Dil ke Karib (CH 40 Early Access)

After a long break, I’m back with new chapters! Thank you for your patience ❤️ And now… without further ado, let’s rock! 🎸🔥

🎉 How was the last chapter? Comment down your thoughts.

🛎️ New to Nandini and Rajeev’s world? No worries! Catch up on Dil ke Karib (Chapters 1–39) on my website before diving in. Her story is just getting started… 💔✨

🔥 Don’t miss:
📖 Read: “Married to My Brother-in-Law, In Love with His Brother” — a forbidden 1950s romance filled with duty, desire, and defiance.

✨ Two stories. One unforgettable journey.

Now, let’s dive back into the latest chapter… 👇

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Chapter 40 Bound by Fire

The courtyard shimmered with heat and marigolds.

Drums echoed in the air, loud enough to drown unease. Villagers smiled. Children tossed flower petals. Women adjusted their sarees and whispered about the luck of Sobha—so beautiful, so poised, marrying into the respected household of the village head's relatives.

No one saw the storm behind her eyes.

Sobha stepped out from the inner quarters, her red bridal saree rustling like dry fire. The heavy gold jewelry clinked softly against her body. Her face was expressionless, but her spine was straight, her footsteps deliberate. Each anklet’s chime was a warning bell.

With a veil covering her face, hiding the fire that was enough to burn down the entire village, Sobha walked towards Vikrant, her eyes filled with determination and fury.

Vikrant stood at the mandap, smug in silk, surrounded by well-wishers and hypocrisy. His eyes slid over her as she approached—the same way he had once looked at Nandini. At other girls.

But Sobha? She walked like she was walking toward a funeral. His.

He didn't want this marriage but was powerless against his family's wishes.

The fire crackled between them. The priest began chanting the mantras. Rice, ghee, and sandalwood—all fed into the flames.

Sobha sat beside him without a word.

Rajeev watched from the far corner, arms folded, back against a pillar. Half of his face was in shadow, but his eyes never left the mandap. Beside him, Raghav’s expression was carved from stone.

“Aren't we ruining her life making her marry someone like Vikrant?" Rajeev asked quietly.

Raghav’s jaw tensed. “We are protecting her; sometimes we have to burn to save." Rajeev nodded, understanding the weight of their decision as the ceremony continued.

The priest beckoned them to rise for the pheras. Sobha stood. Rajeev's mother grabbed the end of Sobha's saree’s pallu, tying it to Vikrant's stole—gathbandhan formed.

But as they took their first round, Sobha leaned in.

Her voice was barely a whisper. But it sliced like glass.

“You thought escaping what you did would be so easy?”

Vikrant turned slightly, his smirk flickering.

“Now you’re bound to me. I will make you suffer. Every day. For what you did to me. To Nandini. To all of them.”

He chuckled under his breath, arrogant, dismissive.

“You’re a woman. What can you possibly do to me?”

Sobha didn’t blink.

“When a woman chooses to ruin herself for revenge…”
"...the man never survives.”

The mantras carried on. No one noticed the war spoken beneath the chants. Only Rajeev saw it—the tension, the exact moment Vikrant’s hand hesitated before circling the fire.

The pheras ended. The priest smiled. Blessings were offered. The mangalsutra was tied. Sindoor streaked across Sobha’s parted hair.

The vows were done. The cage was shut. But no one could tell—had Sobha been trapped, or had she trapped the beast within? The answer lay in the depths of their intertwined gazes.

The game had begun. And Sobha wasn’t playing to win. She was playing to destroy.

The wedding night room was dim, lit only by a brass oil lamp.

Vikrant walked in slowly, head held high. He closed the door behind him, turning with the confidence of a man expecting obedience.

Sobha sat before the mirror, removing her earrings. One by one. Her face was calm. Beautiful, yes. But something in her stillness was terrifying.

He hated her, her scorching stare, and the way she scared him with her silence. It enraged him—the fact that he could never truly control her. He reached for her, angry and desperate—but Sobha didn’t flinch. Her reflection stared him down. "And what will you do now? You are my wife, and I have every right to ruin and destroy you," he sneered, his grip tightening on her hair.

Sobha smirked, her eyes never leaving his in the mirror. As his fingers tightened in her hair, she calmly pulled a pin loose and raised it to his throat and whispered, "Try me. Destroy me. Like you destroyed many before me. But let me remind you, you can't destroy what's already dust." With a swift movement, she pressed the pin against his neck, drawing a thin line of blood.

He stumbled back. "Bitch…" he shouted, seeing the red trickle down his neck, his eyes widening in shock. Sobha simply smiled, her defiance clear in her gaze as she stood her ground, unafraid of the consequences that would follow.
“Every breath near me will taste like ash.”

He frowned.

“Every bite you eat will taste of the women you silenced. Every night, I’ll haunt your sleep. And every morning—I’ll still be here, reminding you.”

Now she turned, slowly, facing him fully for the first time as his wife.

“You didn’t marry a woman, Vikrant.”
“You married your karma.”

He stepped back slightly, unsure whether to laugh or yell.

But she smiled.

And that smile was not relief.
It was retribution.

Meanwhile

In the courtyard, Nandini sat quietly beside the tulsi plant, fingers knotted in her lap. Rajeev walked up behind her, gently placing his shawl over her shoulders.

She didn’t look at him. Just whispered, "This marriage is wrong; no one should marry a guy like Vikrant."

Rajeev sat down beside her, taking her hand in his, and replied softly, "I know it's wrong, but sometimes we have to accept the hand we are dealt and make the best of it."

She asked, “Why didn’t you stop it?”

He didn’t answer at first.

Then softly, “Because this time, no one needed to save her. She became her own fire.”

And as the temple bells rang in the distance, the village slept peacefully—never knowing that justice had taken sindoor as its color and silence as its weapon.

Vikrant wasn’t free.

He was married.

The woman beside him didn’t come for love.
She came for his ruin—one waking breath at a time.

*****

✍️ Author’s Note – Chapter 40: Bound by Fire 🔥💔💍

✨ After a long while… here it is. A chapter that doesn’t just turn the page—it burns it to ash. ✨

You waited. And now, fire walks in silk and gold.
Sobha didn’t just return—she rose, cloaked in silence, wearing vengeance like sindoor. 👰‍♀️🔥

This wasn’t a wedding—it was a reckoning. 🩸
Vikrant thought he’d won. He thought she’d break.
But the only thing broken now? His pride… and maybe his bones. 💀🪢

Raghav watched. Rajeev stayed still.
And Nandini? She knows.
Because sometimes, justice isn’t loud. It walks slowly… up the mandap steps. 👣🔥

I wrote this chapter to remind every reader—
when women stop crying, they start changing the story.
This isn’t the end.
It’s just the spark. ✊

📚 If you loved Aarti and Raghav, and ached with Nandini and Rajeev…
Then welcome Sobha can be our guide into the fire. She’s been waiting for you. 🔥🔥 

So tell me, readers:
Did Sobha's fire scorch you too? Or are you still holding your breath? 😶‍🌫️🕊️

With goosebumps and gratitude,
— Yours in ink and embers,
🔥🖋️ Shaar Shre