When Bihari came rushing in with the sweets, his arms loaded with tons of bags, he was huffing and puffing with exhaustion. 

Trilochan looked up and announced, "The sweets are here!" He looked around with excitement at everyone who was standing, and said, "Mishti mukh korun sobhai! Fill your mouth with sweetness for this great news!" 

He opened a sweets box and took a ladoo, rushing over to Thakumaa and practically pushed the ladoo into her mouth. 

"You will be a great grandmother, Kalindi ji," he said with a grin. 

Bondita just looked at her Kakasasurji with a small smile, happy to see his excitement.

Chandrachur was behind Bondita, with Batuk and Tupur. They had come back in after their little moment outside, where Batuk did nothing but silently just keep an eye on them. Both Tupur and Chandrachur had been quiet the whole time. 

Anirudh was also in the room, standing off to the side, just silently watching Bondita to make sure she was okay. 

"Trilochan ji, Bondita is pregnant, and you're filling my mouth with sweetness first? Go and feed your Bahu!" Kalindi said, shaking her head, as she held the remaining ladoo and ate it herself. 

Trilochan rushed over to his Bahu, very happily, and took out a ladoo. 

Anirudh protectively went to Bondita's side, as Kaka gently placed the ladoo in her mouth. Bondita took a small bite. 

"Are you okay? Don't sweet things make you vomit?" Anirudh asked, sounding concerned. 

Bondita nodded that she was fine, taking the ladoo from Kaka. She had only bit into a small piece. She wasn't craving the sweetness anymore, and the idea of eating the whole thing wasn't so appealing, so she didn't think she could have more. 

"Bahu, what is this? Eat the whole ladoo!" Kaka ordered, "You're giving birth to my waaris, you deserve to have all the sweets here!" 

Anirudh looked at Kaka with an irritated expression and said, "She doesn't want to eat it Kaka. Don't force her!" 

Bondita turned to look at Anirudh, gulping at his tone. He seemed to be done with Kaka's excitement, and if it weren't for the Das family being here, he would have certainly taken Bondita to the bedroom and made her rest. 

Kaka glared at Anirudh and said, "You don't know anything! Eating sweets is very important in pregnancy! Do you want a sweet child or not, Anirudh? Bahu, eat the ladoo! I'm going to feed you more sweets! Today, this is my right!"

Batuk was in deep thought! His nephew should be the sweetest! Kaka was right. Boudi should eat the ladoos! 

Bondita clutched the ladoo and looked at it, feeling a little sick at the thought, and blood rushed to Anirudh's head. 

"KAKA, NO, YOU CAN'T FORCE HER!" Anirudh screamed, getting angry, and then glared at Bondita. "Bondita, don't eat it!" 

"Bahu, eat it!" Kaka demanded, glaring at Anirudh, and then he huffed, "Shubhra Behen must not have had enough sweets in her pregnancy, this is why you turned out like this, Anirudh! A bitter child!" 

At the mention of his Maa's pregnancy with him, Anirudh felt fear enter his system again. His Maa had nearly lost her life because of her young age. He pushed that thought aside, because right now, his Kaka was forcing his wife to eat a ladoo when she didn't want to! 

"No, she doesn't want to!!" Anirudh argued angrily, "You can't force Bondita!" 

"Bahu, your husband has lost his mind. He thinks he knows everything, when he has never handled a pregnant lady before. I on the other hand, have been there through all three of Shubhra Behen's pregnancies, and have even been the one to oversee Sampoorna Bahu's pregnancy. You will listen to me, only!" Kaka ordered. 

Bondita nervously nodded, and tried to catch her Pati Babu's eye, but he wasn't looking at her anymore. He was busy glaring at Kaka and huffing. 

She quickly began to bring the ladoo to her mouth, not wanting the two of them to fight with each other when she could just eat this and be done with it. 

"Very good!" Kaka said smugly, when Bondita brought the ladoo to her lips. 

As soon as the ladoo touched her lips though, Anirudh reached for it, grabbing it roughly from her hand. Her small bite mark was still on it from the bite she had taken earlier. 

In one sudden movement, Anirudh put the whole thing in his mouth, chewing it angrily, and swallowing quickly. 

