Arohi's POV

After the encounter with my mom, I slowly made it to my room, undressed and stepped into the shower.

It was the biggest day of my life. My future was going to get decided in the next few minutes and I haven't prepared for it. I had prepared,studied and strategizied for lesser things in my life and when it came to the most important test of my life, I had only one line.

I love Yudhi

And hope it sticks.

It was probably the worst day for my mom, having to find her soon to be married daughter sleeping with some other guy. No daughter should punish her parent the way I did. After all the things she has done for me, I did this to her. She probably is hating herself right now and blaming her parenting skills for my behavior.

She is probably going to kill me for what I did, but I was not afraid to face her and Dad. I am going to go down there and declare my love for Yudhi and explain them the reasons behind my behavior and then accept whatever punishment they give me. After all, I am the one who made stupid assumptions and put everyone in this situation, hence I deserve to be punished, but only after I declare my love for Yudhi.

I need to make sure that they understand that Yudhi had no fault in what happened yesterday night, as he was drunk and probably won't remember anything today. Also, actually nothing happened, we just slept in each other arms. If that is a crime then I deserve punishment.

I tried to avoid this situation by trying to convince Yudhi about forgetting me, but in the process, I realized that I cannot forget his love or live without him. So now I am left with no other choice but to convince everyone to cancel my engagement with Sid.

After taking shower I put on a simple dress and headed downstairs where my future was awaiting me.

Mom and Dad were in the living room having coffee and going through the newspaper. They looked normal, like any other day. I was expecting them to be tense and angry, waiting to kill me, for what I did, instead they appeared like a normal couple having coffee.

This could be the silence before the storm, I thought and approached them cautiously.

I went close and stood in front of them. Both of them put their newspaper down and looked at me questioningly.

"Dad, Ma , before I say anything, I wanted to tell you that I love Yudhi and he loves me."

"Wait Arohi, did this love thing happened yesterday night?" My mom asked interrupting me.

"No Ma, it happened before, but because of some misconceptions and bad assumptions on my side, I couldn't tell you and complicated things."

"So what made you realize now?"

"I realized my mistakes after talking to Kim and Yudhi, and I really love him and cannot live without him." And I started crying.

My mom immediately stood and hugged me and made me sit by her side, holding me and rubbing my back.

"Ma I really love him. Please cancel my wedding."

"Sorry Arohi, we cannot cancel the wedding now. Too many preparations are under way, people have been notified and lot of money has been spent or advanced."

"But Ma, I love Yudhi and even after what happened last night, how can you ask me to go ahead?" I was still crying in her lap.

"Arohi I don't want to know what happened last night. I tried my best as a parent to teach you our norms and culture and hope you and your sister will follow them. But I understand you grew up in different times and culture and these things have become very common, so I would pretend nothing happened and we will go as per our schedule. Its too late to change anything now." I felt like she just crashed my hopes.

"But Ma, last night .." she interrupted me again.

"Arohi please stop. We don't want to know anything about last night."

I got angry. "So you don't care what I do with Yudhi, but just want to go ahead with marriage as planned."

"We hope you didn't do anything stupid, but it's too late to change things. I would want you to respect the institution of marriage, your parents, in-laws and our culture. And I am expecting you to follow them, but anything else I don't want to know."

"OMG! Are you even my parents? "

"Honey, what kind of stupid question is that?" My father asked.

"Else what Dad? I am telling you that I love Yudhi and cannot live without him. Yesterday night was not a mistake, and it could happen again. I am not saying I did anything bad, all I am asking you guys to consider it and cancel my wedding. I don't understand how are you taking yesterday night events so lightly as if it is normal for me to do such things." I was trying to stop the tears, but couldn't help it.

"Arohi, we want you to be happy and today's generation takes things much more lightly than our generation. We are just trying to be nice here. Moreover marriage means lot of things and takes time, so please be patient and let things go as per our original plan. Meanwhile what you and Yudhi do, is your business. We don't want to butt in between."

"OMG! You mean to say, you don't care what I do with Yudhi, as long as I marry Sid as per your plan"

"What! Why are you bringing Sid here? Who said we are asking you to marry Sid?" My mom questioned.

"WHAT! " It was my turn to get surprised.

"Yes honey, why are you bringing Sid in between?" My Dad asked

"Wait a second. ..... whom am I marrying?" I asked. My hearbeat was racing and so loud that the astronauts on International Space Station could hear me. Am I still sleeping or awake? I felt like I was being recorded for some blooper TV show embarrassing myself. I didn't know whom I was going to marry...ridiculous.

"What kind of silly question is that? Your fiancée of course." My mom said pulling me closer to her.

"And my fiancée is ?" I looked at her hoping for a quick answer as I my heart stopped beating momentarily.

"Common Arohi, you silly, you are having fun with him daily and just now declared your love for him as if we don't know and even spent the night with him." She knocked on my head lovingly.

I knew where this was going but how did it happen? How come no one told me? Also until I hear the name, I don't want to assume anything? I don't have too much faith in my assumptions.

"Its Yudhi!" My dad declared. I felt like life was slowly slipping back into my body.

I took two minutes to calm myself down. I pinched myself to make sure I was awake. So all this time, they thought I was asking to prepone the marriage because I spent the night with him and the reason they were not angry because, I was with my fiancée and they don't care what I do with him, though they want me respect the institution of marriage and keep myself pure.

But how did this happen? I tried to remember the words my mom told me when she called me to inform me of my engagement, she didn't mention the name Sid, only referred to him as fiancée. So the dinner talk about Yudhi's girl friend was actually about me. They were waiting for me to declare my love for Yudhi.

Hmmm. ..my parents are actually on Yudhi's side and they all had fun watching me squirm with guilt, while Yudhi was actually having fun without guilt as he knew I was his fiancée. Actually Yudhi's behavior changed since our return trip, he became bold and started kissing and hugging me. I should have realized then, as Yudhi would never do such a thing unless he has some kind of green signal from parents and being fiancée gave him those rights. Damn! I am so naive. Things started getting clearer now and I was still in my mom's lap.

I quickly got up and pointed my finger at her. "You misled me on purpose? Does Yudhi also know? Of course he knows." I made a pouty face. Just then my sister Abhi came downstairs.

"Does she know? " I asked my mom angrily.

"Ofcourse I know" Abhi answered. "Ma, I am moving downstairs, I cannot take this torture anymore. Either kick these lovebirds out or move me to a hostel. I can't sleep in the night or walk with my eyes open, you never know what you are going to run into. Biggest joke is they think they are invisible." My sister started ranting about me and Yudhi, while I was glaring at her for not telling me about Yudhi.

"Ok, before you get angry on everyone you need to listen to our side of story and let us explain why and how we did it." My mom started explaining the story of my engagement starting from our India trip.