After the Wedding – Chapter 6
Anand had always believed that silence was safer than confrontation, but that morning the silence felt deliberate, almost prepared. Divya sat across the dining table, scrolling through her phone, sipping her coffee without looking at him even once. The house felt settled, as if decisions had already been made overnight and the day was merely expected to follow them. Anand waited for her to speak, for instructions, for irritation, for something—but she finished her coffee calmly and finally looked up at him with a steadiness that made his stomach tighten.
“I think it’s time we stop pretending,” Divya said, placing the cup down carefully. There was no anger in her voice, no softness either—just certainty. Anand straightened instinctively, already sensing that this was not about chores or clothes or routines. This was about something much deeper, something he had been avoiding since the wedding night.
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She didn’t wait for permission. “I didn’t marry you because I wanted a husband,” she continued. “I married you because I needed a marriage.” The words landed heavy, stripping the room of any remaining illusion. Anand opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. His mind rushed to defend himself, to ask questions, to deny implications—but his body remained still, as if it already knew where this was going.
Divya leaned back slightly, her eyes never leaving his face. “I am not attracted to men, Anand. I never was. Not emotionally. Not physically.” She said it plainly, without shame or drama, like stating a long-accepted fact. “I tried to live the way everyone expected me to. I tried to imagine myself as a wife. It never fit. It felt like a costume I was forced to wear.”
Anand felt heat rise to his face—not from anger, but from the sudden realization that the marriage had been shaped long before he ever stepped into it. “Then why me?” he finally asked, his voice quieter than he expected.
“Because you don’t fight for dominance,” Divya replied immediately. “You listen. You adjust. You soften.” She paused, letting the words settle. “I didn’t want a man who needed to be in charge. I needed someone who could live without being one.”
That sentence stayed with him longer than anything else she had said.
She went on, her tone steady but not cruel. “If I had refused marriage, I would have lost my family. If I had married a woman, I would have lost everything. This was the only way I could live honestly—without destroying my world.” She leaned forward now. “But honesty has a price. This marriage cannot have two people pretending.”
Anand’s thoughts raced, but alongside the fear was something else—recognition. Small moments from his past began surfacing without invitation: how he had always felt relief when expectations were lifted, how masculinity had felt like effort rather than instinct, how adjusting had always come easier than asserting. He had buried those thoughts for years, calling them weakness, calling them temporary. Now they stood in front of him, undeniable.
Divya watched his expression change. “You’ve felt it too, haven’t you?” she said softly, not accusing. “That sense that the role you were given never fully belonged to you.”
The truth pressed against his chest. “I didn’t know what to call it,” Anand admitted after a long pause. “I just knew I was tired of proving myself all the time.” His voice cracked slightly, surprising even him. “Here… I don’t feel that pressure. And that scares me.”
Divya nodded, as if she had expected nothing else. “Fear doesn’t mean wrong,” she said. “It means unfamiliar.”
She stood up then, closing the distance between them, not to touch him but to claim the space. “I won’t force you to stay,” she said firmly. “But if you do, this marriage will change. I won’t play the wife. I won’t pretend desire I don’t feel.” Her eyes softened just a fraction. “This house needs one woman. If you stay, that role won’t be mine.”
The room fell silent again, heavier than before. Anand looked down at his hands, noticing how still they were. For the first time since the wedding, the confusion cleared—not because answers were easy, but because they were finally honest. He realized something quietly, something he had never allowed himself to say out loud: resistance had always exhausted him, while adaptation had felt natural.
He looked up at her. “If I stay,” he said slowly, “tell me what you expect.”Divya’s expression didn’t change, but something in her posture relaxed, just slightly. “We’ll start by being truthful,” she replied. “Everything else will follow.”
And Anand understood then—this was not surrender.It was a choice he had been walking toward for far longer than he wanted to ad
Check out previous parts of the stories After wedding part -1
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