Ritik didn't notice.
Not when she stopped crying.
Not when she rearranged her room with sharp precision. Not even when she started staring at the gate little longer each day.
He thought she had surrendered. That his lies, his poison had work. But Nitya had learned something powerful in captivity.
Stillness is not weakness. It's strategy.
She had spent weeks learning the rhythms of the house, who locked the doors, who held the keys. When the guards of her little prison were most distracted.
Every face in the house was familiar - but not every mind was strong. Some were already crumbling under Ritik control.
And Nitya watched it all - quielty collecting the cracks.
That afternoon, the gate was left slightly open.
Just slightly.
Dadi had gone to temple. Her mother was upstairs. Ritik was out with his fake business errands. The maid was on a call in the kitchen.
For the first time in months, Nitya felt it - air, unfiltered, free .
She took one step forward, then another.
She could make it to the gate in six seconds. She had counted.
Her heart pounded against the chest like it wanted to escape first. She ran.
She reached the gate, hands trembling as it gripped the latch- "Where are you going?"
Ritik's voice.
He was home.
Standing behind her, arms crossed, a calm smile on his face that masked pure venom.
Nitya didn't freeze this time.
She turned around - slowly - and stared at him.
" I'm not your prisoner, " she said, her voice steady, quiet.
He laughed, " you are whatever I say you are. Go ahead, try leaving, let's see how far you get before this family locks you in again. Before they call you ungrateful. Mad. "
She looked him dead in the eyes.
" I'm leaving today, but the next time I touch the gate ... I won't stop. "
He took a step forward. She didn't flinch, and something in his smile cracked.
That night, he doubled the locks.
He told her mother she was " acting strange again. "
But Nitya... she had seen his fear.
Felt it in the way he watched her from a distance now.
She had made him blink, and next time... she'd make him fall.
" The day I touch freedom,
I'll never let it go.
And the hands that tried to cage me
- will beg for mercy i'll never give. "