[ Rathod Mansion ]

The murmur of conversation floated from the hall where all the family members sat together, their laughter and talk masking the storm inside her. She should have been there too. She had spent past several days chasing shadows, defying Avyukt’s steady warnings to stay out of it. And tonight, at last, she carried something—something that might finally clear her brother’s name. After returning from the office and freshening up, Rida stepped out of her room, the laptop clutched tight against her chest as if it were the only anchor she had left, her breath shallow, her knuckles pale. Her footsteps carried her toward the far end of the corridor to his study where the silence pressed thick and heavy, like a warning. The closer she walked the more the air seemed to shift—softer, darker, a silence that told her this was no ordinary step she was about to take.