Midnight had passed. Outside the Junagarh palace, the Nor'wester storm lashed out, while an ominous silence took hold of the inner quarters. Aditya, drenched after finishing his work outside, entered the room and immediately began searching for Arohi. But the bed was empty; the room felt hollow and cold. "Arohi! Where are you, Arohi?"—Aditya began calling out frantically, from the room to the balcony to the washroom. There was no response. Aditya's heart was pounding with dread. He thought perhaps Arohi had gone downstairs for some work. But his feet froze when he saw a folded white piece of paper on the table.
Trembling, Aditya opened the paper. No one knew that Sushila could perfectly mimic Arohi's handwriting. Seeing Arohi's signature on an old document, Sushila had mastered that script. The letter read—
"Aditya, I am leaving your life and this palace today of my own accord, taking this unborn child with me. Enough of this drama; I cannot go on. The truth is, this child is not yours. I am returning to the one whose blood flows within me. Please do not try to search for me anymore."
As he read the letter, the ground seemed to slip from beneath Aditya's feet. Tears burst from his eyes. He wailed, "No! This cannot be! My Arohi could never write such a letter!" For a few moments, he felt that like last time, this too might be a conspiracy. But the curves of the letters, the style of the signature—everything was exactly like Arohi's! Aditya wondered, was all that love, all that affection, all that pull until now—was it all a lie? Weeping, he rushed to the Maharaja's chamber with the letter.
The Maharaja and the Queen Mother were still awake. Aditya entered the room, threw the letter before the Maharaja, and shouted, "Look, Father! Look at how your virtuous daughter-in-law has deceived us again today! She has written that this child is not mine!" The Maharaja adjusted his glasses and read the letter. The Queen Mother sat stunned. After remaining silent for a while, the Maharaja said, "Last time it was proven she was innocent, but now? This time she has written it with her own hand and smeared the ink of humiliation on our faces! Did she win our trust before only to deliver a greater deception? For shame, Arohi!"
Aditya sat on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. All his stubbornness, all his manhood seemed to have shattered today. He kept muttering, "Then did she not love me all this time? Was it all an act?" The Maharaja sighed and said in a hard voice, "Let no one in this palace ever utter the name of a girl who can play with our honor like this. Aditya, erase the name 'Arohi' from your life from today. She is dead to us."
The Queen Mother placed her hand on Aditya's head, but his tears would not stop. In humiliation and pain, he returned to his room and gazed at the dark window. Finally, out of exhaustion and mental agony, he collapsed onto the bed. While the fire of hatred for Arohi burned throughout the Junagarh palace, Sushila and Shilajit sat in their mud hut, laughing deviously. They did not know that Arohi, sitting in Kanchangarh, was counting every second, aching with the pain of separation from her Aditya. The next morning. There were no bird songs, no joy in the Junagarh palace today. Aditya had not slept a wink all night. His bloodshot eyes revealed how shattered he was from within. As morning broke, the Maharaja summoned him to the royal court.
The Maharaja said in a grave voice, "Aditya, what has happened is done. There is no use mourning for a woman who has dragged our honor through the dust. I want you to marry again. The throne of Junagarh needs a worthy Queen and an heir."
Aditya shuddered at first. Arohi's smiling face kept flashing before his mind. But as soon as he remembered that poisonous letter, his heart turned as hard as stone. He thought, if Arohi could deceive him so grandly, why should he remain alone? He said in a bitter tone, "Fine, Father. I will not disobey your word. If Arohi can start her life anew, so can I."
The search for a bride began. And this was the very opportunity Shilajit and Sushila were waiting for. They knew that in their ordinary forms, they would be caught. So, they sought refuge with a hideous witch deep in the forest. The witch held out a strange blue liquid potion toward them and said, "Consuming just one drop of this potion will transform your appearance. Shilajit will become a noble-looking King, and Sushila will be an exquisitely beautiful Princess. But remember, you must consume this potion every day. And most importantly—this magic will not work every day from 12 AM to 1 AM. During that one hour, you will return to your original, ugly forms. There is no way you can hold yourselves back during that one hour."
Obsessed with revenge, Shilajit and Sushila agreed to those terms. As soon as they drank the potion, the surroundings were engulfed in a mystical smoke. As the smoke cleared, Shilajit appeared as a royal King in silken robes, and Sushila... she looked like a celestial nymph! Her complexion was like pure gold, with eyes like a doe. Seeing her new form in the mirror, Sushila laughed with diabolical joy. She said to herself, "Now you shall see, Arohi, how I snatch your Prince away from you!"
Meanwhile, sitting in a dark corner of the Kanchangarh palace, Arohi was weeping uncontrollably. Her pillow was soaked with tears. The Queen Mother of Kanchangarh entered the room and placed a hand on her daughter's head. She said in a pained voice, "How much longer will you cry, Arohi? Please, calm down now. Even if you don't think of yourself, think of your unborn child! If you break down like this, it will harm the little one, my child." Arohi sobbed and said, "Mother, isn't Aditya searching for me? Did he truly believe that letter?" The Queen Mother could not answer, for she knew what storm was currently raging in the Junagarh palace.
At that very moment, a royal palanquin stopped in front of the main gate of the Junagarh palace. Shilajit and Sushila, disguised as a foreign King and Princess, entered the palace. Aditya watched that beautiful Princess from the balcony. He did not know that behind this enchanting beauty lurked his greatest enemy, who had come to destroy him and his family.