Author's pov

"Finally the coffee is here." Aniruddha said with a dramatic sigh.  Sanonda chuckled .

"But what about the Chowmein? I am very hungry." He complained like a child.

"Aniruddha, calm down…it will be here soon." Sanonda said before laughing at his child-like attitude .

Just like yesterday, today also Sanonda went to Aniruddha's new home to help him with decorations and all. After that they decided to catch up a bit along with some food.
So here they are in a local restaurant.

Soon the Chowmein arrived which relieved Aniruddha a lot.

"Happy?" Sanonda asked.

"Very," Aniruddha replied with a grin ,making Sanonda roll her eyes.

They started to eat the food.

"Have you decided any date for Grihaprabesh? " Sanonda asked him.

"I don't know, maybe any Sunday or something. " He replied casually.

Sanonda looked at him with wide eyes and said ,"It doesn't work like that.  You have to look for an auspicious day when you can do a Puja. You just can't randomly pick a day."

"Who will do so much hard work?" He asked with a bored expression and continued, "So Don't need to do that. I will organize a small house warming party on Sunday."

"Shut up, okay!! I will call our family priest to select a day. We will keep Puja on that day." Sanonda ordered him.
She was so busy talking that she didn't notice that instead of using "you" ,she said "We."
Aniruddha noticed it but didn't point it out as he didn't want to embarrass her. But unknowingly a smile crept on his lips hearing her.

"Okay, as you say Madam.
The work is almost done. The remaining work will be done within the next three days.  Tell the Pandit (priest) to find out a day next week…it will be helpful. Because as soon as the Puja is done, I am shifting to my new home." He said with a smile.

Sanonda nodded.

"What about your family members?" Sanonda asked him.

"See, I have one elder brother who stays in Delhi. Though I had already told him about shifting,  I can guarantee you that they won't come …it's not possible ." He said.

Aniruddha's parents died five years back…. His father died first and then after three months his mother also passed away.
Now he only has one elder brother who stays in Delhi along with his wife and his son.
They don't have any other relatives.

So Aniruddha is here alone in Kolkata.

Sanonda nodded.

They talked about some other things and in the meantime completed their food.

"Let's go…I will drop you." Aniruddha told her.

"No no..it's okay. I will go by myself. It's only 7pm now…I will get an auto easily." Sanonda said.
It would take her 15 minutes to reach home.

"Why will you waste money on auto fare? Come, I will drop..your house will be on my way only. "  Aniruddha said. Sanonda shook her head and at last agreed.

"You can treat me with that fare which I saved today. " He joked as they got inside his car.

Sanonda laughed and said, "Sometimes think of other things other than food. "

"Not happening." He said with a wink and started to drive his car.

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.
.

Aratrika was sitting in the living room. Her bouncing legs, fidgeting hands and a bit annoyed expression on her face indicated that she was restless.

"Aru, why are you leaving so early? I thought you would stay till dinner." Sudeshna said sadly.

Aratrika felt bad for hurting her Jethi ma, but she was helpless today.
"Sorry Jethi.. it's not possible today but I will come again with him." Aratrika said and promised that she would come again with Saptarshi.

Brijesh was also sad, including Suporno.

Aratrika's eyes went on her mother and her jethu who looked sad.

The doorbell rang.

Smita was about to go and open the door when Aratrika stood up saying, "Let me ."

Smita raised her eyebrows and nodded with a shrug.

Aratrika went towards the door and opened the door. As soon as she saw the person ,she sighed in relief.

There Saptarshi was standing in front of her. Though he had a smile on his face, his eyes were conveying the concern for her.

Without wasting a second, Aratrika jumped in his arms, Saptarshi hugged her back tightly.

She needed solace which he provided her gladly.

"Aratrika, let's go inside…everyone is waiting. " Hearing Saptarshi's voice , she wiped her tears and broke the hug.
She gave a small smile to him.

That's when he noticed which everyone failed to notice…her sad eyes.

Nevertheless he followed her to the living room where everyone was sitting.

He took everyone's blessings and hugged Suporno.

"Saptarshi, please sit." Brijesh said with a smile.
Saptarshi smiled and took a seat beside Aratrika.

He completely ignored the presence of Smita.

"You both would have stayed with us and had dinner with us. But you guys are going." Binita said sadly.

"Maa…" Aratrika said a little loudly, making everyone startled.
They never heard her talking so loudly with elders. Saptarshi frowned as he tried to understand what had happened.

Aratrika took a deep breath ,closing her eyes to control herself.

" I mean ,I already told you that we have urgent work …that's why we are leaving. I told you that We will come again." Aratrika said in her usual tone. Saptarshi found irritation in her tone.

"Yes, We will come again. But right now, we have to leave…it's already getting late." Saptarshi said as he stood up along with Aratrika.

"Wait wait …have some sweets at least. It will be very bad if we let go of our elder son in law without feeding anything." Sudeshna said.

Aratrika tried to refuse which Saptarshi found odd. He somehow started to believe that his doubt was right…  something had definitely happened here…because Aratrika was so excited to meet her family but now she wanted to be anywhere but here.
Suporno and Brijesh found it slightly odd as they saw Aratrika trying to leave as soon as possible.

