, and that the answer to that question would make her uncomfortable. "Thank god Maya backed off from the marriage. I don't know how I would've survived with her as my wife. I even get a headache when I think about it!

Prachi is about to ask the same question she was going to when Ranbir's phone makes the sound of a news notification. And what the news said left them both astonished. But then again, with the ways things were going right now, it was something inevitable.

⊱ ──────────── {⋆❉⋆} ──────────── ⊰

"Mummy ji, I can't express how happy I am feeling today! I feel like Ranbir has chosen the perfect daughter-in-law for us. Prachi's so perfect, and humble too. I know she'll serve us well once we're older." Pallavi exclaimed, feeling ecstatic. Prachi was the perfect person for Ranbir, she had influenced him in such a good way.

"I know Pallo, we should go and confront Ranbir for not telling us for I'm sure he convinced Prachi not to tell anyone otherwise Prachi being the sweet and innocent girl she is would've definitely told us," Dida wholeheartedly agreed with her daughter-in-law.

"I know Ranbir will surely get a good scolding from me, he hid such a big good, no, great news from us!" Pallavi said, planning ways to get back at Ranbir for this. Sure, he had told her that he loved someone but he should've revealed the name to her! It would've made her relieved, knowing that her son had fallen in love with Prachi.

Dida nodded, and suggested to go and get a saree for Prachi, as Shagun. Pallavi agreed and the duo started selecting a lot of clothes for Prachi and the rest of their family. Both of them bursting with joy, that too after a long time.

⊱ ──────────── {⋆❉⋆} ──────────── ⊰

Pragya stared outside her window, a soft smile on her lips due to the news given by Pallavi and Dida. How her little Prachi had grown. It only felt like yesterday that she was crying for chocolate. As a child Prachi had quite the sweet tooth, she still did now but she had matured a lot over the years. Prachi's and Ranbir's relationship was a lot like her relationship with Abhi, fighting over the tiniest of things, then falling in love and becoming inseparable. Not by distance, but by heart. She just hoped that they never separated though, her Prachi was too innocent to bear the pain of separation. She still remembered the cries of Prachi when she was younger, she had resolved to not forgive Abhi for that but soon realised that this time, she was at fault too. Their decision of separating was mutual, and she was glad that her younger daughter didn't have to bear the same pain as Prachi. A selfish part of her, hoped that she missed her but she shook those thoughts off whenever they came. She hoped her younger daughter was happy, wherever she was.

She made a silent wish that her younger daughter too got someone special, who loved her just as much as Ranbir loved Prachi. She was certain they would get married. Pragya felt a lump in her throat when she thought about her daughter getting married. She had always been by her side in the past twenty years, it was impossible to imagine life without her now. She sighed as one day or another Prachi would get married. But, she just needed a little more time to digest this fact. She didn't want Prachi to go away from her for more than a day, she even came back to Dehli, a city she wanted nothing to do with, to be with her daughter. She missed her younger daughter a lot too, and that was part of the reason she returned. Maybe she would meet her younger daughter.

Pragya's eyes brimmed with tears as she thought about all her moments with Abhi, and the short time she spent with her youngest. She swallowed the rest of her tears as she recalled Alia's harsh words that day. Her youngest hated her, she didn't want anything to do with her. She wiped her tears and reprimanded herself for being upset in a moment of happiness.

At Mehra Mansion Abhi is engrossed in the thoughts of Riya and Ranbir's relationship. He recalled Riya's confession to Alia. Riya loved Ranbir, that much he knew, and he felt that Ranbir too reciprocated Riya's feelings. But he couldn't be further from the truth.

'Riya and Ranbir love each other a lot, Fuggy. I just wish you were here to see it. I wonder how my elder daughter is doing. I hope she finds someone as good as Ranbir. I miss you.'

Both Abhi and Pragya witnessed the sunset, as they reminisced each other and all their moments. Silently they prayed that wherever their daughters are, they are happy and safe.

⊱ ──────────── {⋆❉⋆} ──────────── ⊰

Riya paced around in Dimpy's room. Prachi was coming close to Ranbir again, she feared what that meant for her love-life. She needed to devise a plan, one that would be fool proof and permanently get rid of Prachi. There were only two ways to do that, either make Prachi go back to her hometown or kill her. Riya instantly shook that thought out of her mind. Sure, Prachi had done many things with her but that didn't mean she had the right to kill her. She could clearly imagine her Dad's disappointed face if he ever found out about her killing Prachi. He might even disown her right then and there. Besides, it was inhuman of her. Prachi's mother would be beyond devastated to know that her only daughter has died. So, killing Prachi was a big no. But she still needed to do something to separate Prachi and Ranbir.

A smirk appeared on her lips as she thought of the perfect plan. Prachi would be proved characterless in front of everyone, and this way Ranbir would only be hers. Inevitably, he would become the son-in-law of Abhishek Prem Mehra too. Prachi would suffer, but Riya felt that she deserved it. She doesn't want to hurt anyone so badly, but then again Prachi wasn't anyone. Prachi was the sole reason for misery at this time, Prachi was the only reason Ranbir left her. At least that's what Riya felt. But for now, she needed to focus on making Maya back out from her marriage, and without trying to expose herself. Maybe she could offer her money? No, she had already tried that multiple times. Of course! Maya was only marrying Ranbir because of his wealth, so what if she fixed Maya's alliance with someone even wealthier. That would work out perfectly.

Riya is about to leave Dimpy's room, to say bye to Dimpy when she goes she accidentally knocked over a picture frame. When she picked it up, her eyes glistened with tears. It was a picture of Dimpy and her elder sister, smiling happily. Sometimes, Riya felt envious of Dimpy - and even Shahana. They had their siblings close to them, they had someone to talk with about things they couldn't possibly share with their parents. Riya had hid her desire for a sibling ever since she was little, she knew that she had an elder twin and she missed her dearly. She thought that Shahana was extremely lucky, even though she didn't have a real sister, she had Prachi. Someone who showered a lot of sisterly love on her. And even though she had Aryan, her cousin brother, he could never take the place of the twin she never knew. Riya had always wondered how things would've been if her elder sister was always living with her and had never separated from her. She had always wished that her elder sister hadn't separated from her. She had always wondered how her elder sister had been like. Oh, how she missed her. Perhaps she would even help her in getting her love back.

Her dad had told her plenty of times that he was sure her elder sister would be someone like her mother, someone like Prachi! It just made Riya furious that her dad was slowly giving her sister's place to Prachi. And thinking about her Buji's words about her mother, she was sure she didn't want her sister to turn out like her mother either. Though perhaps her sister was like Prachi's mother, that would've been the best thing. After all, Riya adored Prachi's mom and Prachi's mother loved her too. How she wished that Prachi's mom was her mom and not that lady who deserted her twenty years back.

Riya wistfully sighed as she wiped the tears off her face. She delicately put the photo frame back in it's spot, not wanting to break it and left to tell Dimpy about her departure.

(2800+ words) That's the longest first chapter I've ever written! :D

Happy Lohri, everyone!

When should I update next? (I've already written the next part, just need to edit it once)

Anyways, how did you guys like the first part?

What's the shocking yet inevitable news that Pranbir received? (This is too obvious, I believe)

And, criticism is always welcome.

Until Tomorrow!

~Riya Sharma