The sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows on the walls of the cramped apartment where Sarha lived with her stepmother and stepsister. The air was thick with tension as Mrs. Kurana scolded her for the second time that day. "You call this clean? I can still see dust on the shelves! You're not a child anymore; act like you belong in this house!"

Sarha's heart sank, but she kept her head down, scrubbing the wooden surface with a rag. "I'm sorry, Ma. I'll do better," she murmured, fighting back tears. Nita, her stepsister, perched on the edge of the sofa, snickered, her eyes glinting with malice.

"Better? This is what you call better? Pathetic!" Nita chimed, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "Maybe if you spent less time daydreaming about princes and more time cleaning, we wouldn't have to live in such a cleaning, we wouldn't have to live in such a pigsty."

Sarha stifled a sigh. Nita thrived on conflict, and any word from Sarha would only provoke her further. Instead, she focused on the task at hand, her thoughts drifting to the future-what it might hold beyond these walls.

The doorbell rang, a sharp sound that echoed through the apartment. Mrs. Kurana's eyes brightened, and she straightened her back, smoothing down her dress. "Finally! They came" she announced, her voice tinged with excitement.

Nita rolled her eyes. Sarha's heart raced as she wiped her hands on her apron, anxiety knotting in her stomach. She had heard the whispers-this was a marriage arranged by her stepmother to get rid of her. What kind of man would want her? She was confused that why would any guy would agree to marry her knowing that she is not so beautiful

As the door swung open, there stood mr. & Mrs. Patel....

"Welcome. Mr.patel" Mrs. Kurana cooed, her voice dripping with sweetness. "I trust you had a pleasant journey?"

"Not too bad," he replied, his voice low but steady. "Traffic was a nightmare." He scanned the room, his gaze landing on Sarha.

"she is sarha" Mrs. Kurana said,gesturing for Sarha to step forward. Sarha hesitated, her heart racing. This was it. She forced a smile, one that felt foreign on her lips.

"Namaste" she said bowing her head alittle

"namaste beta"mrs.patel replied with a smile

"Let's sit and talk" Mrs.Kurana said as they nodded and followed Mrs.kurana inside the house and sat on the sofa...

"Where is your son?" Mrs.kurana asked

"Oh he is coming with his grandpa" Mr.patel said as Mrs.Kurana and Mrs.patel started chitchatting

Sahil pov

I was sitting in my office with my grandpa who suddenly came and told me that he wanted me to meet a girl for marriage

I sighed, why don't they understand I don't want to get married to any gold diggers. I want to fall in love first and marry the person whom I love

"Grandpa you know tha-"

"No excuse, your 30 years old now and I have given you enough time to find a girl but all u do is sit infront of the computer and work. And by chance if any girl is interested in you, you reject and not to mention because of your cold behavior everyone are scared of you"

"Grandpa you know na how girls these days are"

"I know beta that's why I thought of an plan"

"What plan?" I asked as he leaned forward and told me the plan

"But they must have enquired about us"

"I told the matchmaker to give fake information" he said as I nodded....The plan is great and will work 100%. I got up and dressed up and headed out with grandpa to Mr.kurana's house

After a while we reached and press the door bell, we did not came by car and as per the plan I got dressed up poorly and acted as a disabled...if the girl is nice she will agree to be with me even after knowing I am disable and poor and if she is not then she will refuse..

The door opened and i saw a beautiful girl, she looked at me with disgust and went inside....

I shook my head and sighed, she is the one grandpa want me to get married with? The first impression of her is so bad I wonder what will happen next...

Grandpa pushed my wheelchair as he got inside the house....

As we got inside I saw another girl standing lowering her head and suddenly she looked up as our eyes met for a while and it's like the world stopped around us...

I felt a tingling feeling inside my chest which i never felt before suddenly Mrs.kurana spoke making us come back to our sense...

"This is sarha, my eldest daughter"

Author pov

The two family talked about marriage while sahil and sarha keeping glancing at eachother from time to time....seeing this Mrs.patel smiled and whispered to mr&Mrs.kurana "we should let them talk"

Mr.kurana nodded "yes, sarha...show him around the house beta" he said as sarha nodded and took sahil to show the house....she looked behind and saw Mrs.kurana glaring at her, telling her with her eyes that not to make any trouble....

