**Ten days later**
Anirban Sir suddenly brings devastating news.
**Anirban** (voice choked with tears):
"Anurag, your grandmother is gone… Today is her death ceremony. Your father isn't in the country. Your uncles are handling everything. Will you go?"
**Anurag** (voice rough):
"How did you find out?"
**Anirban** (nervously):
"Uh, I mean…"
**Anurag** (harshly):
"Mother told you, didn't she?"
Anirban nods.
**Anurag** (still harsh):
"She isn't going?"
Anirban remains silent.
---
**Location: Banerjee Villa**
The sprawling grey mansion of the Banerjee family. The front garden is lined with carefully arranged white flowers—jasmine and marigolds.
A grand, palace-like villa with an air-conditioned mourning pandal.
Even as people step out of cars, the courtesy feels staged and superficial.
But beneath it all simmers society's venom: class arrogance and familial contempt.
At the main gate, a blue-and-gold carpet leads inside. Soft funeral music plays faintly in the background.
Men in formal white dhoti-panjabi, women in expensive white saris—everyone behaving as if posing for an invisible camera.
This is Grandmother's final farewell. Yet it feels more like a private garden party.
Anurag arrives in a white shirt and black trousers. Tears in his eyes, turmoil in his heart. Anirban Sir is with him.
All eyes turn toward Anurag.
An elderly man murmurs:
"There he is… Arindam's son… that Anurag."
Another relative whispers:
"Coming back after so many years. I heard he abandoned his father. Who knows—maybe he inherited the same bad temper!"
Someone sneers:
"His mother supposedly fled abroad, leaving the boy behind. And now the son shows up after her death?"
Anurag walks up to his grandmother's photograph. Then, overwhelmed, he sinks to the floor.
Tears fall steadily—drop after drop. In a voice thick with grief he says:
"I couldn't even see you one last time, Grandma… I… I'm so sorry."
Anirban Sir watches Anurag cry like this and is stunned. He has never seen him break down this way before.
A distant cousin, Samyak Banerjee, standing nearby, twists his lips and says:
"You have to be someone worth forgiving first, right? Showing up crying after cutting off all contact… it feels a bit theatrical."
Anurag hears it but stays silent, keeping his composure.
Anirban Sir only once meets the man's eyes.
Among the relatives, the whispers continue:
"What was the need for him to come? No one even invited him."
"I never thought Anurag would show up."
"This boy abandoned his own father, didn't he?"
"What an ill-mannered boy!"
"I've heard he isn't even his father's real son."
"I heard he somehow became a high-school teacher. God knows how!"
Anurag keeps his head lowered, remaining calm and dignified. He says nothing to anyone.
Right in front sit his two uncles and their children.
At that moment, a cousin—Aritra—laughs aloud:
"That's him… Anurag, right? The one whose mother ran away to America? That perfume lady? Heard she left you behind. And then you abandoned your father too! And now you show up for Grandma's ceremony? Brilliant!"
Another cousin, Ajay, whispers beside him:
"Haven't you heard? Anurag isn't even a real Banerjee! Apparently his mother had an affair with some businessman friend—that's whose son he really is!"
"Illegitimate!" another relative snaps in a biting tone, staring with contempt.
Anurag freezes. But rage makes his hands tremble.
A fire ignites inside his chest.
To be called illegitimate on the very platform meant to honour his grandmother—the woman who, until her final breath, had longed to have her grandson back!
Slowly, Anurag stands up. In front of everyone. Shoulders squared, eyes blazing like thunder.
In one swift motion, he grabs Ajay by the collar.
The surrounding relatives flinch in fear. Someone shouts:
"What are you doing! This is a mourning assembly—you're ruining it!"
Ajay is fuming but cannot break free from Anurag's grip.
Anurag roars:
"You are the ones who ruined the mourning! Grandmother has passed, and instead of grieving, you've turned it into a stage for family humiliation."
Now the eldest uncle steps forward.
"Anurag! Enough! Get out of this house."
Ajay snarls:
"Let me go! You'll never get a single penny of this family's property—you're not even Jethamoshai's real son!"
Anurag punches Ajay hard.
Ajay collapses to the ground.
Everyone's eyes widen in shock.
Anirban Sir panics.
The younger uncle starts calling for security.
