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The Ranawat mansion was silent, except for the faint hum of the city outside. Inside their bedroom, the air was heavy with words unspoken.

Abhira sat by the window, her fingers tracing the outline of a coffee mug she wasn’t really drinking from. Moonlight fell on her face, softening the tension there, but couldn’t reach the ache in her heart. She had tried. She had tried to make this marriage work. Tried to reach him with smiles, with quiet words, with gestures she hoped would matter. But Dheer… Dheer had always been distant. His silence was a wall she couldn’t scale, a fortress she had no key to.

For the world, they were perfect. The disciplined IPS officer and his graceful, Advocate wife. A couple that neighbors envied and relatives admired. But their family… those who could see beyond the smiles and orchestrated greetings, knew the truth. They were two strangers under one roof, carrying their own shadows, their own pain, and neither willing—or able—to share it.

Dheer lay on the other side of the bed, meticulously folding the blanket around him. His face was unreadable, as always, but his mind was a storm of horrific thoughts he refused to confront. The marriage had been forced by his grandmother — a strategic decision, she said, to settle family matters and secure his future. For Dheer, it was a duty he had not asked for, a life he had not chosen. But for Abhira… it had been a hope. A fragile, desperate hope that maybe, just maybe, this man would see her, not as a wife assigned by fate, but as someone worthy of trust, of love.

She had tried. She had reached out, softened her heart, leaned forward with laughter and warmth, but every attempt was met with cold indifference. Each silence from him had chipped away at her courage, forcing her to retreat, to shield herself from the pain of rejection she could neither explain nor escape.

And yet… she stayed. Because she believed in the idea of love that could grow, even in the harshest soil. Because she had nothing else.

Dheer, on the other hand, carried a past so dark, so consuming, that even he did not fully understand it. Trust was a word he had discarded long ago. Vulnerability was a luxury he could not afford. And Abhira… she was an enigma. A soft, unwavering light that he had learned to ignore, because acknowledging it might awaken something he was too scared to feel.

The moonlight fell between them like a silent witness, highlighting the gap that neither distance nor words could bridge. Two people, sharing a bed, yet worlds apart.

In the hallway, the faint creak of the wooden floor made Dheer tense. He could hear his grandmother’s voice from the past, stern and commanding: “This marriage is not your choice. Accept it. Respect it. Uphold it.” He had obeyed, as he always did. But obeying didn’t mean caring. And somewhere in the corners of his mind, he wondered if Abhira’s hope had been in vain.

Abhira finally whispered, almost to herself, “Maybe this is what love without love feels like…”

The words lingered in the room, unheard, unacknowledged, yet heavy. Outside, the city moved on. Inside, the walls bore witness to two hearts trapped in separate storms, waiting, fearing, and hoping though neither could admit it aloud.

And for the world, the Ranawat's perfect couple slept, side by side, unbroken in appearance but shattered in reality.

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How was the Prologue?

Did the Prologue made you feel like "Brooo I need to read this book as soon as it's chapters are released" ?

Did the Prologue made you tap the "Add to the library/reading list?"

What do you think both of them holds as their pasts?

Will their marriage be successful? Or a failure?

Stay tuned to get answers to all these questions.

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