The February sun filtered through the thin curtains of the study room, falling across Gatha’s open laptop. She sat in her wheelchair, eyes fixed on the glowing screen, hand trembling slightly over the trackpad. Beside her stood Siddharth, tall and calm, resting both hands gently on her shoulders.

“Refresh again,” he said softly.

Her heart pounded. The NEET result page blinked, loaded, and suddenly the numbers appeared. She read once, blinked, then read again. A gasp broke from her throat.

“Sid… I did it.”

Siddharth bent low, his grin wide, and for a brief moment he lifted her carefully, spinning her half around before setting her down again. “You didn’t just do it,” he said breathlessly, “you conquered it.”

For a moment, Gatha sat frozen, overwhelmed. The world seemed to hush. The rank on the screen wasn’t just a number. It was proof—proof that years of struggle, long nights of study, and all the quiet sacrifices had been worth it.

And then, as if life had a sense of timing, the phone rang. It was her admission confirmation. On her birthday.

She laughed through tears. “It’s like being born again,” she whispered.

Siddharth ruffled her hair. “This time as a medical student.

That evening, the house transformed. Reva, her mother, insisted on making kheer with extra almonds. Dadu lit an additional diya, murmuring his quiet prayers of gratitude.

Vikrant, her father-in-law, sat in the corner, smiling faintly as he congratulated her. He wasn’t a man of many words. Often, he carried a sternness in his manner, and sometimes even pretended to dislike his wife, Gatha’s mother-in-law, as if irritation was his only language. Yet, beneath the gruffness, there was pride in his eyes.

When Gatha’s grandmother hugged her and called her stubborn, Vikrant simply nodded and muttered, “Stubbornness runs in families.” Everyone chuckled, though his wife shot him a half-annoyed, half-amused look.

The undercurrent between them was always there—light bickering, subtle distance—but in the glow of that evening, even their friction seemed softened by the joy of Gatha’s success.