A week after the public displays of his dominance, the haveli settled into a grim, unsettling quiet. Pankhudi was confined to her chambers, her existence reduced to a cycle of healing and the slow, agonizing wait for the next decree.

Her mother-in-law, Savitri Devi, had begun to visit her, not with the cold judgment of the past, but with a calculated, maternal concern. She was not a cruel woman, but she was a woman of tradition. The lineage of the Pradhan’s family was her life's work. And now, with the loss of the potential heir and Nakul's increasingly volatile state, she saw the urgent need to restore balance.