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Eagerly looking forward to your thoughts on this one, because it's a loop that has finally been closed from the past.

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-- 

When Anirudh opened the cupboard and saw the tears that ran down Bondita's cheeks, her runny nose, her trembling body, and her knees which were pulled up to her chest like a little child, his heart ached.

His baby was crying, and nothing could hurt him more than this. 

He was about to reach forward to wipe her tears away, when Bondita looked away from him and lifted her hands, grabbing the insides of the cupboard doors, pulling them back towards her and closing them with a thud. 

Anirudh stared helplessly at the closed doors. 

Bondita didn't want to look at him or talk to him, and this thought hurt his heart. 

Still, he was not going to give up. 

He gently placed his hand on the door and said, "Bondita, won't you speak to your Birristira Babu?"

He heard her sobs from inside and he knocked on the door. Three times.

"Bondita, you won't give your Birristira Babu a chance to explain?" he asked again. 

Inside the cupboard, Bondita hid her face in her knees, as she held them tightly against her chest. 

Her Pati Babu had stolen Manika Didi's earring, and she had seen them. She remembered how out of jealousy, she had thrown the earring on the ground that day years ago, and got scolded by Manika Didi, almost even getting slapped. 

Bondita recalled how her Pati Babu stood silently, not saying anything, not defending her.

"Bondita," Anirudh said from outside, his voice pained. "Are you upset with me?" 

Bondita squeezed her eyes shut and finally spoke, "No... I'm not. I just... can't look at you."

Anirudh felt like he got stabbed in the heart. 

"...Because Pati Babu, I'm not w - worthy enough t - to." 

Sobs escaped Bondita's lips once again, as Anirudh stared at the cupboard with shock. 

He placed a gentle hand on the cupboard door and he softly asked, "Why are you saying that Bondita? How can you not be worthy enough?"

Fresh tears emerged in her eyes as she finally sobbed, "It's my fault! It's all my fault!" 

"No Bondita, it's my fault," Anirudh said firmly. "I was the one who lost my way. I was the one who was being a fool. I was the one who was at fault. It wasn't your fault." 

Bondita shook her head adamantly and she said through her tears, "No Pati Babu." 

"Can I please open the door?" he asked her softly. 

Another sob escaped her lips, and she began to shake. 

"Why?" she sobbed, "So that you can comfort me? Like always. Just like you have always taken care of me. Just like without any complaints, you always looked after me. You m - meant it when you called me your z - zimmedari. I was. In the truest sense. I am so lucky Pati Babu. So lucky. You cared for me, when you didn't have to. You were thinking about my well-being when you didn't have to. You even stopped living your life because of me." 

Now tears formed in Anirudh's eyes. 

"Bondita, I'm opening the door," he said, his heart aching, and he reached for the handles and opened the cupboard doors. 

He saw Bondita with her trembling lips pressed to her knees, and Anirudh reached forward and held one of her knees gently. 

"Now let me clear something for you. I never stopped living my life because of you. You showed me what life was," Anirudh told her firmly. 

Bondita lifted her face slowly and looked at him, sniffling. 

"You were my zimmedari, you are my zimmedari, and you always will be my zimmedari. That won't ever change, no matter what happens," he continued firmly. 

Bondita looked at him, and her lips trembled again. 

He said to her, "I know you heard what I spoke about with Manika. You remembered that earring from years ago, and you must have thought that... that I didn't want you. But that's not true Bondita." 

Bondita shook her head and said, before he could continue, "No Pati Babu. That's not what I thought." 

"Then? Why are you crying?" he asked her incredulously. 

"Because... I realized... the truth..." she said, her chest heaving up and down with heavy sobs once more. "The truth that... my Pati Babu wanted me... more than this entire sansaar."

Anirudh's heart ached and his eyes grew more wet as she said the words that touched him directly in his heart. 

She continued, "The truth that my Pati Babu... forced himself... to look away from me... because he didn't think he s - should have me." 