Sarha sighed and pushed sahil's wheelchair, showing him around the house...sahil looked at her and saw her being nervous and thought that she don't want this marriage "I know you don't want to marry and that's fine....I won't have any problem if u reject me afterall I have been rejected many times" he said without any emotions

Sarha came out of her thoughts and said "No no it's ntg like that and why do u think I won't like to marry u"

"Look at me, I am disable, no girl would like to marry me and ruin their life"

"So what if your disable? It doesn't matter....as long as your good from inside ntg else matters and if you think marrying u can ruin a girls life then your wrong" he was shocked to hear her say this and felt alittle warm in his heart

"Why do u think I am wrong?" Sarha did not had any answer for this....but she really thinks that behavior matters the most and not looks of a person, if a person is kind then people would more likly talk to them then to a rude guy who looks good.....

Also even if she did not wanted to marry him, she had to cause if she refused her stepmother would kill her

She just hoped that after marriage she will live a simple and happy life with him and his family

Seeing her not answering anything he turned his head towards her and was about to say something but they heard Mrs.kurana calling them...

They went to living room where everyone was sitting. Seeing them Mrs.patel asked "So what did u two decide" the room became silent as everyone waited for their answer. Sahil looked at sarha wanting to hear her answer

"I don't have any problem with this marriage" just as sarha finished speaking everyone turn their heads to sahil who was looking at sarha. He was surprised and shocked to know that she did not had any problem marrying him....

Seeing everyone staring at him, he cleared his throat and said "I have no problem"

Mrs.patel became happy after hearing that. Finally her son agreed to marry. Before she was very worried about his marriage has he was always busy in work and never had any girlfriend.....and today she Finally felt relived...

She took out the sweet box from her bag and gave the sweets to everyone happily

They decided the wedding date and all...

After that all of them had dinner and Mr.patel and his family went home....

timeskip

It was night, sarha was sleeping in her room which was actually a store room. She felt her wrist in pain and woke up....she turn on the lights and saw that her wrist was bleeding and the silver bangle which was given to her by Mrs.patel was not in her hand....

She looked around and saw that the door was open and walked out of the store room without caring about her injured hand. Mr.patel's family was poor and the gold bangle Mrs.patel gave to sarha was passed down by there family, Mr.patel said that it was the only treasure in there house, she was reluctant to take it but mrs.patel insisted her to take it as she is going to become the daughter-in-law of their family.....

Sarha did not wanted to lose it as it looked like it was very important to mr.patel and their family......

She went out and saw Nita going inside her room and stopped her "Nita what are u doing outside this late night?"

Nita turned around and said "who the fuck are you to question me?"

"Nita I know u stole the gold bangle, so please give it.....yk it's passed down by mr.patel's family to their daughter-in-law. And if they got to know that i lost it then what will I say"

"How dare u frame me you bitch" Nita held Sarha's hairs pulling it hard and slapped her on the face making Sarha's cheeks red...

Hearing the noise mr.&Mrs.kurana came out of their rooms "what's going on here" Mr.kurana shouted

"Dad she framed me that I stole her bangle"

"Dad I saw her getting out of my roo-" before she could complete her sentence sarha was slapped on the face by father

"SHUT UP, your making a fuss at night for a simple bangle.....and how dare u frame my daughter, I give her everthing she wants and not to mention she has a rich fiance why would she steal something from you?

And even if she stole it, so what? I have spend alot of money on you for food and clothing and all you do is sit at home and do ntg. No family wanted to marry you, you should be thankful to your sister that she found a family that is ready to marry u" Nita smiled looking at Sarha's miserable state while sarha sat on the ground lowering her head as tears fell from her eyes....

"NOW GO TO YOUR ROOM" he shouted as sarha got up from the floor and went to her room, she locked the door from inside and cried thinking about her messy life. Her father did not even cared about her and shouted at her....

She looked at the hand which was bleeding and slept like that....

Meanwhile in sahil's room

He was going through Sarha's information and got to know many things about her....including that Mrs.kurana is not her biological mother....

And as he was reading her information he wanted to know more and more about her but sadly there was not much information about her....

He looked at her photo and caressed it with his thumb....he felt some kind of attraction towards her...

He had never experienced such thing before but he did not wanted to get fooled by any girl so he decided to test her and pretend to be disable few months of his marriage and see how she behaves...

If she is not good with his family then he would divorce her...

Sarha’s pov

I woke up and rubbed my eyes to get a clear view and looked at the clock which showed 8:00.

"Oh no I woke up late" I got up and rushed towards the bathroom not caring about my injured wrist, took a bath and hurried downstairs to make breakfast. Usually I woke up at 6, cook food, clean the house and water the plants...

I still had 1 hours to do make breakfast and clean the house. I went to kitchen and made chapati and egg curry. After I was done cooking I started cleaning the house

A while later I was done and went to my room as I don't get Breakfast to eat, they only give me lunch and dinner

It was Sunday and patel family came to our house as dad told them to not do haldi function and mahendi  function and directly do the marriage

"Why do u want to cancel the haldi and mehendi function?" Mr.patel asked

"I am sorry but I have 2 daughters and we don't have enough money to held this function, I hope you understand" mr&Mrs.patel looked at eachother sadly and nodded

Time skip

I woke up in middle of night as I felt thirsty and went to kitchen to drink water...

