Forbidden (Enemies to Lovers Intense Romance) [SAMPLE CHAPTERS]

Part 1

JHANVI SIKAND

One week more and I'll marry my childhood friend. Can you believe it? All these years Mohit Raichand was right before my eyes, studying, flirting and irritating me with his silly pranks, and now he's going to be my husband. Jhanvi Sikand's husband!! There's this unusual feeling bubbling inside me, imagining how things would turn up from here. It's been more than a decade since I have visited India and now, I am going to settle down here permanently. I'll finally have a family, something I missed having all these years.

I never saw Mom as she died after giving birth to me, but Dad's love and pampering didn't let me miss her much. I had broken down when Dad met with an accident too when I was eight and God snatched my last piece of happiness and hope to live. All my relatives had shrugged off my responsibility and a few who wanted to accept, was only for my money and the luxury which Dad had left behind. My life could have taken a bitter turn hadn't Durga Raichand, one of my father's close family friends hadn't taken up my responsibility instead and promised to keep me safe. I own that woman everything.

She too had lost her son and daughter-in-law in that same car accident that killed my father, and she was survived by her only support, her grandson, Mohit Raichand, who was around nine years old then. Mohit and I instantly clicked together. It didn't take us long to become best buddies, staying under the same roof with Durga Raichand. The two are my only family now. She sent Mohit and me to London for our secondary school and we had one hell of a time there making common friends. We graduated from London University. I have seen Mohit dating girls. In fact, I was the one who approved his dates. Funny!! Who knew then that I would be his future wife? After three awkward breakups, Mohit lost the hope that he would ever find his Miss Perfect and that's exactly when Durga Raichand, his Daadi, proposed to us I be his life partner. That was around three months ago. Both Mohit and I had straightaway denied as we never saw each other in that angle, but then a week later, Mohit flew to London to declare his approval for the same.

I still can't believe I had said yes, but somehow if Dad was alive, he too would have wanted the same.

"Ma'am," the flight attendant breaks my trance. "Please fasten your seatbelt. We are about to land in a few minutes."

I give her my best smile and fasten my seatbelt. Mumbai, one of the busiest cities in the country, will be the place where I'll spend the rest of my life with the Raichands.

I wanted to get engaged to Mohit first, spend some time with him and then think of marriage, but Daadi rejected that idea and coaxed us to tie a knot and then take as much time as we needed to know each other. To be honest, I don't need to think twice if Mohit can be my life partner, but I always preferred to get to know him more than a friend first before becoming his legally wedded wife.

I sense there's a reason behind Daadi's persistence on getting us married soon and that has something to do with the other son of the Raichand family, the one she considers as the illegitimate heir, though, he is the firstborn to her son, Mahendra Raichand and his secret wife, Geeta.