Everything was perfect.

I had a perfect life: the life I always wanted, the life I had always dreamed about.

From my love life to my social life, everything was spectacular, and there was nothing to complain about.

My family was amazing, my friends were wild and loyal, and the best guy in this world loved me. I loved my life.

Everything was perfect. I was happy.

Then suddenly, I wasn't.

One day.

One single minuscule day that changed everything in my life. From the place I called my home to the direction of my lips, everything went upside down.

It was a warm Sunday evening in March. I had just returned home after a date in my boyfriend's bed when I heard my mom calling me from the living room.

My mom, Kavya Sehloth, was a compassionate, jolly woman in her late forties but with a figure even I, her 21-year-old daughter, envied. She was slim, in a way only a woman with amazing genes could be without having to exercise, and she had a smile that showed all her thirty-two teeth (famously called 'battissi' by friends and family). Her dark brown eyes with flecks of gold, the same as mine, always showed love or happiness.

Today though, they were missing.

Instead, the brown was filled with sadness and guilt, and the gold tint of happiness was absent.

That is why, the moment I saw her beautiful brown face, I stilled and, with a huge frown, asked, "Is everything okay?"

Did any of our relatives die? Perhaps that old grandmother who always nagged about my complexion or, if luck was on my side, that smelly old uncle who preached that I should practice making 'round rotis' because otherwise, no man would want me?

If it's them, good riddance! We don't need their negative energy on this earth.

Not to be mean or anything, but they were ancient—they had already outlived their ages—also, they were very toxic and probably snatched a few years from poor irritated people.

As much as I hope, I don't think it's them, she wouldn't be so sad or look so...so...broken?

What had happened?

What could have gone so horribly wrong that my mother, the 'look at the positive side of things' mother, could feel depressed?

When she still didn't answer, I grabbed her arms and asked again, "Mumma, what's wrong? Are you okay? Is everything okay?"

"No, it's not. Nothing is okay,” mom cried, her smooth voice breaking.

Instinctively, I reached out and pulled her tall figure in a hug. Wrapping my arms around her body, I gently patted her head as a sob broke from her lips. I hugged her tighter, and my heart broke a little louder.

I had never seen her cry, never. But now, my beautiful, compassionate mother, who was always so strong, was breaking down in my arms. This wasn't just shocking or heart breaking; it was frightening because something that could break my mother had the power to shatter me to my very core.

At that moment, I didn't know how false my statement was because the news didn't just shatter me; it crushed my heart and my very being into small pieces with a bucket full of salt to burn my cuts. Never had I known the pain, the sound of my heart crushing until this moment. Never had I understood what it was to have everything and yet nothing.

When she finally calmed, at least enough to untangle herself from my arms, she stared at me with red-rimmed eyes and said, "You have to marry," and choked on a sob.

"I know, I even have my husband ready and waiting," I joked, trying to lighten the mood, trying to extract even a hint of happiness from her eyes—her usually always smiling eyes.

But none came. Instead, she stared at me pitifully as a tear rolled down her cheek.

"What is it, mom?"

"Rexy," she grabbed my arms and cried, "I…I…I'm sorry."

And I could see that whatever it was, it was breaking her from the inside. She regretted it, she wished she could change it, and she wished she wasn't so helpless or hopeless.

Ditto, mom! I wish the same, right at this moment.

"Please don't hate me," sobbed her mother, and I hugged her again, pulling her shivering figure closer to mine.

"I could never hate you, mom. Especially when I know, whatever it is, it's killing you from the inside. Just tell me, mom, what is it?"

"Your dad and I have chosen a man for you to marry, and you...you are going to marry him in three days."

"Wh…what? "I stammered as I pushed myself away from her. I couldn't have heard right, surely not! This had to be a joke. I stared into her eyes, begging her to prove my disbelief over what I heard but what she said instead...

"I'm sorry! Break up with Dev, and three days from now, you are going to marry someone else. Someone better, I assure you," she said, in a voice that should've sounded convincing, but it wasn't. Because it was a lie.

No one could be better than Dev. No one.

Dev is everything to me, everything, and she wouldn't dare separate me from him.

"Mom! Please be serious," I cried.

"I am, I am," she sobbed as she nodded, "I wouldn't ask this of you if it wasn't so important. You have to marry him, Rex. It is a matter of life and death,” she explained and with every word she spoke, her voice gained conviction.

"No," I shouted and pushed myself away from her, "No! No! No! I'm not marrying anybody else. Dev is my life, and anyone else is my death."

"It's not a choice."

I looked at my mother, with huge watering eyes, pleading, begging her to tell me this was a joke. When she didn't answer, I added in a sobbing voice, "Mom, I can't live without him. You know I can't. I love him. Please don't do this to me, mom, please." I collapsed on my knees.

"You don't have to live without him. All I'm asking is that you marry another man. You can still have Dev in your life."

My eyes widened. Did I hear right? Surely not.

I jumped to my legs and asked, incredulous, "What? You want me to cheat? Mom, you? What is wrong with you?"

There was something very wrong here. My mom wouldn't, even in my wildest dreams, advise me to cheat on a man I'm supposed to marry. I didn't know what it was, but I had to find out.

"What is it, mom? What is this life and death situation? Why do I have to marry someone I don't know?" I asked, my voice soft yet demanding. I wanted answers. I needed them, and I demanded them of her.

"Your dad has..." she started, but before she could utter anything else, I heard the sharp voice of my dad from behind me.

"The reasons do not concern you, she told you what you need to do, and you are going to do it. End of discussion." My dad—a tall, muscular man with eyes as deadly as a bullet from a gun and a heavy voice that demanded every inch of you to obey—said in a tone of dismissal.

But I wouldn't be dismissed. Not now, when my life and my happiness were in danger.

"No, I want to know why. I won't marry some stranger, and you can't force me to marry him because I'll run away if you bloody do,” I snapped at him, shocking both him and I. I loved my dad, respected him with every fiber of my being, and I had never, ever raised my voice at him.

He tried concealing his reaction, his face passive, but his eyes told me what his face wouldn't. I could see the shock, guilt, and hurt he felt to hear me retaliate in such a brutal tone.

Taking a deep, grounding breath, he calmly stated, "You've watched enough movies to know that in some situations, 'the less you know, the better for you.' This is one such situation. You are going to marry him, and I don't want any more discussions on this topic," after a sigh, he added, "I just wish you'd trust me enough to believe when I say, I wouldn't do this to you if I had any other choice."

I stared at him in disbelief. I trusted him, alright, but was he really trying to guilt-trip me into marrying someone I didn't know without giving me a bloody reason? Yes, yes, he was, and it was working.

I trusted him; blast him! I trusted him! He wanted the best of me, always, and even though he was choking the very life out of me right at this moment, the other option was probably worse.

"Daddy! I trust you; I really do! But I want to know, please! Why?” I pleaded, desperate for answers as tears gathered in my eyes.

He shook his head and left the living room, my mom following close behind him.

My knees collapsed on the floor under the weight of my collapsing future.