Bondita's eyes widened, as Anirudh grabbed three more ladoos from the sweet box that Kaka was holding, and stuffed them all in his mouth at once, chewing them, causing the crumbles of the ladoos to half fall from his mouth. 

"Anirudh! What are you doing?" Trilochan demanded, seeing his fitoor. 

Only Anirudh would do this craziness in such an auspicious moment!

Thakumaa was shaking her head and sighing heavily. Didn't Zamindar Babu know the right things to say? Didn't he know his own nephew by now? Even Thakumaa knew how protective Anirudh was about Bondita, and Zamindar Babu just didn't know how to navigate the situation properly. He only ended up provoking her Mishti Meye!

Chandrachur just watched with shock as Barrister Babu displayed his fitoor, and tried to stuff all the ladoos in his mouth! 

Batuk murmured to Tupur, "Boudi should have just eaten the ladoo, you know. But do you see Big D's craze? Once upon a time, he drunk a whole pot of water that another caste had drank, just to prove a point! He's doing the same right now!" 

Tupur just nervously smiled at the mention, wondering what Big D was. 

Chandrachur heard this and he hissed to Batuk, "Isn't he dangerous then? To be around Bondita?" 

Batuk glared at Chandrachur and hissed back, "You don't know anything, Chandrachur Dada." 

Then he went towards a sweet box that was on the table, and opened it, picking up a barfi and holding it up to Chandrachur's mouth. "You're going to be a Mama, so sweeten your mouth!" He grinned at Chandrachur, a fake grin, overly sweet, but one which was filled with superiority. 

Chandrachur glared at Batuk as the young boy pushed the barfi into his mouth, making him eat it. 

Of course, Batuk knew that the name was Mausa for Chandrachur, but he didn't want to admit that Chandrachur was Tupur's husband, so by his twisted logic, Mama was just fine!  

Chandrachur chewed on the ladoo unhappily, especially annoyed by the mention that he was a Mama. 

Right now, I'm eating the sweet, but this is a pre-celebration, because I'm going to feed that pill to you Bondita, and I will make sure the devil inside of you doesn't ruin your body! In that happiness, I have tasted this celebratory sweet!

Bondita looked at Anirudh as he glared at Kaka with rage in his eyes. She held his arm and said, "Please stop Pati Babu. You don't need to eat the ladoos to prove anything." 

Anirudh swallowed what was in his mouth and glared at Bondita, yelling, "If I don't eat them, then Kaka will make you eat it!" 

"That's okay Pati Babu," Bondita said softly. 

"NO! If you don't want to eat sweets, then they shouldn't be forcing you Bondita!" Anirudh said angrily. 

"Bahu, don't try to make him understand! Instead of being happy that he's going to be a father, he's still throwing his tantrums!" Kaka argued, glaring at Anirudh. 

At the word 'father', his heart did twitch ever so slightly, but he was once again reminded of all the pain, and he just stepped forward towards Kaka, causing Trilochan to gulp. 

He grabbed the remaining ladoos from Trilochan's box, and stuffed them in his mouth too, angrily, in his moment of hot-headedness. 

"I'm supposed to be happy right? Here, see how happy I am? I'm the one who's filling my mouth with sweetness the most!" Anirudh yelled sarcastically, crumbles of the ladoo spilling from his mouth onto the floor, as he tried hard not to cry. 

Every moment of this celebration was just reminding him over and over again, about how he ruined Bondita's life. 

Somehow, he managed to hold his tears in. He wasn't letting them prickle his eyes. 

But instead, tears entered Bondita's eyes, when she heard this, and her heart started to writhe with pain once again. 

Trilochan, who was absolutely startled, but not surprised over his nephew's fitoori logic, looked at his Bahu, who had started to cry. 

"See what you did Anirudh! You're making Bahu cry!" Kaka accused. "In this state, is your fitoor correct? Shouldn't you be more conscious?" 

At the mention that Bondita was crying, he turned to look at her, but she quickly tried to wipe her tears away. 

"Kakasasurji, Pati Babu isn't m - making me cry," she said defensively. 

"Bondita..." Anirudh said, his voice cracking now, "I'm sorry." 

This was all he could be. Sorry. He always did this. He always made mistakes, and then he would be sorry after. Like right now.