While coming back to my room I heard my from dad's room which was close to my room so I went near to hear what they were talking about

"You did a good thing by canceling the functions. Now we can use that money to held a grand wedding for nita"

"Shha be quite, if Sarha got to know about this then we will be in problem, we still want her signature on the property papers"

"I will also see how will she not sign it" I heard mom say

Author's pov

After hearing them sarha felt sad, she closed her mouth with her hand preventing herself from crying, she went to her room, locked the door and Sat on floor thinking about what she heard few minutes ago

The property they were talking about was given to her by her grandma. It was a small flower shop and after her grandma's death she started handling it. her grandma's last wish was to take care of that flower shop and not to sell it

But Mr.kurana was angry after knowing that his mother gave the property to sarha and not to him

He and Mrs.Kurana tired every way to get signature from sarha but sarha never signed the papers as she knew it very well that Mr.kurana would sell it for money

And she did not wanted to break her promise which she had given to her grandma

The night passed by and it was morning, sarha woke up and started her day...

Suddenly she heard the bell ring and went to open the door and saw sahil with a guy.....as soon as the guy saw her, he smiled and said "namaste bhabi"

"Namaste come inside" she said as the guy pushed Sahil's wheelchair inside the house. Hearing the noise mr&Mrs.kurana came outside and saw sahil

"Sahil beta why are u here?"

"Aunty can't I come here?" Sahil asked

"No beta but so suddenly u came"

"Who is this?" Nita asked looking at the guy

"This is Virat, my friend" sahil said as Virat smiled and said hello to everyone

"Aunty we came to do haldi and mehendi ritual"

"But beta did not I tell your father that we don't have enough money to do it and your father agreed too" Mr.kurana said

"Don't worry uncle we don't need money to do it"

"Ok do as you wish" Mr.kurana said after knowing that they are not spending any money "I am busy rty now so you can do it yourself" Mr.kurana said and went out, Mrs.Kurana and Nita also excused themselves and went

Now only sarha, sahil and Virat were in living room. Sarha quickly took them to her room and asked hesitating "is it necessary? I mean by they already canceled it and will it be ok if we do it without others?"

"Yes it's necessary, I want to complete all the rituals with my wife" sahil said as sarha felt warm in her heart. Her eyes met his as they got lost in eachothers eyes...

Virat who was standing there, seeing his cold bestfriend being lovy dovy to a girl and speaking in a soft tone which he never used with anyone till now was shocked and cleared this throat "you both can continue your romance after marriage and sahil she is not your wife yet" Virat said with a teasing smile...

Sahil and sarha came out of their world. Sahar blushed while sahil glared at Virat making him look away "bhabi" Virat shouted and went towards sarha to avoid sahil's glare "you go out for a while" Virat said pushing sarha out of her room "but why?"

"You will know later" sahil answered as she nodded quietly and went out while closed the door

After a while Virat called her in the room as she went inside and was shocked to see that it was decorated with flowers....

She looked around the room in awe but seeing so many flowers she realised that they had spended money to buy those....

She knew that in sahil's family there were alot of members and only his dad goes to work as sahil can't go out, Being a owner of flower shop She knew that flowers these days are quite expensive...sahil's family is poor and can't even afford sahil's treatment and she felt bad.

Sahil who was looking at sarha saw how her face changed from happy and excited to sad and guilty and said "Don't worry I did not waste money, these are from our garden and also even if I had to spend money I would happily do it"sahil did not know how he those words came out of this mouth but after saying it he felt proud

Sarha listened to him, his words melted her heart and a smile formed on her lips again

Sarha sat on the small stool which was kept beside sahil. She was wearing a white chudidar which looked perfect on her tiny body and brownish skin

Virat was about to go inside the room with a bowl of haldi lape in his hand but saw them being close to eachother he smirked and called Mrs.patel

"Aunty your so smart, guess what the plan is working....they are so close to eachother. It won't take long for them to fall in love" he whispered

"I knew it will work. I just hope my son settles down quickly and give me cute little grandson and a granddaughter" she said in a excited voice

"Yea but for that sahil have to trust bhabi because without trust relationship is ntg"

"U shut up, why won't he trust.....I know sarha is a good girl just like her mother. If only her mother was there then she would not be in such situation" she sighed sadly

"Aunty how do u know her mother?"

"That's non of your business, now go do the work" she said and hanged up the call

Virat stood there for a while thinking about Mrs.patel's words and went inside...