“Ish, I’ve decided to get engaged to Kiran Hegde.” Jaya realized her palms were damp, and wondered why she was so nervous.

Isha stared at her for a moment. “What?” She set her cappuccino down with a crash, some of the coffee slopping over the side and onto the table. “Now? But… but why?”

“It’s as good a time as any,” Jaya said, folding her paper napkin into smaller and smaller squares. She’d once read that you couldn’t fold a napkin more than eight times before the stress made further folds impossible. “The Raos allying with the Hegdes was always the plan.”

“Yes, but why now?” Isha said. “You’re not even done with high school!”

“Well, we won’t be getting engaged until the summer,” Jaya said. A barista came by to wipe down the table next to them and she waited until he was gone. “You know engagements happen with great pomp and circumstance in our part of the world; they take almost as much planning as weddings do. It’s not just a matter of Kiran getting down on one knee and asking the question. So we’re just announcing it now—getting the process started, as it were.” And getting people talking about something besides Isha.

“But, Jaya…”

Jaya waited.

“Why—why don’t you just wait a few more years? Or even, like, never?” Isha pinged her fingernail on her mug as she spoke.

There was no way she was going to tell Isha the truth about why she was hurrying. Her little sister didn’t need to know that the scandal had continued to grow, like a malevolent fire that gobbled up the oxygen in the air and refused to die. Besides, she didn’t want Isha to feel like any of this was her fault. It wasn’t. This was about duty.

Jaya shook her head. “I’m ready now,” she said. “I’ve already given Appa the okay. Amma’s made about twenty calls today, trying to coordinate things already.”

Isha took a thoughtful sip of her cappuccino. “You and Kiran.”

Jaya nodded. “Yes.”

“Kiran and Jaya Hegde.”

Jaya swallowed the lump in her throat. “Mm-hmm.”

“Jaya… are you happy with this decision?”

“I was the one who made this decision.” Jaya hoped Isha wouldn’t see the sidestep.

“But you and Kiran? Isn’t that like marrying your actuary or something? To be honest, I thought—” She stopped short and looked at Jaya, a little abashed.

“You thought what?” Jaya asked, curious.

“I thought that you and Grey were…” Isha shrugged.

Jaya looked away for a moment. “Well,” she said finally. “We’re not. Kiran and I have some commonalities that Grey and I don’t. This is what I must do as the heiress, Isha. It’s what’s best for the dynasty.”

Isha sighed. “The rules are different for royals,” she said quietly, parroting a line Jaya had said to her many a time.