Why the hell did he keep doing things to hurt her? First, she became pregnant because of his mistake, and now, he made her cry yet again. 

Why couldn't he stop making mistakes in the first place? 

"Ruined all of my celebration sweets," Kaka muttered under his breath, and yelled, "BIHARI, clean this mess up!" 

Then he disappeared from there. 

Bondita looked at Anirudh and said through her tear-filled eyes, "Pati Babu, you didn't do anything... I... love this fitoor about you... how can it make me cry?" 

Anirudh just looked at her blankly now, as she continued. 

"You didn't want me to be in pain, you didn't want me to feel forced, so you ate all the ladoos yourself. You went against your own Kaka for me. Do you think I would cry because of you?" she asked him softly. "I know, that you only did it because you care about me, because you love me."

Anirudh felt his heart melt with her words. She understood him and knew him so well. But he also knew her well. He knew that she cried, because he had yelled sarcastically that he was happy to his Kaka. The sarcasm was what hurt her. 

He was about to say something to her, when Thakumaa approached them and said, "Jamai Babu, I understand your pain but..." 

"I don't want to talk about this Thakumaa," was all he said, and then he looked at Bondita and said, "Spend time with Thakumaa and Sumati Maa, then come to the room and rest." 

Bondita nodded. 

Then he disappeared from there to try and freshen up. He had a long, emotional day after all. 

-- 

Everyone had dinner together, and Chandrachur kept looking for ways to feed Bondita the pill in his pocket. 

There were too many people around, and that Anirudh Roy Choudhary kept his gaze on Bondita all along. 

When Anirudh had gone to freshen up, Bondita had gone with Sumati into a room, and had just laid on her lap, as Sumati stroked her hair lovingly, telling her that it would be okay. Bondita didn't speak much, but she just felt the comfort of her Maa's touches and words. 

Sumati had told her that when she gave birth to Bondita, she was fifteen. She was scared out of her wits, but somehow, she managed. Thakumaa, Bondita's Baba, Shoumik Kaka were all very supportive and took good care of her. They never let her feel lonely. And she even added, that she was certain that Anirudh would also take good care of Bondita during her pregnancy... that if Jamai Babu was there, there was nothing to fear. 

Bondita quietly listened, and just embraced her mother's lap. 

When she came out of the room, Anirudh had already returned to keep an eye on Bondita from a distance, to make sure nothing happened to her. 

He was extremely protective. Perhaps overprotective. But he couldn't help it. He was very worried about Bondita. 

After dinner, Kalindi said that they should leave, but Trilochan insisted, "It's already late. Don't drive in the dark, it'll be very unsafe Kalindi Ji. Why don't you stay here for the night?" 

"At Bondita's sasural? No... it's not right," Kalindi said, shaking her head. 

Chandrachur stepped forward and he said with a big, huge, fake, smile, "Then treat it as your own Sasural, Thakumaa!" 

Thakumaa looked at Chandrachur with wide eyes when he said that, and even Kaka's face turned quite red. 

"What I mean to say is, Barrister Babu's Kaka, the Zamindar Babu of Tulsipur, is specially requesting us to stay. We should stay for the night," Chandrachur said, "I also am worried for you Thakumaa. And Tupur and Sumati Maa as well! I don't want three ladies to be travelling at night like this." 

Anirudh stepped forward ignoring Chandrachur's drama, and said, "Kaka is right, Thakumaa. Please stay here for the night." 

Thakumaa sighed, and she said, "Very well." 

Chandrachur was relieved that he had more time to execute his plan... but it depended on when that Barrister Babu would leave Bondita alone!

"I'll help with the sleeping arrangements," Sampoorna said, and asked Koeli to get the guest rooms ready.

Batuk glanced at Tupur, a little awkwardly. Tupur would be staying here for the night? Tupur also looked at Batuk, feeling a pang in her heart... once upon a time, she had dreamed of staying in this haveli, not as a guest, but as a Bahu. 

If she hadn't married Chandrachur, if she had somehow mustered up courage that day, would this be her fate too? Would this be her home too? 

"Bondita, let's go to our room," Anirudh said. 

She looked at Anirudh, and nodded without saying anything. If she got him alone in the room, then maybe she could have a heart to heart conversation with him. Maybe they could talk... and maybe, just maybe she could try to get to him again. 

