I am in the mood to go on a spree. There's a chance for 1-2 more parts today if this gets a good response, so be sure to hit star on every chapter, and do comment as well. 

-- 

Bondita looked at Kaka blankly for a few seconds, when he asked what was going on here. 

"Kaka," Anirudh groaned from inside. 

Kaka glanced behind Bondita's shoulder and noticed his nephew had sweat on his forehead, as if he too had been part of an intense exercise. The blanket was covering his body. 

"What are you doing Bahu? Anirudh is there sweating because he's sick, and you're here wearing such clothes, with your hair so messy? Is this what I taught you? Is this how you be a good wife?" Kaka scolded.

Bondita just looked at Kaka as he continued, "A good wife should take care of every need of her husband! How will you take care of him when you won't even be able to handle your clothes?"

Bondita glanced down at Anirudh's pyjamas. She had completely forgotten she was wearing these!

"And what happened to your sarees, that I had to see such a day where you are dressed like this?" Kaka added on.

"Kaka!" Anirudh bellowed from inside, "Stop scolding her. She's not just a good wife, she's the best wife!"

Bondita tried hard not to smile in front of her Kakasasurji when Anirudh complimented her.

Kaka sighed and he said, "Yes, she was, but... now... all these behaviours..."

A heartbroken expression took over Kaka's face, and he just said, "Bahu, please come and talk to me. In private."

"Kaka please," Anirudh begged from inside, "Let her stay here."

"Anirudh you go to sleep!" Kaka said. "I'll get Bihari to send you herbal tea."

"Why Bhaari Babu? I'll make it," Bondita offered, and then started to stumble forward in Anirudh's pyjamas.

"Bondita no..." he groaned, "I don't want tea, I want you."

Bondita then recalled that she was on her period, and she didn't go into the kitchen during the times of her menstruation. Neither did she speak so closely to her Kakasasurji. It was a rule that she followed out of respect, and she had no problem with those rules. Even her Pati Babu didn't have any issue with the rules, as long as Bondita was being treated well.

In fact, these rules were created for a variety of reasons, and not because one was said to be impure. On the days of menstruation, women were urged to rest because of the cramping, the pain, the amount of sheer energy that they had in their body. It was not for the reasons that society had made it to be. 

In fact, they were treated as Goddesses, not as sinners. They were traditionally kept very nicely, treated with the utmost respect, and were given everything they needed. There was a lot of logic and science behind this. 

A pratha with good intentions had been turned into a kupratha by society over time though, and the process of menstruation -- the blood that flowed through everyone's veins, the blood that created a human body, was called impure. It was a baseless accusation, since without that very menstrual blood, life wouldn't exist. 

So Bondita took a few steps away from her Kakasasurji, and said, "Actually, Pati Babu, Bhaari Babu will have to make it today." 

Anirudh nodded, understanding, and he closed his eyes. 

"Please Kaka, let her come back soon," Anirudh said. 

Kaka looked at his nephew's state with pity. When would he get to tell him about his Bahu's true colours? Anirudh would be absolutely broken! 

"Bahu, let's go," Kaka just said, and Bondita followed him down the hallway. 

At the end of the hallway, Bondita continued to keep a good amount of distance between her and Kaka, and he just sighed, not understanding where he should start. 

"Kakasasurji, I'm sorry," she apologized first. 

"Bahu, what will apologizing do now? When the deed is done?" Kaka asked, pain in his eyes. 

"I know I made a mistake. I know I was foolish. But please forgive me Kakasasurji," Bondita said, looking at him, "I didn't mean to hurt anyone. I was only trying to help Mallika." 

Trilochan looked at Bondita with shock -- she still thought he was upset over her helping that girl? 

"Bahu, you crossed every limit when helping Mallika," he told her. 

"I know... I stayed away from home all night. I didn't even inform you, I made you all worry... you have every right to be mad at me Kakasasurji," Bondita said sadly. 

