Anonymous Love

The wedding hall buzzed with laughter and celebration. Guests filled the seats around the beautifully decorated mandap, eagerly waiting for the bride and groom to begin the sacred rituals.Children ran around between the rows of chairs, their giggles echoing through the hall, while teenagers clicked endless pictures and helped themselves to the lavish buffet.

Everything looked perfect.

Except for the bridal suite.

Behind its closed doors, the celebration had turned into complete chaos.

The bride had run away.

The Oberois stood frozen in disbelief. Her mother sat on the sofa, sobbing uncontrollably as she clutched the edge of her saree, while her father stood beside her, trying to console her despite his own trembling hands.

Across the room, the Mehrotras exchanged anxious glances, their embarrassment growing with every passing second.

Their guests were waiting outside.

The priest was waiting.

The mandap was ready.

But the bride was nowhere to be found.Sharansh Mehrotra stood near the window with his fists clenched tightly at his sides. His face remained unreadable, almost frighteningly calm, but the storm raging behind his eyes made it obvious that he was barely holding himself together.

His wedding day had turned into a public humiliation, and Sharansh Mehrotra hated being humiliated more than anything.

The door suddenly burst open, and Vamika Oberoi rushed inside after being called from downstairs. She stopped the moment she saw the tearful faces and tense silence surrounding her. Her eyes moved from her crying mother to her father and finally settled on Sharansh, whose gaze had already found hers.

“What happened?” she asked, her breathing slightly uneven.

Nobody answered.

Her brows furrowed as she looked around the room. “Where is Di?”

The silence that followed was enough to make her heart sink.

Her mother began crying harder while her father looked away, unable to meet her eyes. Vamika slowly turned toward Sharansh, only to find him already walking toward her.

He stopped directly in front of her, his expression cold and unreadable. “Your sister ran away,” he said, his voice dangerously calm. “Now you’ll marry me.”

Vamika stared at him as if he had lost his mind. “What?”

“It wasn’t a question.”

She took a step backward, shaking her head. “No. I can’t.”

“You can.”

“I said no,” Vamika repeated, her voice trembling as she tried to keep herself composed.

Before Sharansh could respond, her father’s voice cut through the room. “She will.”

Vamika slowly turned toward him, her eyes widening in disbelief. “Dad?”

He looked away for a moment before forcing himself to meet her eyes.

“Vamika, don’t make this harder than it already is.”

“You want me to marry a man whose bride just ran away?” she asked, her voice breaking slightly. “How can you even ask me that?”

“It’s the only way to save this family’s reputation,” her father replied quietly.

“Save the family’s reputation?” A bitter laugh escaped her lips as tears gathered in her eyes. “And what about me?”

Nobody answered.

That silence hurt more than any words could have.

Vamika looked toward her mother, hoping that perhaps she would be the one person to stand beside her. Instead, her mother wiped her tears and looked at her with frustration.

“Vamika, for once in your life, do something for this family,” she said bitterly. “Your sister has already created enough trouble. At least today, you can be useful.”

Vamika’s lips parted.

Her mother’s next words shattered whatever little hope she had left.

“She has always been a burden to this family. Worthless, nothing but trouble. At least today, she can take her sister’s place.”

For a few seconds, Vamika couldn’t breathe.

A burden.

Worthless.

Trouble.

Words she had heard more times than she could count, words she had spent years pretending didn’t hurt anymore. But hearing them on the day she was being forced into a marriage she never wanted made every old wound feel fresh again.

She looked around the room.

Not a single person asked what she wanted.

Not a single person asked whether she was ready.

Not a single person stood beside her.Everyone had already decided the course of her life in a matter of minutes.Her eyes finally landed on Sharansh, and whatever softness remained in them disappeared completely.

“I hate you, Mr. Mehrotra,” she whispered, her voice trembling with years of buried pain. “I despise your existence, your name, everything that has anything to do with you.”

Sharansh stared at her for a long moment before letting out a humourless laugh. “And you think I love you?” His eyes held nothing but cold indifference. “You’re mistaken, Vamika. I hate you far more than you could ever imagine.”

Vamika clenched her fists. “Then why are you doing this?”

“Because this marriage has nothing to do with love.”

He stepped closer, his voice dropping lower. “You were never anything more than a pawn in my game.”

“A pawn?” she repeated, her eyes filling with anger.

“Exactly.”

Neither of them knew that those words would follow them for years.

Neither of them knew that the marriage they were entering with hatred would eventually become the very thing neither could imagine living without.

Marriage is meant to unite two souls.

Two families.

Two hearts.

It is supposed to be built on love, trust, companionship, and forever.

But theirs was built on anger, resentment, humiliation, and a decision neither of them had chosen.

Vamika stood near the large bedroom window, staring blankly into the darkness outside. The divorce papers rested on the table behind her, waiting to put an end to the relationship that had consumed one year of her life.

Twelve months of arguments, misunderstandings, broken promises, tears, and wounds that neither of them had ever learned how to heal.

She had entered this house unwillingly, carrying nothing but resentment in her heart. She had spent the next twelve months trying to survive a marriage that had never felt like a marriage.

And now she was done.

