“They’re both so intense. Like they have tempests bottled up inside them. Your mother was literally shaking after seeing the baby pictures. But I’m glad to have met them. And I’m so happy to see baby Ishraaq curled up inside you.”

Leigh’s previous resentment seems to have evaporated, and Seema is relieved. “Thank you, for being here today. The pelvic exam would have been an ordeal.”

Should she say it now? I can’t imagine going through the delivery without you! She wants them both there, Leigh and Tahera.

She pivots instead to the dinner party, thankful that her mother had insisted on it. “Just you and Fiaz. I thought, you know, a good opportunity—”

“No Divya?”

“Divya? No! Why?”

Leigh shrugs, and although they continue to hold hands as they leave the clinic, and even manage to steal a few kisses in the elevator, some of Leigh’s earlier restraint has returned.

There’s a light drizzle outside, and Fiaz offers to drop Leigh off at her office, so Leigh squeezes into the back of the car with Nafeesa and Tahera. Both mother and sister appear withdrawn, Tahera especially, staring out at the rain through the window, barely acknowledging the others, while their mother sits rigid, as if to not impose on Leigh either in space or in spirit. Even Fiaz is curiously quiet.

Seema feels the need to fill the silence with chatter, launching into a description of her first view of me three months earlier, with the same 3D ultrasound technology, my face visible then. “I wish you could have seen his face today, Ammi.”

“I can wait,” Nafeesa replies, still stiffly. “It’s only a few more days.”

“Leigh was there, too,” Seema makes it a point to mention. “You thought he looked adorable, didn’t you, Leigh?”

Leigh merely nods, and Seema has to shift around to read her response. She notes the three women sitting remote like Easter Island statues, something vital missing. “Hey, where are my lilies?”

“I gave them to your mother to hold.” Leigh looks for them in the back seat.

Finally shaken out of her inertness, Nafeesa rushes to apologize. “Oh, I forgot them when we left. I’m so sorry. It was my fault. They were so lovely.”

Her mother is visibly upset, her face almost crumpling in remorse—much more than the lapse warrants. Leigh’s disappointment is palpable too, even as she turns down Fiaz’s offer to drive back to the hospital to pick them up.

But Fiaz does anyway, making a swift U-turn. When he pulls again under the canopied entrance, Leigh dashes out and returns a few minutes later with the lilies, panting. She hadn’t waited for the elevators.

“What good friends you are to Seema,” Nafeesa exclaims. “You both take such good care of her. I hope you’ll always do that.”