The car ride home was silent, but the silence wasn't empty. It was heavy, like the air before a storm, pressing against Ananya's chest until every breath hurt. Her father's hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly she could see his knuckles whitening, but he never looked at her. Not once.
When the gates of their house loomed into view, dread knotted in her stomach. Home had always been a place of refuge, but tonight it felt like the entrance to a prison.
The moment the door shut behind them, her father's voice broke the stillness.
"Sit."
Ananya obeyed, lowering herself onto the edge of the sofa, hands trembling in her lap. Her mother hovered in the background, wringing her hands, eyes darting between her husband and her daughter, torn between fear and sympathy.
Her father's eyes, however, were cold steel.
"Do you understand what you've done?" His voice was quiet, but it carried the weight of fury restrained only by sheer control.
Ananya opened her mouth, but no words came. What could she say? That she hadn't meant to fall for Riyan? That her heart had betrayed reason, and her silence had birthed a storm?
Her father didn't wait. "You've shamed this family. You've turned yourself into the subject of filthy gossip. Do you think people won't talk? Do you think this will disappear?"
Her throat burned. "It's not like that—"
"Not like that?" His voice cracked like thunder, making her flinch. "I saw him standing in front of you like he owned you. I heard the whispers. You tell me, Ananya, what else am I supposed to believe?"
Tears blurred her vision, but she forced herself to meet his gaze. "It's not shame. I… I care for him."
The words slipped out, fragile but true.
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Her mother gasped softly. Her father's expression hardened, a wall slamming shut. "Care? You dare speak of care, of feelings, when our family name is at stake?"
He paced, hands behind his back, each step measured and dangerous. "From this moment on, things change. You will not leave this house without my permission. No phone. No friends. No classes. Nothing until I decide otherwise. Do you understand?"
Her heart dropped. "But my studies—"
"Your studies will continue at home," he snapped. "I will hire a tutor if needed. You won't set foot in that campus again."
The walls closed in, shrinking her world to these four suffocating rooms. Panic clawed at her chest. "You can't do that—"
"I am your father!" His roar shook the room, and she froze. "And as long as you live under my roof, you will obey. You will not speak to that boy again. You will not even think of him. Do you understand me?"
The tears she'd been holding back spilled over. "Please… don't do this. Don't take everything away." Her voice cracked, desperate. "You don't understand what he means to me."
For a heartbeat, something flickered in her father's eyes—fear, maybe, or sorrow—but it vanished as quickly as it came. He turned away, his voice final, like a closing door.
"This discussion is over."
He left the room, his footsteps echoing down the hallway until the slam of his study door cut through the silence.
Ananya sat frozen, her chest heaving, her hands gripping the edge of the sofa as if she could keep herself from breaking apart.
Her mother finally moved, kneeling beside her, brushing trembling fingers over Ananya's hair. "Don't fight him right now," she whispered, her voice soft but pained. "He's only trying to protect you."
"Protect me?" Ananya's voice was hollow, strangled. "He's locking me in a cage."
Her mother's eyes filled with tears, but she said nothing.
Later, when Ananya was forced into her room—door locked from the outside, phone taken from her desk—she sat by the window, staring at the night. The world outside went on, free and alive, while she sat trapped, her heart beating with the memory of Riyan's touch, his defiant voice, the fire in his eyes when he stood between her and Aarav.
Now that fire was beyond her reach.
Her father thought he had ended it. That by building walls, by silencing her, he could extinguish what burned inside her chest.
But Ananya knew better.
Love doesn't die in cages. It only grows desperate, reckless, and wild.
And inside her, a dangerous promise was already taking root: this wasn't over.