Barrister Babu

Chapter 61: Slipping Away

"Chameli..." Keth stepped inside Chameli's room, only to find her a crying mess. She pulled her knees up to her chest, sitting on the floor.

Keth felt really bad seeing her like that. Hesitantly, he took a step toward her. "Chameli, look... forget whatever happened and—"

"Forget?" Chameli spat out bitterly. "How can I forget? I feel so stupid!"

"I am sorry, Chameli," Keth mumbled all of a sudden and sat next to her on the floor, earning a gasp from her.

"What are you doing? Why are you sitting on the ground? You hate this an—"

"Anirudh never cared about anything when it came to his Bondita. Then why should I care?" he pointed out gently, making her speechless. "I promised you to make you feel loved, like Anirudh is for Bondita. But what did I do? I gave you pain. I am so stupid. I started hating myself."

She stared at Keth, her tears dried out already. She had no words and only wanted to listen to him.

"Look, I should have taken your permission before marrying Mala. It's my fault. Second marriage is allowed, so I am not wrong there, but first wife's permission was required. It was a rash decision. I am sorry," he continued speaking. "But I promise, Chameli, this time, I will give you whatever I promised. I won't let you be sad."

A humorless chuckle escaped her lips, realizing that Keth still didn't regret marrying Mala. He just regretted not taking her permission.

"Kya fyada? In the end, whatever you will give me will be divided into half, will it not?"

Keth let out a small apologetic smile. "I am sorry, but that's all I can provide now. I cannot be biased. I have to treat you two equally."

Chameli just nodded, giving a smile in return — a smile that didn't reach her eyes. All she had now was Keth. And she made up her mind to get all of his attention so that he would even forget about Mala. She would have him wrapped around her fingers like Bondita has Anirudh. She lost Batuk to Bondita, now she didn't want to lose her husband to Mala.

###

"Maa, he has a soft corner for Chameli, I am telling you. Did you see the way he ran after her?" said Mala to Barsha, who rolled her eyes dramatically.

"You should've stopped him from going after her!" Barsha grumbled.

"How could I? You saw the situation, didn't you?"

"Areh, then you should have fallen unconscious. Look, I am telling you, Mala, if Chameli starts to lure Keth, you will be in grave danger. You will lose everything as she will always have the upper hand for being the badi patni."

"Nahi, Maa! I can't let this happen. I need to have a say in this family. Anirudh Babu loves vocal people. That's why, he loves Bondita because she voices everything out fearlessly. I need to win his heart," Mala mumbled, making Barsha roll her eyes again. She wished her daughter would be over her obsession with Anirudh and focus on being the zamindarni.

On the other hand, Trilochan knocked on Batuk's door.

Batuk opened the door. "Kaka, what's up?" he chirped, feeling a lot better.

"Batuk, beta, are you okay?"

"Of course, I am. Come inside, Kaka."

Trilochan shot up a small smile and shook his head. "Nahi, beta. I just came here to give you this." He handed him an envelope.

"What's this?" Batuk started opening the envelope.

"Binoy sent this from Calcutta. Amidst all this chaos, I forgot to give this to you. Check it," Trilochan managed to say this without his voice wavering and left instantly, because he knew what that envelope had.