During the heavy coolness of the monsoon season, her father’s oldest friend is the only one to be trusted with his Shri-tal. His secrets and his history. He never tells her what was said, and she never asks. Men like him must keep their promises, especially to the dead.
Days later, he offers her a marriage of equals: his powerful name, his protection, his house, exchanged for her promise to give him an heir. It is a practical arrangement, honorable and cold on its surface, meant to secure her future and satisfy a duty neither of them dares explain.
But there is nothing cold in the way he watches her. Every shared glance lingers too long. Every accidental touch burns. And as the storm-soaked nights close in around them, the marriage bargain between them begins to feel less like duty and more like temptation.
