A marriage for revenge

Chapter 1

Vikram Sethupathy was twenty-two when he took over his father's multinational company after his sudden death. He was a fresh college graduate back then and this sudden responsibility was burdensome and grueling to him but he had a family business to run and a broken family to take care of.

His father, Arun Sethupathy was such a great man in the business world, a loving husband to his wife, and a devoted father to his children. Even with his busy schedule he never compromised on his responsibility for his family. Kanaga, Vikram's mother was devastated by her husband's demise. It seemed like a part of her died with him that day but she lived for the sake of her children. Vikram's younger brother and sister were inconsolable because their father's death brought a huge emptiness in their lives.

Vikram would call those days dark and miserable but his only source of light was Anjali.

His Anjali.

The one true love of his life.

He met her when he was ten and she was five.

It was love at first sight. He was too young to name his feelings for her but he was totally enchanted by her.

Anjali's father worked as a driver for Vikram's family for more than a decade and was a loyal employee but unfortunately, he passed away from chronic lung disease. Arun and Kanaga decided to hire Anjali's mother as the head chef in their mansion and let the family stay in the servant quarters.

That was the first time Vikram met Anjali. She was dressed in a simple cotton flower-printed frock.

She resembled a pink flower herself. Her long hair was tied into two braids and folded up using matching ribbons. Vikram was so mesmerized by her pale beauty that he totally missed seeing the little girl who was hiding behind Anjali, holding her frock in her tiny wrists tightly. With one single glance, he could say she was Anjali's little sister, barely a year old at that time.

Anjali had a protective arm around her as if she was saying to the world that whoever wanted to hurt her little sister had to go through her first.

After that first time, he got to meet her every single day. She would come to the mansion after school to help her mom with the household work. Her sister whose name Vikram got to know was Ananya always remained glued to Anjali. The girls loved and took care of each other. From the way Anjali took care of Ananya, it wasn't a secret that her sister was very precious to her and beyond everything. Tragedy once again fell upon the young girls when their mother passed away leaving them orphaned.

Being the soft-hearted man that Arun Sethupathy was, let the girls stay in the quarters and aided in their education.

After her mother's death, Anjali fit into her shoes and became not only Ananya's mother but also her whole world.

It was her caring nature even as a young girl that attracted Vikram to her more and more. He would sit near the window of his room and watch the girls working on the rose garden. His eyes would never leave Anjali, her soft laughter, her long hair brushing her round pretty face, and her unsaid sadness would keep his eyes fixed on her the whole time.

From the age of ten, knowing or unknowingly he had loved her but he could never tell her because the girl would always scurry away after seeing him, he didn't understand it for a long time why. To his disappointment, she would talk freely to her brother Vinoth who was three years elder than her. At first, he was anxious to know if his brother too had feelings for her but he was relieved when he found they were just good friends. Vikram admired her from afar but his feelings for her never changed. If anything it only grew bigger and bigger day by day.

In all the years, he couldn't get even a single chance to talk to her. It was on the next day of his father's death that she came to talk to him for the first time. To say he was surprised would be an understatement. Even amidst all the grief in his heart, she managed to bring a smile to his face when she came to console him. Her voice was so soft that he would have missed hearing her if he hadn't paid attention to it. From that day onwards Vikram found reasons to go talk to her. He would ask her to bring his food up, deliver the mail to his room and clean the room, all the while silently drinking in her delicate beauty.

And on one fine day, he mustered up enough courage to tell her about his feelings for her which she immediately refused to accept saying that they were worlds apart and they could never be together even if she wanted to.

She began to avoid him for days. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months. She stopped coming to the mansion and there was no way for Vikram to go visit Anjali without the maids knowing about it. However, his mom being his mom and very keen in her observations, sensed his feelings for Anjali even before he could tell anyone.

Vikram's mom isn't the typical wealthy, heartless, and arrogant woman that you get to see in movies. In fact, she's the exact opposite of that. She's a wonderful, kind, and sensitive soul who immediately understood her son's love for Anjali even though she was just the maid's daughter. Breaking all stereotypes, she gave a green signal to pursue his love. Although, it wasn't very easy to make Anjali agree at first.

Even after having feelings for Vikram secretly, she took one whole year to say yes to his proposal. After another long and agonizing three years, he finally managed to marry her with their family's presence and acceptance.

His wife's love, support, and affection were his greatest strength.

Even at the very young age of twenty-six, he achieved what his ancestors could never have. He took the company to newer heights. It became the number one largest company in the whole of South India and the third largest in India in a span of four years. For the next entire year, life was simply great for Vikram and Anjali. Each day they fell deeper and deeper in love with each other.

He had everything in his life that other men would die for. She made him happy by being a devoted and loving wife. He loved Anjali more than anything in his life but he was also aware that to Anjali he would always come second because she would always love her sister a little more than she loved him.

Of course, he was playfully jealous of the little sister for being the first and most loved person in Anjali's life but he had never expected that Ananya would be the reason for the doom of his love one day.

It was the blind love and trust that Anjali had in Ananya that separated Vikram from the love of his life.