Late that night, Alankrita sat beside the window of the blue room.
The garden was silent.
The city lights flickered in the distance.
Her hand rested gently against her stomach.
Five weeks.
Still tiny.
Still invisible.
Yet somehow powerful enough to change everything.
She smiled softly.
"We're going to Cambridge."
The words felt impossible.
She said them again.
"We're really going."
For the first time, the future did not look like a wall.
It looked like a road.
A frightening road.
A lonely road.
A difficult road.
But a road nonetheless.
She looked up at the stars beyond the window.
Then she whispered quietly into the darkness.
"I don't know why you came into my life."
Her fingers rested over her heart.
"But I promise you this."
Her voice did not shake.
"I will give you a life without lies."
Outside, the night remained silent.
Inside the blue room, a frightened seventeen-year-old girl made the first promise of motherhood.
And somewhere far away, across continents and oceans, an ancient university waited for the arrival of a student whose story the world was not yet ready to hear.