The whole room was silent—so silent that it seemed as if something heavy, something extraordinary had frozen in the air and refused to move.

Jahnavi and Aditi sat stiffly on the couch, shoulders tense, eyes shadowed with unease. Jahnavi’s fingers kept twisting the corner of a cushion, again and again, while Aditi stared at the floor like it might give her answers if she looked hard enough. Akshita sat beside Jahnavi, her back straight, her face unreadable. Calm—at least on the surface. Or maybe she was overthinking so much that even panic had gone quiet inside her.