Kaka shook his head, wondering why she wasn't bringing up the biggest mistake - no, crime she committed! She normally was very bold when she spoke of these matters! She openly spoke of sex and seduction!

Perhaps this was where his Anirudh had gone wrong. He never put a lock on her mouth, when it was required. She was free to speak about anything she wanted, which made her believe she was free to do anything too!

"Bahu, and what about Bikram?" he finally asked. 

"Vikram?" Bondita asked blankly, and then she nodded with realization, knowing that Kaka wouldn't like the idea of her being with another man, even if he was a friend of the family. "It was only a coincidence that we got locked together." 

Chhee, Kaka thought. It was only a coincidence that they did all this, was that what his Bahu was trying to imply? 

Bondita couldn't even fathom that her Kakasasurji would go to that level, where he would not have trust in her. So she didn't understand the meaning behind his words. 

"Bahu, you and Bikram... what you did... it is not what women with good character do." 

Bondita looked at her Kakasasurji with shock for a moment, until it finally hit her, that her beloved Kakasasurji didn't have faith in her. 

"K - kaka - s - sasurji?" she gasped. "W - what are you s - saying?" 

"Don't pretend Bahu. I know... I know what you did with Bikram. That's why I brought you here to talk to you. It was bad. Very bad. I'm so disappointed... so hurt... and you don't deserve to be Anirudh's wife after all of these things!" Kaka finally snapped. "How could you even think about bringing that kind of pain to Anirudh? How can you even think about forgetting all the love our family has given to you? We have given you so much love, and this is how you repay us?" 

Bondita just looked at him, her eyes red and pained, wet. 

Kaka continued, "Maybe I could have understood your situation. Anirudh had a hard time accepting you as his wife. He wouldn't want to maintain those relations with you. You were craving to feel that love. But as a wife, you are supposed to take every action of your husband as prasad! What he gives you, you take that. You don't look for that kind of experience elsewhere! The Roy Choudhary Bahu, committing such an act? It's absolutely despicable. I'm not only disappointed, but I'm very angry about this." 

Bondita's eyes were red with so much pain, that she didn't even know how to react. Her hands started to shake. Her whole body felt like it could collapse. 

She knew and had even come to love her Kakasasurji even despite his orthodox beliefs. She had understood him. She respected him so much! He had taught her a lot, like a father, and yet, here he was, accusing his daughter of something that was completely wrong. He didn't even think to give her the benefit of the doubt?

Trilochan looked at Bondita, wondering why she wasn't saying anything. Usually she always had a lot to say! 

"Why are you quiet?" he snapped, "Now won't you say sorry, or do you realize that you have committed a crime and apologies won't work?" 

Tears streamed down Bondita's cheeks, her body trembling, her chest aching with pain. 

"No," she whispered, "I just need time to process." 

"Process?! Time?!" Kaka demanded. "Bahu, crying won't work, when you have done such a heinous deed!" 

She wiped her tears away, her heart hurting, and she just said, her voice trembling like her body, "I didn't do anything like that." 

Kaka looked at her with doubt and he said, "I saw it. I saw the stain. On your dress. That comes when a woman does that for the first time, and I know that you have never... with Anirudh." 

Bondita looked at Kaka with so much pain and she just replied, "I don't even know where to begin. You have left me speechless." 

"Better you don't speak then." 

"No, I will speak," she told him firmly, fresh tears forming in her eyes, her nose running too. "N - not to prove myself innocent, because a family is not a court, where we should provide evidence for innocence! I shouldn't have to go through an agni pareeksha. I shouldn't have to prove my innocence! Not to you... Kakasasurji." 

She said Kakasasurji with a sarcastic tone, that it stabbed Kaka's chest. 

"But I will still speak! Because this will hurt my Pati Babu a lot, if he finds out what you've said," she told him painfully. "That stain that you saw, was from my periods." 

Even her justification was her compassion today. 

