The Unventured Passions

Seductive Submission

To be trusted is perhaps a better compliment than to be loved. Because, without trust it's only a matter of time before a relationship crumbles down in the abyss of bitterness.
Standing there, in the parking lot of Hindu College, as he witnessed his wife in another's arms, Anirudh Roy Chowdhury realised this truth more than anyone else. And, at that moment, he knew he had two choices, to make it or to break it forever.

The sun-kissed white clouds had blossomed in the blue, free to fly with the wind. In the long horizon they would take on silver hues, those deeper graphite tones that promised good rain. On any normal day, the beauty of this shaded sky would have captured Bondita's attention, but that day, that particular moment she felt like a tornado stuck landscape, devastated, confused.

"Barrister Babu... It's not what it might look like... Barrister Babu... You have to... You have to trust me..."
Her frenzied words were going in spirals, as she saw Anirudh's steady calm gaze shift from her to him, the man standing beside her, as calm as his adversary.
Was Anirudh really his adversary?

"Bondita, come!"
Bondita had heard Anirudh's words, commanding her presence, and like the ancient pied piper's enchanting tune, his words were enough to uproot her existence from that very place, in that very moment, compelling her to follow him unquestioningly.

Bondita had almost ran towards him, as he stood near his open hooded jeep.
"Barrister Babu... Please... I didn't do any..."

Anirudh didn't let her complete. To her, he appeared thoughtful for a minute, increasing the rapid intensity of her heartbeat, before he gripped her wrist firmly, dragging her towards her own car, parked in open, in a secluded corner, underneath a giant tree.

"Keys?" He demanded, as Bondita took out a small bunch from her bag with trembling hands and kept it on his open palm.
The entire world seemed bleak, meaninglessness to her, students passing by, Satya's presence in a near distance, the open ambience... everything seemed trivial, incoherent, and all she wished at that moment was him, his trust and his love.
"Barrister Babu..." Tears had already started to trail down her reddened cheeks as her lips quivered his name once again.
Anirudh didn't reply.
Instead, he unlocked the car and held the back door open for her.

"Get in." His voice was a low and thick, sending a spark of fear chills down her body.

Bondita didn't object. Wiping her tears with the back of her knuckles in futility, she slowly got inside the car and waited for him to drive them away. But instead, she realised him walking around and opening the other door of the back seat with a click to sit beside her.
Anirudh had closed the door with a forceful thud.

"Bar... Barrister... Babu..." She sobbed again.
They were seated beside each other, in the static car, with full drawn black window glasses, foggy with her teary breath.

"Bondita..." He called her slowly.

"Bar... Barrister Babu... I didn't do anything wrong... It's the police... They were... So he... Barrister Babu... please don't... Please... Believe me..." Her sobbed words were getting incomprehensible, the more she tried, more jets of salty waters flew down her eyes.
"You have to... Have to... Trust me..."
She blurted out.

A minute of unfathomable silence prevailed inside the car, probably the longest one minute of her life as she finally felt his hands on her shoulders.

"Who said I don't trust you?"
He had finally spoken, as Bondita looked at his face in awe and disbelief.

"You do?" She murmured.

"I can never mistrust you... Bondita." He smiled gently at her.
"The day I stop trusting you would be the day I die." His hands had left her shoulders, slowly moving up her cheeks, as he cupped them tenderly before pulling her closer.
"And, I know you would never do any such thing which if I do would hurt you deeply." His eyes bore deeply in hers.
"And, I believe you... I know you would never ever hurt me... As I won't hurt you." His words were slow and deep.