Love or Revenge

Chapter 22

Aditya looked at the bride with his jaws dropped. He couldn't believe his own eyes and thought he was dreaming. He closed his eyes and opened it to see again. He is not dreaming and the person in front of his eyes is real. Harshawardhan was looking at the bride and shocked to see her there!

Aditya stuttered, "Zo... Zoya... what... are you... doing... here? Harshawardhan screamed, "What are you doing here? Where is Pooja?" and Mr. Mathur shouted, "Where is my daughter? And who is this in her bridal dress?"

Both Aditya and Zoya stood up and Harshawardhan called his men and said, "I want you to find Pooja and bring her here immediately". Then he looked at Mathur and said, "Don't worry, I'll find Pooja and this wedding will happen".

He then looked at Zoya and asked, "What you did to Pooja? Where is Pooja?" Zoya smirked a little and said, "Pooja... She ran away leaving this letter behind and I thought why to waste the wedding moment and this bridal dress as I always wanted to help Aditya to escape this marriage".

"What the heck?" Harsh said and pulled the letter out from her hand. The letter reads, "I don't want to marry Aditya who is not in love with me anymore and I don't want to waste my life with a person like him. So, I'm ending this marriage and this relationship with Aditya and going away. Please don't search for me or come behind me as I didn't want to get married to such a loser".

Aditya felt happy seeing that for once Pooja has decided and did the right thing. "You get out of that mandap. My men will find Pooja and we'll start with the wedding rituals from the beginning", Harsh said. Priest tried to say something but Harsh stopped and said, "Whatever happened just now is not marriage. I don't care what happened, once we find Pooja, then the rituals will begin from the start. She is Aditya's bride and wife".

Aditya was looking at Zoya and she didn't move a bit from her place but instead she looked at Aditya and said only audible to him, "Aditya... I couldn't find any other chance or idea to help you to get out of this marriage. That's why I took this way to help you. Pooja must have run away from this marriage but if she gets caught then your marriage will happen with her. And I know you don't want to marry her..."

Aditya cuts her off by saying, "I was happy that you took this drastic step to help me. But I can't marry you. Anyway Pooja didn't want to marry me. Even if they brought her back, she'll resist this marriage. At any cost, this marriage won't happen. Then why do you want to spoil your life with this marriage?"

"Aditya, do you think your father will let her go away from your life? When he didn't listen to your words? Do you think he'll listen to her? I know, Grace told me what happened between you and your father and how he dragged you to this mandap. If Pooja steps in this hall then he'll redo the rituals and get you married to her. Just now he said the same thing, remember?"

"But Zoya", Aditya started to say something but Zoya stopped him and said, "I agree... you would never wanted me to be your bride or see me as your bride but just think this would be better that marrying Pooja. I sincerely wanted to help you and I don't want my friend to suffer because of this unwanted marriage. If you don't want to get married to me, I understand. I'll get out of here, but I want you to think once again, what happens if they find Pooja and they brought her here. Can you able to stand up against your father and stop this marriage from happening?"

Aditya lost in thoughts and Harsh said, "I told you to get down and not to brain wash Aditya's mind". Zoya glared at Harshawardhan but didn't give a damn. Just then, Harshawardhan's men brought Pooja and Harsh said, "Pooja is here. Let's start the marriage rituals from the beginning".

Zoya looked at Aditya as he was not doing anything she took a step out of mandap. But Aditya pulled her by her waist and put the vermillion on her forehead and then he took the Mangalsutra from priest and tied it in her neck. Zoya was looking at him without blinking, dumbfounded.