My Destination, My Bondita

43 - The Truth About Their Marriage

"Answer me Pati Babu!" she screamed. "Answer me!" 

Anirudh looked at Bondita in shock as she sobbed about the truth that he had yet to tell her. The truth behind their marriage. 

He had noticed that although he had gotten on his knees to pacify her like he used to, she was taller now, so this wasn't eye level anymore. He had gotten so used to speaking to her like this to explain things to her, that he hadn't thought twice before falling on his knees. 

Anirudh stood back up and bent his back so he could speak to her closer to her level.

He cupped her face in his hands and asked, "Bondita who told you all this?"

"S - S - Sampoorna Maa," Bondita sobbed as Anirudh wiped her tears. 

A look of fury reached Anirudh's expression and he screamed, "SAMPOORNA!" 

He didn't use the name he had himself given her -- Maa, because she didn't deserve it after a cheap act like this. 

Manika winced beside them, never having seen this side of Anirudh Roy Choudhary before. She knew that he could be passionate about things, but she had yet to witness one of his infamous 'DJ sessions'. 

Anirudh was about to storm out of the study to give Sampoorna a piece of his mind, when Bondita tugged on his hand. 

"Pati Babu, can you answer me first?" she cried. 

Anirudh turned to look at Bondita. 

By this time, Kaka and the rest of the Roy Choudharys had huddled outside the study to see what the commotion was about. 

Anirudh looked into her helpless eyes. The eyes that were begging for this to not be true. For her to not be a burden on her Pati Babu -- for her to not be the reason for his pain. She was begging that her Pati Babu and her relationship was real -- that he was her husband.  

"Bondita I don't know what Sampoorna has told you, but definitely the way she told you wasn't right," Anirudh explained. 

"But is it true?" Bondita asked, gasping for air, tears streaming down her cheeks. 

He grabbed her face in his hands, his fingers pressing against her cheeks a little hard, but not hard enough to hurt her. His grip on her face was firm. 

"Bondita listen to me," he told her, his voice serious. "You can't let this hurt you. You can't let it bring you down." 

He knew that she would find out the truth behind their marriage one day, but he never expected it to come out like this. 

"So it's true?" she asked, sounding like she had just lost a battle. "It's true Pati Babu?" 

"Bondita," Anirudh told her, his own voice cracking, as he heard the defeated tone in her voice. "It's not like that." 

"What is it like then Pati Babu?" Bondita whispered, her eyes wet and full of pain. 

"Bondita, it's true that I married you to save you from Sati Pratha. It's true that the reason I married you was because you were a child, getting burned alive for a mistake she didn't commit -- because her to be husband who was her grandfather's age had a heart attack at the mandap!" Anirudh started. "It's true that I tried everything to stop you from marrying that man, and then from getting burned at that funeral pyre. It's true that I had no choice but to marry you. But what is also true is that the bond that we formed is very unique and it can't be defined." 

Bondita's lips quivered when she heard this. 

Anirudh didn't know how to sugarcoat this. He really didn't. This was the harsh truth, and he couldn't make it sound any nicer than this.