Chandrachur's face turned pale, when Anirudh told Bondita to retire into the room. If Bondita went to her room, how would he ever be able to feed her the pill? 

"Barrister Babu, let Bondita mingle with all of us a bit more," Chandrachur suggested, "I mean, we don't come often!" 

Anirudh turned to glare at Chandrachur. Everyone else was busy in their own conversations, so nobody was listening except Bondita. 

"Did anyone ask you, Chandrachur?" Anirudh asked, rudely. 

Chandrachur gulped and he said, "Well, I was only --" 

"Don't give your unneeded advice then," Anirudh told him darkly, "Bondita is my wife, and I'll take care of her how I see fit." 

Bondita clasped her hand inside Anirudh's, and Anirudh looked down at their joined hands, feeling his heart warm slightly. 

Chandrachur pursed his lips when he saw this affection, and he hissed, "You don't have to have such a high ego, Barrister Babu! There may be others who care about Bondita too!" 

"No need!" Anirudh said darkly, glaring at Chandrachur, "There's no need for you to care about Bondita! I'm more than enough for her!"

Bondita couldn't help but smile when she heard this. She hoped he believed in the words he said, because he truly was more than enough for her, and he needed to know this from the bottom of his heart!

Chandrachur furrowed his eyebrows, and Anirudh removed his hand from Bondita's, making her heart drop once again. 

Anirudh turned to look at her and he said, in a deep tone, "Are you going to complain to me too now?" 

She shook her head obediently. 

"Then let's go," he told her firmly. "Let's go to our bedroom." 

Bondita nodded, and was about to turn around and walk upstairs, when she felt Anirudh's strong arms lift her up, bridal style. 

Chandrachur's eyes widened so high that his eyebrows reached his hairline, when he witnessed Barrister Babu carrying Bondita! 

Bondita's heart fluttered, and she looked up into her Pati Babu's eyes, as he held her protectively against him. He avoided looking into her eyes, afraid that the depth of them would make his heart falter once again. 

This precious woman... this precious life of his... he wanted to pamper Bondita so much. She was his baby. He wanted to just hold his baby close to him, and love her in every way possible. His heart ached to show her every form of his love once again. 

Then he started to walk with her towards the staircase, passing by everyone who was there, as they all watched with wide eyes. 

Kaka tried hard not to utter 'Shiv Shiv Shiv' because now he was aware that this wasn't fake affection, and he was standing right next to Kalindi who would once again insult him if he said it! 

Batuk also watched incredulously, "Whenever I lift her, Boudi complains, but look at how she's looking at Big D! With all the happiness in the world!" 

Chandrachur glared at Batuk, and said, "Your brother is too much! He's being too extra." 

"Not a word against my Big D!" Batuk hissed at Chandrachur. 

"If he's Big D, what are you, little D?" Chandrachur just asked, rolling his eyes slightly. 

At the mention that he was Little D, a horrified gasp left his lips. 

LITTLE D? 

Oh my GOD! What if... he was!

He turned to face Tupur! She would know!

"Tupur, am I little D?" Batuk just gasped at her anxiously, sounding like the world could end, depending on this answer!

Tupur's face went slightly red, and she said, not even knowing the secret behind the name, "Oh, uh, I don't know...if your brother is Big D, then you are probably... little D, right?" 

Batuk gasped horrifically again!

Was he really little D?

Precap: 

Anirudh and Bondita alone in their bedroom... will they have a heart to heart? How will the night go?

-- 

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! 

What did you think about Anirudh's fitoor for Bondita's comfort? 

Did you like the Batuk/CC moments? I tried to make it funny. 🤭

Anything else you liked/that stood out to you?

What do you think will happen now, in Anidita's bedroom?

Now that the Das members are here in the haveli, will Chandrachur be able to execute his plan? 

How about Batuk? Tupur seems to be staying over... will any lingering feelings of the past return? 

We will be at 300 chapters in the next part. 🥺

If you want the next part soon, make sure you hit star on all parts from Chapter 297. It's still behind! When I see that most of you are caught up (as in all the chapters from part 297 have reached 450+ stars), I'll post the next part only then. Again, since this book contains fast updates, I am very worried about leaving my readers behind.