It’s strange how years pass silently, how time molds itself around you until one day you look back and realize everything has changed — except your love for the people you hold dearest.

Three years had passed since that day. Three long, fleeting years. Ruhanika had grown from a toddler who clung to my leg into a curious little girl with eyes that mirrored both her mother’s grace and my stubbornness. At five, she had already learned the art of getting her way — something Saanvi found endlessly amusing and I found endlessly terrifying.