Sharansh stood several feet behind her, watching her silently. There was something different in his eyes tonight. Something Vamika hadn’t seen in a very long time.

Fear.

“You’re serious?” he finally asked, his voice barely above a whisper.Vamika didn’t turn around.

“Divorce papers are there on the table.” she replied coldly, her eyes still fixed on the window.

“I don’t think there’s anything left between us that is worth saving.”Sharansh took a step toward her.

“Vamika...”

She finally turned around.

His eyes were filled with something that almost made her heart ache.

“Don’t do this to me,” he whispered.

“Please.”

She remained silent.

“I know I don’t deserve another chance,” he continued, his voice breaking. “I know I’ve made mistakes. I know I’ve hurt you more times than I can count. But please don’t leave me.”

Vamika stared at him, trying to find even a small part of the man she had once hoped he would become.

But all she could remember was everything that had gone wrong.

“I gave you a year, Sharansh,” she said quietly. “One whole year.”

“I know.”

“You had twelve months to make things right.”

“I know.”

“You had twelve months to make me believe that marrying you wasn’t the biggest mistake of my life.”

Her voice cracked, but she refused to cry. “And you failed.”

Sharansh shook his head desperately. “Then give me one more chance. Just one. I swear I’ll make everything right.”

Vamika looked at him with tired eyes. “I can’t.”

“Please.”

“I can’t do this anymore.”

Sharansh slowly dropped to his knees in front of her, desperation replacing the arrogance she had grown so used to seeing. “Don’t do this to me, sweetheart. Please, I beg you. Don’t leave me.”

Vamika closed her eyes for a moment.She opened her eyes and looked at him one last time. “Goodbye, Mr. Mehrotra. Take care.”

She picked up her bag and walked toward the door.

Sharansh remained on his knees for a moment, staring at her retreating figure as though his mind had stopped working. “Vamika...”

She didn’t stop.

The door closed behind her.

Only then did Sharansh seem to come back to his senses.

He immediately stood and rushed out of the room. “Vamika!”

By the time he reached the entrance, her car was already leaving the mansion.

“Stop!”

She didn’t.

The car disappeared through the gates, leaving Sharansh standing helplessly in the driveway.

For the first time, he understood what it felt like to lose someone he had once believed would always be there.

And he wasn’t ready to let her go.

Vamika drove through the empty road without looking back. Her hands remained tightly wrapped around the steering wheel while tears blurred her vision, but she refused to stop.

She had spent an entire year trying to find a reason to stay.

Tonight, she had finally found a reason to leave.

Her phone continued ringing beside her..

Sharansh.

Again.

And again.

She ignored every call before finally switching her phone off.

She didn’t want to hear his voice.

Not tonight.

Not anymore.

Hours later, Sharansh finally found her.Vamika stood near the edge of a cliff overlooking the dark ocean, the cold wind pulling at her hair and clothes. She stared ahead silently, lost in thoughts she didn’t want to explain.

“Vamika.”

She heard his voice but didn’t turn around.

Sharansh stopped a few steps away from her. “Please.”

“Go home, Sharansh,” she replied quietly.

“I can’t.”

“You need to.”

“I can’t go home without you.”

Vamika finally turned around.

He looked exhausted. His eyes were red, his breathing uneven, and for once, there was no arrogance left in him.Only desperation.

“Vamika, I am begging you for a chance,” he said, his voice trembling.

“Just one chance, please. Everyone deserves a second chance. Why not me?”

She stared at him for several seconds before giving him a faint, tired smile.“I don’t read my book backwards, Mehrotra.”

The hope in his eyes faded.

“People change,” he whispered.“Maybe they do.”

She looked away. “But changing doesn’t erase what happened.”

“I’ll spend the rest of my life fixing it.”

“You should have thought about that before breaking it.”

Before Sharansh could respond, another voice came from behind them.“Have you listened to her, Sharansh?”

Both of them turned.

A man stood several feet away, his expression unreadable.

Sharansh’s face hardened instantly.

“You?”

The man glanced toward Vamika before looking back at him. “She doesn’t want you. She isn’t even ready to give you another chance.”

Sharansh instinctively moved slightly in front of Vamika. “Stay away from her.”

The man gave a cold smile. “You messed up really badly, Sharansh.”

His gaze shifted toward Vamika. “And now you’ve finally found something you can’t afford to lose.”

Vamika’s expression changed.

She took a small step backward.

“Sharansh...”

He immediately reached toward her.

“Don’t move.”

But everything happened too quickly.

The man suddenly lunged forward.Sharansh tried to reach Vamika, but she stumbled backward in the confusion.

“Vamika!”

Her eyes met his.

For one terrifying second, neither of them moved.

Then she disappeared from his reach.

“VAMIKAAAA!”

Sharansh rushed forward, staring into the darkness below as his heart pounded violently against his chest.The sound of the ocean swallowed his scream.

He stood there frozen, unable to comprehend what had just happened.The woman who had entered his life as a forced bride had become the one person he couldn’t imagine living without.

And now...

She was gone.

Or at least, that’s what Sharansh believed.

Because the real story of Vamika Oberoi and Sharansh Mehrotra had only just begun.