I come from an affluent business family though a little conservative in their approach.  I am the only daughter  of my parents and very loved at that. When I met my husband, Siddharth, through a common friend, I was impressed by his education and civil approach. He was a passout from a premier MBA college in India, pedigree of a good engineering college,  and working in a multi-national corporation. I felt that he is a progressive guy and would like to earn his own money and would let me pursue my dreams. I fell for him and we got married soon after.

What unfolded within a few years shocked and shattered me. Slowly, I started smelling a larger agenda in my husband’s and his family’s plan to get me married. My husband started to counsel my aging father some advice on his business and then he approached my father with an offer to participate in his business as a shareholder and owner. My father, under the obligation of his being son-in-law, almost agreed leaving the final decision to me.

I was not comfortable with this; I asked my husband to start working part-time with my dad rather than immediately leaving his stable job. My husband and his family refused outright and asked me to keep out of important family decisions. In fact things turned ugly with my husband threatening me with a divorce, my father-in-law telling me the about the pressure that divorce will exert on my aging father thereby blackmailing me emotionally, my sister in law kept telling  me that I was being  unfair on her brother and that I didn’t care about him or his future. 

I could not believe what was happening—it seemed that the entire family had duped me; they had married their son to me with  the ultimate knowledge that he will inherit the big business from my dad one day—they had not married me but my father’s business.

It seemed like a nightmare to me. I could not believe that these things happened in educated families like ours still in the 21st century. I could  not believe that my husband was such a big cheat. I could not believe that the same people whom I called mummy and papa, cared only about me as long as their son’s future prospects were secure. It was dowry but a dangerously planned one at that.

I shared my concerns with my family who stood by me strong and in support. They told me to decide what I wanted to do and that they will support me. This gave me the confidence to tell my husband and his family that 

My family’s money was not theirs for asking; that my father had worked hard to set up his business and if my husband wanted to participate in it with good intentions, he is welcome, else it was not his for taking by the virtue of his being son-in-law; and that I felt cheated and don’t want to be cheated in future again.

I was broken but not for long; I picked up the pieces of my life and moved on without a partner who was a gold digger and more of  a cheater than a partner.