But Keeping Sudeshna's heart ,Saptarshi had two sweets from the plate full of sweets.

Finally after greeting everyone and promising that they will come back, they left the house.

.
.
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After freshening up,Saptarshi entered Aratrika's room to see her sitting on the couch while resting her head on the back of the couch. She has changed into her homely clothes.

They returned to their home half an hour ago.

He went towards her and silently sat beside her which made her open her eyes.

"What happened? Why did you call me to pick you up from your house as soon as possible?" He asked her.

Yes, it was Aratrika who called him to pick her up as soon as he was done with his work.

When Aratrika called him around 5 pm, he thought that she wanted to remind him about the dinner. But when he heard her voice, he started to doubt that something had happened there. When he asked her about that ,she tried to assure him that everything was okay, which he couldn't believe.

He couldn't understand why she lied to them about the urgent work.

But right now Saptarshi has started to regret asking her the question as he saw the tears rolling down her cheeks. He was shocked and a bit scared as well.

Hearing Saptarshi's question ,Aratrika's mind went back to whatever happened there and whatever she had heard and seen. She started to cry as the pain became unbearable for her.

"Aratrika, is everything okay? What happened? Please tell me…" he asked her impatiently. He was fearing for the worst.
He started to feel angry with her family.

"I am betrayed ….I am cheated by my own family." Aratrika said before bursting into tears.

Saptarshi immediately pulled her in his arms in order to calm her down. He patted her back as she cried on his chest.

"Please tell me what happened. " Saptarshi asked her once again.

Aratrika took a deep breath and started to tell what had happened.

Flashback

She was talking to herself but stopped immediately when she heard some voices coming out from the bedroom.

She frowned and walked towards the door . Keeping her ear near the door she tried to hear what was happening inside.

Whatever she heard shocked her to the core but what shocked her more was the people who were present inside.

" But we have to act like we have accepted their marriage. And you know Aratrika, she is too naive to understand that we don't accept her Marriage.
By behaving all okay and welcoming towards her and her husband we can win her trust." She heard a female voice who was none other than her mother.

" After that it's on you to convince her to divorce Saptarshi…Don't worry ,I will help you in creating the circumstances in which she will be forced to do as we say…but you would be the one to convince without letting her know that it was us who want her separated from her husband." The male voice said. He was Biplob ,her Jethu.

"Don't worry Dada, everything will be done. She will trust us just the way she trusted us that we had started to accept her once again.
Uff , I can't tell how difficult it was for me to act sweetly towards her for the last two or three months." Binita said.

"That…that means all these were their acts." Aratrika thought to herself and closed her mouth with her hands to stop herself from crying her heart out.

"Do you think it was easy for me? I hate her sight.. and here I have to act like she is my sweetest child.
But we didn't have options…we had to act so that we could convince her to marry Santanu who himself wanted to marry that foolish girl…I don't know what he saw in her. But I couldn't deny the proposal…the burden was about to be removed from my head, what more could I have asked for!!

Everything was going nice. …she agreed as well. But I don't know from where Saptarshi and their love story came in between." Biplob said .

Each and every word from his mouth was breaking Aratrika's heart.

" But do you think anything will happen if we break her marriage? I am sure that she won't marry again…once again she will be a burden on us." Binita said with irritation.

" But I can't let her stay happily with that guy after destroying our reputation. Did you see how happy she was? She didn't have a slight guilt for destroying our name…
No…I won't let that happen. The marriage has to be broken.
About marrying again, don't worry…our fake sweet talks will do that.
As I said, just win her trust…the rest will be done smoothly." Biplob said as he smirked.

Binita nodded with a satisfied smile.

Aratrika didn't waste a second and ran away from there to her previous room only to cry her heart out.

It was hard for her to digest all these.

Flashback ends

Saptarshi was shaking with anger. He just couldn't believe how much a person could be so low.

"I accepted that they won't accept me back to them…I was okay with their hatred.
But I just can't believe that they betrayed me just to throw me away from their lives . Am I so bad?
They knew how much their love, acceptance meant for me, still they used it ..used it to fulfil their intentions.
Now finally when I get happiness,  they want to destroy it as well ." Aratrika said as she cried.

Saptarshi didn't know what to say. He didn't open his mouth because if he opened his mouth, he would only abuse them in the worst way possible.
That's why he didn't want her to go there.
The place is a bad omen for her because it makes her cry everytime.

But every bad thing had a good side…finally she came to know the true face of her mother and Jethu.

"Saptarshi, I won't go back there again….I don't want to see their faces. " Aratrika said. For the first time, Saptarshi noticed hatred in her voice.

"Okay okay, calm down…you don't have to go there. I won't let you go again.
Forget them, they don't deserve you. They are not even called a family.
And I promise you  that nobody will be able to separate us….nobody. " Saptarshi said and kissed her forehead.

Aratrika closed her eyes in peace and satisfaction. She hugged him tightly as if she was afraid of losing him.

That night they slept with each other with Aratrika hugging him tightly.

"I will not let your mother and Jethu hurt you again…I promise. " Saptarshi promised ,looking at the face of sleeping Aratrika.

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