200k reads!! Can you believe it? I still can't!!!
I started writing on 22 May, 2021... Yes, that's right, it's just been 2.5 months of me in Wattpad! 😀
With 124 chapters and 200k reads... The journey so far has been amazing.
Thank you so much dear readers.
You have become a family now. ❤️

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"aaynnnn... aaynnnn..."
Baby Ani shrieked out in a loud cry as Bondita tried to hand him over to his grandmother.

"He likes you Bondita." Meenarani Debi remarked.

"Ofcourse he likes her, his name is Anirudh afterall." Anirudh winked his eyes in a jest.

"May I take him with us?" Bondita asked as the grandmother nodded her head in approval.

"Aww.... My dear little baby... No... No... Baby... I won't leave you..." Bondita cooed gently as she pouted her lips forming a kiss towards the baby.
Baby Ani stretched his hands and tried to touch her lips as Anirudh cleared his voice and held his tiny hands lovingly in his.

"No... No... Little man... Those lips are only for me..." He hushed sending a warm shiver down Bondita's spine.

Paul Davidson entered inside the hall and addressed everyone.
"I believe the rest of us should get going now, else only the bride and the groom would end up reaching alone."
Everyone broke into laughter as they prepared to leave with a newfound readiness.

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The flower clad Bentley ran in its luxurious speed as the new couple sat inside quietly. Suresh was lost in his thoughts. He thought of the speed and smoothness of the lavish car that he was driving... He never had received such an opportunity before, may be once, when he drove Kshitija's new car a year back... He was teaching her how to drive when she had hit straight into a tree trunk, making a dry nest fall on its new bonnet.

A sudden smile escaped from his lips as his mind nudged the sweetness of his past memories.
'Kshitija...' He thought dearly. He recalled her restless dark eyes, her thin red lips, the way she used to stick her tongue out to mock him!
He recalled all the good memories of the woman whom he had loved so much... The woman, who was meant to be his...
The woman who carried his child...
The woman whom he had to kill!

A sharp pain arose in his heart as he suddenly found it difficult to breath.
He pulled the glass down to let a gasp of fresh air enter inside the closed car.

Mira turned to look at him, as a gentle breeze brushed her hair and their eyes met.
Mira was a good girl, but, she isn't the one whom he had loved. He took a deep breath and drove silently.

"I... I wanted to speak to you." Mira suddenly murmured, breaking the silence and his chain of thoughts at the same time.

"Yes, Mira. Tell me." Suresh replied politely.

"Why did you agree to marry me?" She asked him suddenly making Suresh gape for an answer.

"Um... I don't know... May be because it felt right." Suresh replied.
"Why did you?" He asked her.

"Because, I had no choice." Mira replied bluntly. " And, no one asked me really."
She turned to look into his eyes sharply.

"So, we both weren't given much of a choice I believe." Suresh chuckled.

The inside of the luxury car fell silent again, barring the whizzing sound of the passing wind as both Mira and Suresh sat beside each other with a forlorn expression on their face.

Suresh's thoughts drifted back to his lady love once again. And, to all the mistakes that he did to her, probably compelling her to fall for some other man.
He recalled her graduation day, and how he couldn't make it to the ceremony because of an operation. He couldn't make it to the after party as well, because he was treating some homeless widow. Kshitija had told him elaborately about how Barrister Anirudh had saved Bondita from an eminent fall on stage infront of everyone.
'It was dreamlike, like a Nickelodeon... A bioscope!' Kshitija had remarked with gleaming eyes. How could he not had seen the birth of her obsession!
He was never there when she needed him! He never bought her any expensive gift.
How would he?
All his money goes to the expense of his medical camp.
Suresh exhaled sharply again.
He recalled how Kshitija had talked about the expensive luxury car that Anirudh had gifted Bondita on her birthday... And, how 'that foolish girl' had rejected the gift!
It isn't that Suresh didn't tried to make amends, but when he did, it was too late...
Kshitija, by then, had built an obsessive emotional entanglement with Barrister Anirudh...
Barrister Anirudh, the man whom he should hate the most, the man whom he tried to kill, the man who saved his life, and gave him a new opportunity to live... The man to whom he would be indebted forever!