Kaka looked at her with shock, his eyes widening. 

She took a few steps back. 

"You don't like it, when I'm near you, right? Here. I took steps back," she told him sarcastically. "My aura won't come anywhere near you." 

She continued, "Secondly, I love my Pati Babu so much... and I thought you knew that. I guess despite knowing it, you couldn't understand it. Even if my Pati Babu never engaged in sexual relations with me my whole life, I wouldn't look for that fulfilment anywhere else." 

She used the word freely, and Kaka looked at the pain in her eyes, matched by the pain in his own eyes, his heart feeling like it could melt. He didn't know what to believe anymore. 

"I - it's not because I'm a wife, Kakasasurji. A wife isn't bound by a leash. She isn't someone who should be controlled. But I wouldn't look for that fulfilment anywhere else because there is no Bondita without her Pati Babu. There is no d - desire of my own to be fulfilled. My only desire is him -- his happiness and well-being. I can die, I can be crushed, but my Pati Babu can't. So if I have n - no desire like that, why would I go anywhere else to chase it?" she questioned. 

Tears filled Kaka's eyes, as his Bahu confessed to something that he knew of and understood all along, but clearly failed to see today. 

"Thirdly, you said women of good character don't do this. I want to ask you something. If any of your nephews were ever in this situation, like I was, would you give them this exact lecture? Would you say men of good character don't do this? Or is only a woman's character tainted?" she questioned. "And about character, Kakasasurji, sex can n - never make anyone impure. What makes someone impure are the eyes with which they see the world. The one who sees the world with absolute purity, can never ever be impure!" 

Kaka listened to her tarks with a pained expression. He always knew that she had the ability to shut anyone's mouths. 

"Fourthly, you c - call me Bondita B - Bahu, but more than my Kakasasurji, I have considered you my father. I know between a Sasur and a Bahu, there is always a line that cannot be crossed, but today you proved it, that a Bahu cannot be a Beti. A daughter-in-law can n - never be a daughter," she told him, fresh tears forming in her eyes. "And a s - sasur can n - never be a father!" 

"B - Bahu..." he started, but Bondita raised her hand to quieten him. 

He cowered slightly, looking at her with pain. 

"I'm not done yet Kakasasurji. I respect you very much, and even now because of that respect I'm justifying myself, otherwise I don't have to prove this to you. However, I am not done," she told him, taking deep breaths. 

Then her voice cracked once again and she said, "K - Kakasasurji, three times, you tried to force my Pati Babu to have sex with me to fulfil your selfish desire to have a waaris. One of those times, my body wasn't even ready. I was too young. Didn't you care, what if I got hurt?" 

Tears streamed down her cheeks and she asked, "Didn't you care, what if my Pati Babu r - raped me? What if he... without my consent... without me even knowing what it was... what if I felt violated?" 

It was another thing that she knew her Pati Babu would never do it! However, her Kakasasurji believed he could do it, and the sheer fact that he could put her at risk for his selfish desires, hurt her so much. She always kept quiet about it. She had only spoken about it once, but didn't drag the matter. Today, it was time to settle that owed debt to him too. 

"Kakasasurji, when you spiked his ladoo, I was 12. I didn't know about anything. I... could have died," she confessed, "Was your dream for a waaris more important than my life?" 

Kaka shook his head, and with tears streaming down his cheeks, said, "No Bahu --" 

"The second time, we both got drunk. You made plans to lock us in our old hut. Maybe my body was ready, but was my m - mind? What if it emotionally scarred me? What if it t - traumatized me?" she asked, tears pouring down her cheeks. "Does my mental state have no value to you?" 

"No Bahu --" he started, but again she interrupted him. 

"The third time, you and Thakumaa both gave us a d - drug. Maybe my mind and body were both ready, but does it still give you the right? Does it still give you two the right to interfere in our sexual relationship? Does it still give you the right to try and push your desires on to us?" she asked, "And in all this, you never cared about whether your Bondita Bahu would get hurt, whether she would be forced against her will, whether she even knew of her choices." 

