Priya stepped off the dusty bus in the upscale neighborhood of Haryana, her simple cotton salwar kameez clinging to her slight frame from the humid January afternoon. It was January 25, 2026, and at 22 years old, she was desperate. Her family back in the village had fallen on hard times after her father's illness, and this job as a live-in maid in a big house was her only hope. The ad had promised good pay, room and board, for cleaning and cooking in a household of six bachelors—all men, but she figured it was just work. She knocked on the grand wooden door of the sprawling villa, her heart pounding.

The door swung open, revealing a tall man in his 40s with a stern face and salt-and-pepper hair. "Tum kaun ho? (Who are you?)" he barked, eyeing her up and down.