"Daktar Babu... " Mira called him.
"I wanted to tell you that... That," Mira swallowed hard. "That, I don't love you."

Suresh furrowed his eyebrows at her words and shared a quick glance at her.

"I understand Mira. I don't expect you to as well." He smiled.

"You can take your time as long as you want." He paused as he tried to touch Mira's right hand that lay still on her lap.
"I just want to be Ani's father."

Mira removed her hand quickly from his touch.
"I won't be able to love you even with time." She spoke a soft firmness.

Suresh didn't reply as his heart suddenly started to thud for the anticipated answer.

"I have someone else in my heart, and it's impossible to replace him." She remarked slowly.

Suresh let out a sharp sigh and chuckled at her words.

"Let me guess... Your new brother, Anirudh." A bit of sarcasm was evident in his tone. "Does he know?"

"He is not my brother... Atleast, I don't consider him to be... And, I don't care if he knows or not. I don't expect any return from him." Mira's eyes wailed up into fat tears as she declared her unrequited love to her new husband.

"Huh!" Suresh sighed loudly.
"Anirudh... Anirudh...! The whole world seems to be in love with him..." He chuckled and turned towards Mira.
"And, that includes me as well Mira."
He sped a car a bit as he spoke to her reflectivity.

"You know, I loved a woman dearly... And she in turn loved Anirudh... And then she had to die... So I thought of killing Anirudh." Suresh paused.

Mira shuddered at his sudden words as she clutched the dashboard to support herself from the speeding car.

"But, he didn't die! His destiny...! Although, Mira... I love him dearly, but he is a bit too much of a problem, don't to think so?" He chuckled again.
"And, now I think it would probably have been better if he would have died that day."

"What... What did you do?" Mira murmured nervously as she swallowed a dry lump on her throat.

Suresh let out a dry laugh.
"The day of your baby shower would have been his last day... The advent of baby Anirudh, and the end of the elder one, it would have been perfect Poetic Justice Mira." Suresh laughed out loud.

"Stop the car... Mira, murmured. I said... Stop the car."

Suresh didn't pay any heed to
her words. Instead, he pressed the accelerator harder and relished the speed of the imported car.

"This car is amazing!" He remarked.
"So, where was I, Mira? Oh yes, on the day of your baby shower." Suresh paused, recollecting the reminisce of the day.

Mira was crying silently as she sat upright, clutching the door handle and the dashboard with all her might.

"Don't do this... Daktar Babu... Please!" She sobbed incessantly.

"Listen up Mira, you are my wife now... You need to know this... " Suresh stated firmly.
" After Bondita and the Zamindar reached our house, I had gone out, straight to the Roy Chowdhury Banglow. I saw Anirudh chatting happily with that Superintendent friend of his...
How happy he looked Mira! I wished to choke him to death right there..." Suresh gritted his teeth.
"So, I took the opportunity, and sneaked inside the garage. His red car was inside, and I knew he would be driving it to our place...So, I quietly slide underneath the car and severed the brake cable with the pliers that I had carried." Suresh paused and chuckled.

"But, the bastard is a lucky one! He got into the Superintendent's jeep instead."
He thrashed on the steering wheel with his hand, expressing his disgust at the forfeiture of his perfect plan.

It felt as if fate had suddenly drained all colors from her life in one moment. Mira's face had turned deadly pale as she let out an inaudible scream from her choked throat.
"Re... Red..Red car? That's Bondita's!" She screamed.
"His drives the black one!"

Suresh turned towards Mira instantly frowning sharply at her words.
"What?" He muttered.

"The red car is Bondita's... The one that she mentioned not using since she was abducted!" Mira screamed at the top of her voice.
"And, it's the same one we're sitting in right now!!"

A sharp chill ran down Suresh's spine as his hands started to tremble on the steering wheel. The flower festoon and the excitement made him completely oblivious to this one fact!
He looked at Mira's horrified screaming face as beads of sweat started to form on his forehead.

"No... No... Suresh Chatterjee... This can't be happening!" He closed his eyes, murmuring to himself.

"We are dying!" Mira screamed out loud.
"You tried to kill him Daktar... It's your punishment... What did I do?"
Mira's piercing wails suffocated the insides of the car.
"What did I do?" She yelled again.

"Nothing...
You married me!"