Seeing Bhadran carrying Vaishnavi, the grandfather started, "Whose child is this that you're carrying? Shame on you!" He continued to scold Bhadran angrily, using many harsh words. But Bhadran simply looked at him calmly.
Then, he began to speak in a firm voice. "Why did you ask me to come, Grandpa? Just tell me that. Don't talk about unnecessary things," he said blankly, without showing any emotion on his face.
This angered the grandfather even more. Glaring at Bhadran, he said, "Bhadra, what you're doing is not right. The one you should be marrying is standing right there," pointing to Janvi, and continued to pour out his words.
"But you've married some orphan. And she even has two children. Do you know how big an insult this is to our family? Our family needs your heir. We don't need anyone else's heir. I can't remain silent after seeing all this. Listen to me, Bhadra. Throw these orphans out of the house right now," he concluded.
The one who had been listening silently all this time, became angry when he heard Vaishnavi and Theeran being called orphans. "Grandpa, enough! If you call my children orphans one more time, I won't stand by and do nothing," he roared angrily, and kicked the table next to him.
Unable to withstand his anger, the table flew away and fell upside down. The grandfather looked at him in shock. Bhadran had never been angry with him before. "Even though he behaves badly with everyone else, he's always been somewhat submissive with me. Why has he started getting angry with me today? Are those children really that important to him?" Many thoughts arose in his mind, only increasing his resentment. Seeing Bhadran's anger, even Vaishu trembled. Sensing this, Bhadran controlled his anger and hugged Vaishu tightly. He further warned in a stern voice, "Grandpa, understand one thing clearly. She is my heir. She is also my life. Let this be the last time you speak like this. Otherwise, you will see a different side of me."
The grandfather stood stunned for a moment, then didn't speak about it further. Because he knew Bhadran well. He was ruthless; when he warns once, one should back off. Otherwise, he would inflict unimaginable punishment. No matter who it was.
Understanding this, he remained silent. Then Bhadran said to his grandfather, "If there's nothing else, I'm leaving. See you later," but the grandfather quickly stopped him as he turned to leave.
"Bhadra, I'm not interfering in your affairs. I'm not talking about this either. But you have to marry Janvi soon. That's not just my wish, you know it's your mother's wish too. After that, it's your wish," he said, and feeling tired, lay down on the bed.
Bhadran replied, "I remember that very well. Whenever I feel like it, I will marry her," and left the room.
He knew very well that continuing that conversation was not a good idea. He said this to end the discussion.
Dheeran, who had been listening to their conversation all this time, turned and went to his grandfather, who was lying on the bed, and threatened him with a stern face, "If you speak ill of my mother one more time, your life won't remain in your body," and then left.
This surprised and shocked the grandfather. While he watched, wondering why a child was threatening him and walking away, Janvi came and stood beside him.
"Grandpa, don't ruin your health. Let Uncle marry me only if he wants to. Otherwise, just let it go," she said, hiding her inner pain, pretending to comfort her grandfather.
Believing her, the grandfather said, "My dear, don't worry, go home. Your marriage will happen very soon. That's my responsibility." She rejoiced inwardly, but outwardly she said, "Okay Grandpa, do as you wish. I'm leaving," and went outside.
The grandfather had forgotten to notice one thing. If he had observed Theeran closely, he would have discovered that he resembled Bhadran. He would have also noticed that all of his actions were similar to Bhadran's. What to do? Anger had blinded him.
But Bhadran's aunt, Nirmala, noticed it. A doubt arose in her mind: could Theeran be Bhadran's own son? Bhadran left as quickly as he had arrived. Theeran followed him. Immediately, Nirmala stopped Theeran and asked, "Hey, what's your name?"
But Theeran, after scrutinizing her from head to toe, retorted, "What's your name? Tell me that first." She was looking towards the door, wondering if Bhadran was returning, and glared at him for answering her question with a question.
Wanting to extract the truth from him, she said, "Good boy..."
