The old sprawling bungalow stood in the heart of Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar Extension—high ceilings, marble floors, heavy teak doors carved with peacocks, and a central courtyard where a rusty metal swing still creaked in the evening breeze. When Sophia married James three years ago, this place had felt like a museum she visited only for festivals and family dinners. Now, at 29, with James posted to a new project site in Noida for the next eight months and their tiny rented flat in Indiranagar eating half his salary, she had no choice but to shift into her sasur’s house.

Victor Mascarenhas—58 years old, retired Chief Engineer, body still solid from years of construction-site supervision. Tall, broad-shouldered, salt-and-pepper hair swept back, always in crisp white kurta-pyjama or half-sleeve shirt that showed off thick, veined forearms. Even at his age, the man carried an aura that made younger women glance twice and then look away blushing.