Rael wasn't looking for anything when he opened the drawer in the guest bathroom.
He was searching for painkillers. A distraction from the storm in his head.
But what he found instead — hidden beneath a box of tissues, behind folded towels — was a white blister pack.
Half-empty.
Birth control.
For a long moment, he simply stared.
The implications burned slowly, then exploded. Not because she had defied him. But because she had done it quietly.
Secretly.
Like she didn't owe him her body anymore.
---
He found her in the greenhouse, surrounded by winter plants she never watered.
She didn't look up when he entered.
"Why?" he asked.
Her hand froze over the terracotta pot.
"Why what?"
"You know exactly what I'm asking."
She turned slowly.
Rael held up the pills.
Ananya blinked once. "I didn't think I needed your permission to control my own body."
His jaw clenched.
"You were planning to trick me. You knew I wanted an heir."
"I was planning," she said, "to make sure I didn't bring a child into this nightmare."
Rael stepped forward. "You think you're still clever. Still strong."
"I'm stronger than you know," she said. "You made sure of that."
He grabbed her wrist, fingers tight.
"You don't get to take from me without consequences, Ananya."
She met his eyes, unblinking. "Then punish me. That's all you know how to do."
His grip tightened, but she didn't flinch.
"Go ahead," she whispered. "Show me who you really are again."
Rael's breath was ragged. His hand fell away.
"I could ruin you," he said.
"You already did."
---
He didn't speak to her the rest of the day. Didn't yell. Didn't even look at her.
That night, she heard him pacing the halls.
Not rage. Restlessness.
He was unraveling. And he knew it.
Because for the first time, she had struck first.
---