The situation turns deeply uncomfortable.
---
**Half an hour later**
**Anirban Sir**:
"It wasn't right for you to lose your temper like that."
Anurag looks at Anirban with hard, stormy eyes.
Seeing that gaze, Anirban falls silent and says nothing more.
Then, suddenly, Anurag begins walking—fast, aimlessly, straight ahead.
Anirban runs after him.
"Anurag!"
No reply.
That day, Anurag Sir's heart was very heavy. He spoke to no one.
---
**The next day**
The morning was overcast. No sunlight pierced the winter sky—as if nature herself had forgotten to bring colour to the day, echoing Anurag Sir's melancholy.
The humiliating experience at the Banerjee house kept swirling in his mind like a storm.
He sat quietly in his room for a while. Then suddenly decided to go to a café.
The café was quite fancy—newly opened.
Suddenly, a familiar voice reached his ears.
At first he ignored it. But the next moment, that voice stabbed straight into his chest.
"Priya?"
He turned his head and saw…
Yes. It was her.
Priya stood right there—beautiful, medium height, glowing fair skin.
The same Priya with whom he had been in love for two years. Then she had cheated on him for money.
The old familiar smile played on her lips, but today she was not alone.
With her was a well-dressed young man in expensive branded clothes—Shubhankar Chatterjee.
One arm wrapped around Priya's waist, the other holding a phone as he spoke loudly to someone:
"Look, bro, it's just a matter of 5 lakhs! If I want, I can pay it tomorrow itself!"
Anurag stepped back a little, trying not to be seen.
But Shubhankar spotted him.
**Shubhankar** (grinning at Priya):
"Look there, Priya! Who's standing? Your handsome beggar boyfriend! Anurag! Haha!"
Anurag says nothing. He looks away, trying to avoid them.
**Shubhankar**:
"You know how much Priya laughs about you? She says—Anurag only ever cried in the name of love, but couldn't even buy her one branded perfume! Haha! You couldn't even afford to buy her shoes!"
Priya stays silent, but her face turns serious.
Anurag tries to steady himself and step back.
But Shubhankar suddenly steps forward and says—
"The truth is, you know what? Priya was just passing time with boys like you."
Anurag remains silent.
He tries to walk away, but Shubhankar comes closer and whispers even lower:
"To love someone, you need courage… and you need money.
You had neither—that's why Priya is with me today.
To protect a girl, you have to be a real man… just loving her isn't enough!"
Priya keeps her eyes down, saying nothing.
Anurag looks straight at Priya and says:
"I have no desire to love a woman who can be bought with money."
As Anurag turns to leave, Shubhankar pushes him in the chest and says:
"When you have no capability, people only talk big. Do you even have any manhood in you? The kind that can keep a girlfriend happy?"
Anurag tries hard to control his anger.
He pushes Shubhankar's hand away.
**Anurag**:
"Stay with your girlfriend. I have no time to waste thinking about your relationship."
Priya silently watches Anurag.
Shubhankar pushes him again and sneers:
"Then tell me—what's the rate of your current girlfriend?"
Anurag's fingers curl into a fist.
**Thwack!**
One punch—straight to Shubhankar's face.
His lip splits, blood streams from his nose.
Shubhankar falls to the floor.
People gasp. Priya screams—
"Anurag!"
People start shouting—
"Call security! They're fighting!"
Shubhankar, now furious, kicks from the ground.
"I'll finish you! Do you even know who I am?"
Shubhankar gets up and shoves Anurag again.
Security arrives.
**Security Guard** (shouting):
"Stop! Stop!!"
The guards grab Anurag and pull him back—because they had heard Shubhankar's words.
Shubhankar spits toward Anurag.
"What audacity! Disgusting. That Priya was ever with you—that's the real surprise!"
Anurag's head catches fire again. His mind has been unsettled since yesterday.
He shoves the security guards aside and punches Shubhankar again.
Priya screams:
"Anurag! Have you gone mad?"
Shubhankar flies backward and crashes to the floor.
More blood pours from his mouth.
His watch flies off and skids across the ground.
People crowd around.
Anurag drops down and lands several punches on Shubhankar's chest.
Shubhankar stops moving.
Security rushes in again. They drag Anurag away.
Someone shouts:
"Call the police! Call the police!"
**To be continued…**