❀INAAYAT❀

As the car slowed in front of Kapoor Mansion, a strange stillness settled inside me — the kind that makes the world sound distant, like everything is happening behind a soft veil. I had come here countless times before, my small hand wrapped in Bhai’s fingers, running through the wide gates with laughter bubbling in my chest, searching for Aakriti so we could spend entire afternoons lost in games and silly secrets. But today, the same gate stood taller, heavier, as if it understood that I wasn’t arriving as a carefree girl anymore. I was stepping in as someone new — someone’s wife, someone’s daughter-in-law.