Chapter 1: The Golden Arrival The road to Harsinghpur was narrow and snaked like a forgotten scar through endless waves of wheat fields swaying under a late summer sun. Simran Kaur sat in the back of the dusty jeep, her duffel bag squeezed between her knees, eyes fixed on the undulating gold outside the window. The driver, a quiet man with a thick mustache and a radio playing crackly folk songs, hadn’t spoken since they’d passed the broken milestone that read: “Harsinghpur – 3 km.” As they entered the village, Simran’s first impression was of silence—not the peaceful, countryside kind,…