Barrister Babu

Chapter 88: Justice Fight

The night at the Roy Chawdhary haveli had barely settled into sleep when the stillness outside shattered like glass, the sound of a carriage halting too abruptly at the gate followed by hurried footsteps that did not belong to anyone who came with peace.

It was around four in the morning.

The guards had barely opened the entrance when Pramita's voice cut through the darkness first, sharp and unrestrained, carrying the kind of fury that comes only when grief has already burned everything softer inside a person.

"Anirudh Roy Chawdhary! Bondita Roy Chawdhary!" she called out, her voice breaking on the second name as she stepped into the courtyard without waiting for permission, her dupatta disheveled, her face carrying a storm that made even the servants freeze in place.

Behind her, the faint outline of dawn had not yet arrived, and the entire haveli seemed suspended in a limbo between night and something far worse.

Anirudh was the first to reach the doorway, his confusion immediate as he saw Pramita standing there trembling, not from cold but from something far heavier, while Bondita rushed behind him still adjusting her hair and shawl, alarm already forming in her eyes at the tone of her voice.

"Areh Pramita Kaki..." Anirudh began carefully, stepping forward with instinctive calm, but the moment he spoke her name, her gaze snapped toward him with such intensity that he stopped mid-sentence.

"Enough," she cut him off, her voice cracking but firm, as though she was holding herself together only because collapsing would mean losing the last thread of control she had left, "I don't want to hear anything from your mouth right now."

Bondita stepped forward immediately, her voice softer but urgent, trying to bridge the distance between confusion and fear. "Kaki, kya hua hai?" she asked, her hands slightly raised as if she could physically hold the situation from breaking further, but Pramita's eyes filled instantly at the question, and whatever restraint she had been holding dissolved in a single breath.

"She is in critical condition," Pramita said suddenly, her voice breaking as the words forced their way out, each syllable heavier than the last, "My daughter... my Chandni... she is in the hospital right now, unconscious... and before I could even process it properly, I saw her like that..." Her breath hitched, and for a moment she looked away as if the memory itself was too much to carry, "She was... she was not even able to respond properly, Bondita. They ruined her. They destroyed my daughter!"

The courtyard went still in a way that felt unnatural, as though even the air had stopped moving, while Anirudh's expression shifted instantly from confusion to shock, his eyes narrowing slightly as he tried to process what he was hearing, but Pramita was not done, her voice rising again, sharper now, breaking under the weight of rage and grief intertwined.

"And Chandni's Baba..." she said, her voice breaking completely at the name, "he could not bear it. The moment we learned the truth, he just... he just collapsed in my arms and... took his last breath."

Bondita's hand instinctively went to her mouth as her eyes widened, her breath catching sharply, while Anirudh stepped forward half a pace as if to steady the situation, but Pramita's glare stopped him again before he could speak.

"He had a heart attack," she said, her voice now hollow, as if the shock had drained something essential from her, "and he died there... in front of me... calling out for his daughter."

The words did not immediately feel real to anyone standing there, not because they were unclear but because they were too heavy to settle quickly into reality, and Bondita shook her head slightly in disbelief, her voice barely audible as she whispered, "Kaki... no... this cannot be... Chandni...."