Several weeks later, Chanda traveled to attend a medical conference.
The house felt unusually quiet.
While cleaning the study room, Chumuka decided to organize old documents and books.
She was not searching for secrets.
She was simply cleaning.
At least that was what she told herself.
While moving a cabinet, she noticed a small locked drawer.
She frowned.
She had never seen it open.
Curiosity stirred inside her.
After searching through several storage boxes, she found a key hidden inside an old medical textbook.
The discovery immediately felt strange.
Why hide a key?
Why hide it there?
Her hands trembled slightly as she opened the drawer.
Inside lay a thick black diary.
Nothing else.
No money.
No jewelry.
Just a diary.
She hesitated.
Reading someone else's private thoughts felt wrong.
Very wrong.
She closed the diary.
Then reopened it.
For nearly ten minutes she argued with herself.
Finally she turned the first page.
The early entries seemed harmless.
Work schedules.
Medical notes.
Personal reflections.
Then she reached an entry dated nearly twenty years earlier.
Her breathing slowed.
The words mentioned Kelvin.
The same Kelvin who had once dated her.
The same Kelvin she had believed was simply selfish.
According to the diary, Kelvin's relationship with Chumuka had never happened by chance.
It had been encouraged.
Manipulated.
Studied.
The entry described a conversation between Kelvin and Chanda years before Chanda ever met her.
Chumuka's hands began shaking.
She turned another page.
And another.
With every paragraph, her world became less familiar.
By the time she closed the diary, nothing felt certain anymore.
And the worst revelations were still waiting ahead.