The next morning dawned hotter than the last, the Jodhpur sun already merciless by 7 a.m. Poonam woke in Rajesh’s bed with a dull, persistent ache low in her belly—not pain, exactly, but a heavy fullness that hadn’t been there before. She pressed her palm to the soft swell beneath her navel. Felt the warmth. The faint, impossible pressure. Her breasts felt heavier too—tender when the sheet brushed them—and her nipples were darker, more sensitive. Three days of Vijay’s unrelenting seed flooding her, day and night, had started to speak in her body.

She slipped from the bed before Rajesh stirred, padded to the bathroom, and locked the door. In the small cabinet under the sink she found the pregnancy test she’d bought months ago—back when she and Rajesh were still trying, before his failures became routine. The box was dusty. She tore it open with shaking fingers.