Kaka shook his head, his whole body paining. 

"Bahu --" 

"And not just me, but Pati Babu too. You didn't care about his emotional state. You didn't care that he would never forgive himself! You didn't care that he would go mad that he could even hurt his Bondita," Bondita sobbed. 

She had even dropped dreaming about their future kids, because she knew how much Anirudh would blame himself if they had children before she became a barrister. 

Yet, here her Kakasasurji couldn't drop the matter despite knowing of what would hurt and traumatize his own nephew. 

Maybe Bondita could at one point, move on if he touched her before she was ready -- she had a such a personality, after all, but her Pati Babu would live with the guilt for so long, that he may carry it to his deathbed, and even Bondita wouldn't have been able to heal him out of it.   

"K - Kakasasurji, if you couldn't be a good father to me, shouldn't you have been a g - good father to Pati Babu at least?" she finally questioned. 

Tears furiously poured down Kaka's cheeks as he realized his mistakes. He had accused her falsely. He had hurt her so much in the past, and today he hurt her again. 

Was the damage so severe that it couldn't be repaired now? 

"Bahu --" he said, again. 

"Kakasasurji, I am very hurt and disappointed today. I always forgave you. I always let the matter slide, because I know that somewhere, all of this was f - fueled by your orthodox thinking. By what you were taught. T - that it isn't your fault. But today... after all these years of knowing your B - Bondita Bahu, you still accused her. You still didn't think that maybe there is more to the story," she cried. "You're my Kakasasurji, but m - maybe I was never truly able to be your Bahu."

Her last words were like a stab to his heart, and he didn't know how to fix this anymore.

"Bahu, p - please... listen to me," Kaka said, sniffling, "I have made many mistakes, and today, I made yet another one..." 

Bondita just smiled sarcastically through her tears and she said, "Kakasasurji, I've always listened to you. But today I need some time. Some space. I don't want to listen to you or talk to you! Forgive me, but I'm not being disrespectful. I would be more disrespectful if I stayed, because I might not be able to control what comes out of my mouth next!" 

She turned around to go, and Kaka went to follow her. 

"Don't come close Kakasasurji, I'm on my period. You might need to wash yourself with gangajal!" she said sarcastically through her tears. 

Kaka stopped in his tracks for a moment, as she continued to stumble forward in Anirudh's pyjama pants. 

Then she nearly fell forward, tripping over the bottom of the pants, and Kaka without thinking, dropped his cane and caught her hand in one quick movement to hold her up. 

This time, the man who was once the first to push her in the ditch, was the first to help her up. 

Tears filled both Bondita's and Kaka's eyes at this loving gesture. 

"Bahu, I'm sure that you didn't eat all night," Kaka said to her softly, his heart aching with both pain and love, "Let me... feed you today." 

Bondita turned to look at her Kakasasurji with a painful, yet soft expression. 

He had never come near her when she was on her period before, and today, he even held her hand without complaints. 

He was even talking about feeding her. 

How could her heart not melt, when a man like this, upon realizing his mistakes, could change his entire nature and show her his care when she needed it? 

"F - feed me?" she asked, her lips quivering. 

"Let a father feed his daughter today," Kaka cried, still not leaving her hand, "Please Bahu. Let me care for you today." 

A sob escaped her lips as she heard him talk to her as a father, and not a father-in-law today.

-- 

Precap: 

Batuk and Surabhi went to Mallika's house. 

Surabhi came out with a shocked expression. 

"What's wrong?" Batuk asked. 

"Take me to Bondita now!" Surabhi ordered. 

What will happen now?  

-- 

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! 

I teared up while writing it. It's probably one of my favourite chapters that I've written.

Please do leave your comments and press the star button! 

There's a chance the next one or two parts will come today too, so remember to hit star on every part and share your comments. 

I love you all very, very much!❤️