"I interrogated all the servants in the household, trying to find out who might have said such a terrible thing in front of my infant daughter. But I found nothing. No one admitted to using such language, and the servants all seed genuinely confused and concerned."
She paused to compose herself.
"But just the very next day after that incident... my lovely Second daughter, my beloved child who was always so careful and attentive—it was reported that she had fallen into the water. There was a small decorative pond that my husband had constructed nearby our residence specifically for our daughter. She loved standing beside it, watching the colorful fish swim, throwing them food. It was her favorite spot."
The woman’s voice cracked slightly.
"They said she drowned in it. What an absolute joke. The pond wasn’t even two feet deep at its deepest point. If she had simply stood up—even a three-year-old child could have stood up in water that shallow—she would have survived easily. She had just started speaking in complete sentences. She was still babbling half the ti, so innocent and pure."
Tears were now flowing freely down the woman’s face.
"That day when I pulled my daughter’s body out of the water, I cried until I couldn’t breathe. I scread until my voice gave out. I fainted from the grief multiple tis. My husband—it was like his very soul had been sucked out of his body. He beca a hollow shell for months. Everyone in the household was devastated, mourning, heartbroken."
She wiped her eyes roughly.
"Everyone... except Maya. When I finally regained consciousness and looked around through my tears, I saw her. She was in her nanny’s arms, watching everything. And in her eyes—in the eyes of my ONE-YEAR-OLD daughter—I saw a glint of sothing that made my blood run cold. It looked like... satisfaction. Like she was pleased with what had happened."
The woman shook her head as if trying to dislodge the terrible mory.
"At that mont, I couldn’t understand what I was seeing. I told myself I must be mistaken, that grief was making see things that weren’t there. How could I possibly believe that my infant daughter was sohow responsible? How could anyone solve such an impossible puzzle when everyone’s minds were so distressed with grief?"
She looked directly at Heena.
"And how could my careful, obedient daughter have drowned in such shallow water when she always stayed away from the water’s edge? She had promised her father that she would never go near the water, and she NEVER broke her promises. Never. Not once."
The woman’s expression hardened.
"I know that as a mother, I probably shouldn’t have doubted my own daughter. But from that mont on, I started paying very close attention. I started watching Maya with different eyes, looking for patterns."
She began listing incidents, her voice becoming increasingly strained.
"Whenever sothing happened—if my husband scolded Maya for misbehavior, if I reprimanded her for not doing sothing properly, if she threw a toy and it accidentally injured a servant and soone got angry at her—sothing bad would happen to that person shortly afterward."
"My father visited once and scolded Maya for being rude to the servants. The next day, he fell and broke his arm severely."
"One ti, my husband was particularly firm with her about destructive behavior—he even shouted at her, which he almost never did. That sa evening, he sohow cut his lip badly while eating dinner, requiring stitches."
"My Second son was preparing for his imperial examinations—the most important tests of his life. Maya asked him to play with her, and he gently explained he couldn’t because he needed to study. The very next morning, he ’accidentally’ fell down a full flight of stairs. He sprained his wrist so badly that he couldn’t even hold a brush to write. He had to postpone his examinations by a full year."
The woman’s hands were shaking now.
"It happened again and again. Every single ti soone said ’no’ to Maya, every ti soone disciplined her or denied her sothing she wanted—that person would suffer. An accident. An injury. An illness. Sothing."
She took a deep breath.
"So I decided to test my terrible suspicion. I deliberately beca cold toward Maya one day. I was sitting in my deceased daughter’s room—the room where she used to play with her toys, where I still kept all her belongings because I couldn’t bear to remove them. Maya ca toddling in and asked to play with her."
"I was too sad—it was my Second daughter’s death anniversary. So I said no."
"She asked again. I said no."
"She demanded I play with her, starting to throw a tantrum. I said no."
The woman’s voice dropped to barely audible.
"And then she looked directly at with those cold eyes and said clearly: ’I wish this entire room was destroyed.’"
"I was so angry at her disrespect on such a painful day that I slapped her. The only ti I ever struck any of my children."
She closed her eyes.
"That sa night, the entire section of the house where my daughter’s room was located—it caught fire. Burned completely to the ground. We lost everything. All my daughter’s belongings, her toys, her clothes, everything. All destroyed."
Heena sat very still, processing this horrific story.
The woman opened her eyes and looked at Heena with a mixture of pain and cold determination.
"I’m a mother. But that doesn’t an I’m ONLY Maya’s mother. I have other children who I love just as deeply. My love for them doesn’t beco insufficient or disappear just because Maya is also my daughter."
She continued in a harder voice.
"So when I found out about the old Master—about Maya supposedly ’falling in love’ with him—of course I hated the situation. I found it absolutely disgusting. That man is a predator, and Maya was far too young. But I’m also a selfish person in my own way. Burying one of my children was enough suffering for . I absolutely did NOT want to bury any more of my children."
Her expression beca tortured.
"Even then, I tried to stop the marriage. I argued against it. I pleaded with Maya to reconsider. But then she did sothing that made my choice crystal clear."
The woman’s voice shook with suppressed rage.
"She pushed my youngest son. He fell from a second-story balcony. When the doctors examined him, they said it would be extrely difficult to save his life. He might die from internal injuries. He might be paralyzed. The outlook was terrible."
She looked at Heena with eyes full of pain.
"At that mont, I had only one thought in my mind: I don’t want THIS daughter anymore. I want my OTHER children to be alive. I want my family to be safe. Even if it makes a terrible mother, even if it’s cruel and cold-hearted—I chose my other children over Maya."
"And so I let Maya be wedded to that old bastard. I didn’t fight it anymore. I let her go."
The woman’s voice beca flat, emotionless.
"And it may sound rude. It may sound cruel and heartless to say this out loud. But from the mont Maya left our house and moved to her husband’s household, everything started going well for us again."
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