Tears slid down Anirudh's cheeks, and he squeezed Bondita's knee, wanting to pull her closer to him and hug her tightly. 

"The truth that my Pati Babu did e - everything for me. He struggled so much f - for me. He - he couldn't even accept the feelings of his own h - heart, b - because he was worried about m - me." 

Bondita took a deep breath, unable to stop her tears, "I am c - crying because my Pati Babu sacrificed so much for me. He sacrificed his mental well-being and even... even the love he had for me." 

Anirudh should have known. 

How could Bondita fail to understand him? She knew him so well. She knew the state of his heart. She wasn't a fool like he had been. 

She had correctly analyzed the situation even today. 

Bondita slowly slid out of the cupboard, and Anirudh moved back a little bit to give her space to come out. He was going to take her hand as soon as she exited, but what she did instead shocked him. 

Bondita fell to her knees in front of him, before getting down on the floor flat, her knees pressed against the ground too, pressing her face down between his feet, and touching them lovingly with her hands.

She held his feet tightly and brushed her lips over them, before whispering, "You are my God indeed, but today, I have seen how much a God has to suffer when answering prayers. Today, I have witnessed how much load a God has to take on themselves, to take away the burden of their devotees." 

Tears rolled down Anirudh's cheeks, and now he just couldn't stop crying. 

"B - Bondita," he whispered, holding her shoulders. "I never suffered. Never." 

"Liar," she said, and kissed his feet again, refusing to get up. 

She wrapped her hands around his ankles, and rested her head on his feet, curling her body by it and closing her eyes. 

"Shotti Bondita," Anirudh whispered. "I never suffered. Every moment was meaningful with you. If that's what suffering is, then I hope everyone suffers in this way." 

Bondita smiled tearfully against his feet. 

"I threw so many tantrums. I demanded so many things of you. I limited our relationship to that of a husband and a wife, when it was always so much more. I made you suffer. I didn't listen to you. So many things I did back then, but you never stopped loving me. You never gave up on me." 

Anirudh moved his hands to the pallu on her hair, and gently removed it, needing to get closer access to her. He ran his fingers through her hair and stroked her head comfortingly. 

Bondita was still resting against his feet, unwilling to move. 

"Giving up on you was never a thought on my mind," Anirudh told her softly, "Your mind had been molded the wrong way by society, and that was what I feared. I was afraid to tamper with your mind further. I couldn't ever dream of hurting you. I couldn't ever think of messing with your fragile mind. You were at a tender age. How was I in any position to accept my feelings? When the very fabric of accepting them meant that I would be hurting you, and validating our child marriage. So... I used any means necessary to try... to try to sway my mind. And Manika was that means."

A sniffle escaped her lips. Anirudh's feet were drenched with her tears now.

But Bondita was still not willing to get up. 

She found comfort here, by his feet. 

"My Pati Babu is so great," she sobbed, "He's so great, that he was willing to go through pain, through so much struggle, just for me. Just for my good. He was willing to love someone else, when he loved me all along, just because he didn't want to hurt me." 

She squeezed her eyes shut and recalled the moment where he thought that she would marry someone else in the future. Where he gave her permission to be free. He thought she had liked Vikram, and he told her it was perfectly fine. He would never bind her to him. He would set her free. 

He would always set her free. 

This man was never selfish in his love for her. He never tried to possess her or attain her. Even when she grew up a little more, he never tried to bind her. 

Only God was said to be selfless to this level. 

Devo Manyusha Rupena... they said that God came in human form. And for Bondita, her Pati Babu was proof of this.

"I'm not great Bondita," Anirudh said softly, still stroking her hair. "I was a fool. I wasn't able to accept my feelings for you, for a long time. I struggled a lot, because of your age, because of my values. I cast you away from my heart, and tried to replace you with Manika. I couldn't validate our child marriage. I couldn't put that weight on you when you were at that tender age. I couldn't give into my feelings and make you fall in the traps of society. I had to distance myself. I had no other choice. I had to... I just couldn't put you through these struggles at your age."