"Children usually answer immediately when you ask them a question..." Even as she was saying this, Theeran interrupted her and said, "Who told you I'm a good boy? I'm a certified bad boy," and he stylishly walked away from there. He didn't answer until the very end.
Narmada was furious at being snubbed. "What an arrogant fellow, he answers so rudely when asked a question," she muttered, scolding Theeran. Just then, Janvi walked past her.
"Could these children possibly be hers?" she wondered, and then immediately thought, "No, that's unlikely. Because she herself only came to this house two months ago." He was racking his brain, wondering, "If things are so tight, how can there be a child at this age?"
Outside, as soon as Theeran got into the car, Bhadran started the engine and prepared to leave. Luckily, Janvi ran and got into the car. Just as they had come silently, they left in silence. It was 8 o'clock by the time they reached home.
Bhadran, carrying a sleepy Vaishnavi, came to the dining table, put a little rice on a plate, and started feeding her. He hurriedly fed her, worried that she might fall asleep on an empty stomach, and only then did he look up.
There was no one there. Narayanan had already eaten and gone to his room. Mullai was in her room. Bhadran turned to look at Theeran, who went inside, brought Mullai out, and ate from her hand.
Bhadran watched them, served himself some food, and then went to his room with Vaishnavi in the elevator. After Theeran finished eating, he insisted that Mullai eat too, and after she finished, he went upstairs with her.
In the room, Bhadran and Vaishnavi were lying on the bed. Like yesterday, Mullai spread a bedsheet on the floor and lay down with Theeran.
After a while, the children fell asleep, but Bhadran and Mullai were still awake. Bhadran couldn't stop thinking about what his grandfather had said. That's why he couldn't sleep.
If someone else had spoken like that in his grandfather's place, he would have taken their head off. But he couldn't do anything to his grandfather. He slightly turned his head and looked. Mullai was lying there, as usual, lost in thought.
A look of worry was spread across her face. "Why is she like this?" "Did he tell her what happened there?" he wondered, as he kept looking at her. At that moment, a tear rolled down her cheek and reached the side of her ear.
"What is this? She seems perfectly fine during the day, but why does she behave like this only at night? What exactly is her problem?" "She was crying yesterday too, wasn't she?" he asked himself, posing several questions. But he didn't know that she spent every night in this state of tears.
During the day, she distracted herself and pretended to be fine, but at night, as soon as she closed her eyes, her bitter memories haunted her like ghosts. She tried to forget them, but couldn't.
She didn't even have anyone to confide in, to pour out the pain in her heart. How long could a young girl keep everything bottled up inside? At night, it burst out like tears.
After watching her for a while, Bhadran couldn't bear to see her tears anymore. It felt as if someone was squeezing his heart. He slowly got up, picked up Vaishnavi, and went downstairs, lying down next to Mullai.
He placed Vaishnavi beside him and, with one arm, put his hand around Mullai's waist, embracing her. Startled by this unexpected action, Mullai quickly turned towards him, and his handsome face was very close to hers.
The pupils in his eyes were like fish swimming in some deep ocean. As his scent filled her senses, she stared at him in a trance-like state.
He wiped away the tears from Mullai's eyes, which were still clouded with sadness, and asked, raising his eyebrows, "What happened?" Mullai didn't answer, only looking at him. Bhadran then turned her towards him and embraced her against his chest.
Mullai was about to hug him back, but suddenly, for some reason, she pulled away his hand, got up, and went to the other side of Theeran, hugging him instead. Bhadran, watching her actions without understanding, felt a sense of disappointment.
Her confusion continued to grow. The questions multiplied, but there were no answers.
After that, Bhadran simply lay down, closed his eyes, and fell asleep. He began. Mullai, in Theeran's embrace, fell asleep without thinking about anything. When Mullai woke up first in the morning and looked around, only Vaishu was lying there. Bhadran was nowhere to be seen.