The question struck where he intended.
She felt it. Let it settle. Still, she did not step back. “If that happens… at least I will not have helped destroy this place myself.”
He looked away.
When he left, it wasn’t with anger. It was with a loyalty pulled too far in two directions.
Meera remained at the desk. Her hands rested on the wood. The room closed in around her.
After a moment, she lifted her eyes to the small image of Kul Devi on the wall.
“I know,” she murmured. “But what else am I supposed to do?”
Chapter 4
The third buyer came quietly.
In Meera’s experience, the quiet ones were always the most dangerous.
He had no sentiment. No vision. No speeches about preservation or legacy. Only lawyers, contracts, and a number so large that when it moved through the Haveli in hushed voices, even the oldest staff fell silent.
Advance paid. Contracts in motion.
For two days, the Haveli held its breath.
Meera spent both days in the archive room.
That room smelled of old paper, dust, and something she had always thought of as time. Though, that was perhaps too poetic for a room full of property records.
On the second day, she found it.
Rajan knocked late in the afternoon. He stepped in and stopped at the sight.
Meera sat on the floor, files open around her.
Her dupatta had slipped from one shoulder. A faint streak of dust marked her cheek. Her hair was tied in a messy bun. She looked… alive. More than she had in weeks.
“Didi,” he said slowly, taking in the scene. “What are we doing?”
Meera looked up at him, a smile forming. “Rajan, do you know the best thing about the truth?”
He did not answer. He had learned not to rush these moments.
“You don’t have to lie.” She lifted a document.
Rajan glanced at it, then back at her. “Should I be worried?”
“For the Haveli?” She began gathering the scattered pages. “No.”
A beat passed.
“For the buyer?” Her gaze met his. “A little.”
She set the documents in order. Each page aligned, dated, placed where it belonged. Every detail exact.
Two days later, the lawyer called his client. That same day, Desai called Devendra. The third offer was withdrawn.
That evening, Meera went to the temple after the last prayers ended.