"So you went through all the burdens alone," Bondita finished for him, "But how could I have gone through them with you? How could I have supported you in any way? I didn't understand much. I was influenced by others. I gave you lots of stress, and I never understood that you were distancing yourself from me for my own good... not until it was too late." 

"It's not your fault Bondita," Anirudh told her, "You were young. Yes, you were bright, but you wouldn't have understood the situation back then." 

Bondita finally lifted her head and looked him in the eyes with her own red ones. 

"But now I understand Pati Babu. Now I understand the struggles and sacrifices you made for me. Now I understand how bad your pain and dilemma must have been, that you tried to fall for someone else," she told him softly. "Today, it hit me so hard... like a tonne of bricks. What my Pati Babu went through... for me. Just how much he had to fall, to uplift me. And that's why I couldn't face you. That's why I hid in the cupboard." 

Another sob escaped her lips, and Anirudh reached to her cheeks, wiping the tears away. His own eyes were wet, but he couldn't have Bondita stay away from him for a moment longer. 

He finally lifted her up onto his lap, hugging her tightly. 

"Your place isn't by my feet," he murmured into her ear, "It's right here." 

Bondita couldn't help but smile as she embraced him on his lap, her hands wrapping around his neck. 

"But I still love your feet," she whispered. 

"I know missy," he said into her ear, his hot breath tickling it. 

Her heart fluttered and she moved her face back slightly so that she could look at him. 

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked him softly, "Afterwards, about what you went through?" 

Anirudh looked into her eyes and murmured, "Bondita, it was in the past. It was something that didn't matter anymore. I found my liberation. So why would I hold onto those things? And I didn't want you to have thoughts in your mind, where you believed that I didn't love you. I didn't want you to feel less about yourself." 

Bondita smiled again and she said, "I guess everything comes out at the right time." 

"Indeed, it does," Anirudh said with a smile, and wiped her tears away again. 

Bondita reached to his cheeks, and caressed them gently, wiping the remnants of his own tears. 

"I love you, very, very, very much," Bondita confessed. 

"And I love you endlessly," he said to her, in a voice that was so deep, that she was certain it contained the experiences of the universe from the beginning of its inception. 

Anirudh brought his hand to her hair again, and leaned towards her. Bondita closed her eyes as he pressed a soft and gentle kiss to her lips. 

The kiss may have been gentle, but it touched her to the depths of her soul. 

Mai tera dil tu pyaar mera hai tu
Mera jeevan sansaar mera
Kaise kahu kya lage tu meri
Tu saansein meri parchayi meri
Saamne jo tu mere ho, kaabu kaise dil pe ho
Kaise mein isko samjhauu?
Rishta Tera Mera, Rishta Tera Meraaa

She kissed him back, lovingly and deeply, her body and soul craving to let him feel just what he meant to her.

And he felt it. 

He felt every ounce of her love, and he had no doubt that his Bondita loved him in a way that was not even humanly possible.

How could it be? When she was his Goddess. 

After breaking the kiss, Bondita smiled softly and said, "By the way Pati Babu, there's one more thing... from the past, that I never really cleared." 

"Hmm?" he asked her, caressing her cheeks with his thumbs, and looking at her lips with desire and love. 

"Vikram..." Bondita confessed, a blush on her cheeks, wondering how he would react to her silliness. "Remember my love for Vikram?" 

Anirudh looked up in her eyes, a pout appearing on his lips, as he remembered his struggles over this boy. 

"I remember it very well Bondita," he told her, frowning slightly. 

Bondita blushed and smiled, "You weren't the only fool Pati Babu. I was one too."

-- 

I teared up when writing this chapter. They have come such a long way, and it melts my heart all the time. Did you enjoy this chapter? 

Instead of Bondita being upset with him, it was actually the opposite, and she realized deeply what he had done for her in all this time. Did you expect her to react this way?

Any favourite moment/dialogues from this part? 

Did you like the Rishta Tera Mera version?

Are you excited for more? 

Remember to hit star and leave your comments for faster updates. 

I love you all very much! ❤️