Ashna seemed to have come out from under that cloud she had been dragging around like the blanket she’d loved as a baby. It had to be the show, because Shobi had seen Ashna smile to herself the other day over her tea. Asking her about it had hovered on Shobi’s lips, but she had been afraid of sucking the joy from her child again.

“She’s under a tremendous amount of strain. Giving her a little space would be a kind thing to do,” Mina said, sipping delicately from Bram’s bone china.

Maybe being afraid to topple the peace wasn’t the best approach. But how to leverage it?

“Leaving her alone all these years was what caused the problem in the first place. I should never have let her go, Mina. I should never have let Bram take her away.”

Mina watched Shobi pace the kitchen and didn’t say the words Shobi knew she wanted to say. “You regret leaving,” Mina said instead, something she had predicted Shobi would do years ago.

“Leaving her, always. Leaving Bram, never.” Did it matter what she should have done, what any of them should have done? “For the first time in my life I feel like I have a chance to make amends. When I got here, I didn’t. Her hatred of me was daunting. But something has changed and I can’t let it slip away from me again.”

That morning Omar had asked when she was coming home. Do you think I should give up? she’d asked in response, because when it came to Ashna, she had never made a good decision.

Has she ever asked you to leave? Omar had asked.

No, she hadn’t.

Then I know you will stay until she does.

He was right. She couldn’t leave this time. Not even if she tried. The Padma Shri ceremony was a month away. Whatever would be, would be.

Shobi met the probing in Mina’s gaze. “Don’t you think something about her is different? More responsive, more open than she’s ever been?”

“Ashna has always had too vulnerable a heart, Shobi. That’s been the problem. She feels everyone’s pain and internalizes it, and wants to take it away. I think the reason she’s had such a hard time with you is that she didn’t know what to do with yours. She finds your rage at the world too daunting. She blames herself for it.”