CHAPTER -
The sirens had stopped screaming, but the silence in Meera’s home was far louder. Aanya’s voice cracked as she faced the police inspector, hands trembling. “Had I known where Vanya was… I wouldn’t have called you at all!”
Meera turned to her, eyes wide with fear. “What are you saying, Aanya? What happened?”
Aanya’s lips quivered. She remembered it again Vanya’s kurta… torn, stained… a woman’s fabric that had seen violence. Her fingers dug into her own palms. “She wasn’t okay the last time I saw her, Meera. I think… I think something terrible happened.”
The words hung in the air like poison.
Before they could sink in further, the chawl residents came rushing in, panting. One of them, an older man, addressed Meera cautiously, “Ma’am… the police say we can’t file a missing per
