“Maddie,” she said with a quick knock on the door before entering. “What the bejesus is going on?” A hissed whisper as she shut the door behind her.
Madhuri looked up from her seat in front of the vanity. She was dressed in what Nayna called a half sari. A flared ankle-length skirt in pale amethyst sprinkled with crystals. A cropped and fitted kurta in the same shade. And a really long dupatta that could be pleated and tucked in to appear as if the woman were wearing a sari, but without the complications of having to handle meters of fabric.
Huge kohl-rimmed eyes met Nayna’s in the mirror when Nayna came up behind her sister and put her hands on her shoulders.
“He’s a good man,” Madhuri said, reaching up to touch one hand to Nayna’s. “And I’m getting older, Ninu. I need to settle down and start a family before no one will have me.”
Madhuri was only thirty-three, soon to be thirty-four, and looked ten years younger at the very least. “What about the surfer?”
A liquid shrug. “That wasn’t serious.” Dropping her hand from Nayna’s, she picked up the mascara to finish doing her eyes. “And I realized it wasn’t going anywhere. When Sandesh proposed… It’s the second time, you know.”
Nayna raised both eyebrows. “The second time? I never heard about the first time.”
“That’s because I didn’t tell anyone.” Madhuri capped her mascara and put it aside. “I knew how the family would react. You’ve seen what Mum and Dad are like right now. Can you imagine if I’d told them he’d proposed and I’d said no?”
“I see your point.” Not only was the doctor hugely respected, he was also incredibly wealthy as a result of a medical invention he’d patented while a student. “But Maddie, he’s at least ten years your senior.”
“Fourteen,” her sister said, correcting her. “He’s stable and so mature.” In the mirror, her eyes met Nayna’s. “I know I’m not the most mature person.” A wry smile. “It’ll be good for me to have him—and maybe I can loosen him up a little.”
Nayna’s head was still spinning. “As long as you’re sure,” she said. “I just want you to be happy.”
“He’s not as bad as he comes across, you know.” A softness to Madhuri’s features. “It’s going to sound weird with how involved he is in the community, but I think he’s shy and deals with social situations by going all stiff—he’s not like that with me.”
“No, that’s not weird at all.” Nayna had gone mute herself at times when she was younger; who knew what others had taken from her unsmiling features? At least a few people had probably thought her stuck up and snooty. “Hopefully we’ll get to see the man you see once he becomes comfortable with us.” She hugged her sister from behind, the crisp scent of Clinique Happy, Madhuri’s favorite perfume, as familiar to her as their mother’s heavier bouquet.
Madhuri touched her fingers to Nayna’s again. “If I tell you something, promise me you won’t ever tell anyone?”
“Promise,” Nayna said at once, because whatever lay between them, they were sisters underneath it all.
“Vinod hit me.”
Nayna froze in the hug, her eyes colliding with Madhuri’s stark ones in the mirror again. “What?”
Turning sideways in Nayna’s arms, Madhuri glanced at the door before whispering, “The first time was three months after we eloped.”
“Madhuri.” Nayna was kneeling in front of her sister before she realized it, her hands locked with Madhuri’s. “Why didn’t you say? Why didn’t you call?” No matter how angry Shilpa and Gaurav had been, they would’ve brought Madhuri home, of that Nayna had zero doubts. Their parents had their faults, but never would they have stood by while their daughter was being physically abused.
“I was ashamed.” Madhuri’s hands gripped at Nayna’s. “First time in my life,” she joked shakily. “I’d chosen him and he turned out to be a violent abuser. But that first time, he told me it was a mistake, apologized, and I forgave him.”
Nayna clenched her stomach to quiet her rage. “Did it happen again?”
“Yes. Not all the time. Couple or three months between each time, so I could ‘forget.’” She smiled. “I’m not like you, Ninu. You would’ve kicked ass and taken names. I was too scared of being on my own to walk away.”
How very strange that her often flighty sister would say that on the verge of Nayna’s decision to step out into the world on her own. “Promise me that if Sandesh ever hurts you, you’ll tell me.”
“Promise,” Madhuri said at once.
“Do you want to pursue anything against Vinod now? A police case?” There probably wasn’t much the police could do with the evidence of violence long faded, but laying the complaint could help Madhuri heal.
Her sister shook her head. “No. It probably makes me a coward, but I just want to move on.”
“It doesn’t make you anything of the sort,” Nayna said fiercely. “You have to look after yourself and heal the best way you can.”
Madhuri shuddered out a breath, as if Nayna’s words had taken a weight off her shoulders. “Ninu? I’m sorry you didn’t get to go to parties, or on that exchange trip you earned.”
It was an apology that had come years too late, but Nayna had already forgiven her sister, had no more resentment in her heart, only love and hope that Madhuri’s second marriage would be as joyful as her first had been horrible. “It’s okay, Maddie.” She rose onto her knees to hug her sister.
After they parted, Madhuri returned her attention to the mirror to do the final tweaks to her makeup. “This time around, I picked a good man,” she said. “Just like you have.” Smiling with a determined brightness that thrust the past away, she lifted up her wrist. “Look what Sandesh gave me as a present after I accepted him,” she whispered conspiratorially. “I haven’t told Ma or Dad. They’d be scandalized.” A giggle.
Nayna’s eyes widened. “Are those diamonds?” On Madhuri’s wrist was a bangle that blended in with all the others except that the fire in the stones was icily real while the others were all pretty fakes.
“Of course they are.” Madhuri put down her lipstick. “I’m marrying a filthy-rich man. And he knows how to treat me.” A frowning glance in the mirror. “Oh my gawd, I just realized what you’re wearing. Go, change!”
* * *
Nayna dressed quickly in an ombré-blue half sari with pearlescent beading, the skirt swirling around her ankles. Though this kurta was longer than her usual preference, it was cut to flatter her figure, and once she pinned the gauzy white dupatta in a front-facing style, the outfit turned quickly elegant.
Hair up in a bun, a dash of makeup, and she was done.
Walking out to the kitchen, she helped her mother arrange the last of the snacks. “Thank you, Ninu,” Shilpa Sharma said with a quick side hug. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Nayna’s stomach hurt.
Smiling through it, she picked up the tray of sweets and took it out into the living area, her mother bringing the savories. Raj managed to brush his hand over her hip as he ducked into the kitchen to carry out the tea and cups.
That was when her mother announced that Madhuri’s affianced was bringing along his elderly parents as well as two siblings and their wives and children.
“Our living room isn’t that big,” Nayna muttered to Raj while her parents were distracted. “Why is he bringing so many people?”
“Probably because he wants to show off his fiancée.” Raj’s dark gaze was solemn. “You doing okay?”
She just had time to nod before her mother waved frantically. “I think I hear their cars! Go make sure your sister is ready!”
32
Extreme Danger Warning: Duck for Cover
Nayna didn’t have another chance to talk to Raj in the two hours that followed. Dr. Patel’s family exclaimed over Madhuri’s beauty with plenty of “Wah, wah, etna sundar” and “Poora film star!” Being told she was as beautiful as a film star was nothing new to Madhuri, but Nayna’s sister managed to produce an excellent facsimile of a meek and blushing bride overcome by their compliments.