Manorama Thakur, her face etched with a weariness that only years of suppressed emotions could carve, watched her husband, Aditya, consume his lunch with the detached indifference that had become his hallmark.

The echoes of a recent conversation still lingered in the air, the voice of Krithvik, who had just arrived, whose life was a constant source of both pride and pain for Manorama.