“I want to talk to you too,” Shobi said, eyes exhausted and edged with bags that hadn’t been there last night.

“The house . . . thanks for cleaning up.” It felt like a stupid thing to say, but her mother smiled.

“Mina helped.”

“In other words, I tidied up while Shoban Gaikwad Raje lectured me about being complacent in being judged for domesticity,” Mina Kaki said.

“It’s true. Who says our homes have to look like magazines? It’s just another arena they use to make us compete and feel insufficient in,” Mom said, and of all things, it made Ashna smile.

“That’s all very good and dandy,” Mina Kaki said. “But what if we don’t all like to exist in chaos? Choice is a two-sided concept, Shobi-ji.”

“Hello?” Ashna cleared her throat. Both women turned to her. This was not how Ashna had expected this day to go. Or yesterday. That thought was followed by the memory of her climbing Rico like a tree.

“Sorry,” Mina Kaki said. “Why is your window open?”

Oh no, the ring! Ashna slapped a hand to her mouth.

“Umm . . . I just threw a three-carat diamond out the window.”

The two women stared at her openmouthed. Possibly the only time in her life Ashna would get to see that.

Pushing her way past them, she ran down the stairs. “We have a lot to talk about, but I have to find the ring first. I think I know what I want to do with it.” Suddenly she didn’t want that ring lost.

The three of them went out into the yard below Ashna’s window and started searching through the grass.

“That’s the trajectory.” Shobi used her finger to trace an arc from the second-floor window into the hedges.

“Behold someone who’s turned analysis into an art form.” Mina went to a giant rosebush where Shobi’s arc had ended. “I think it’s in there.” She pointed without letting her finger touch the bush.

“Behold someone who’s turned delegation into an art form,” Shobi said.

“Really, you two pick today to turn into a comedy duo?” Ashna grabbed a fallen branch and pushed the thorny branches apart with it. Long-ago memories of her aunt and her mother laughing together sparkled at the edge of her consciousness. How many memories had she buried?

“There it is,” all three of them said, and Ashna squatted down and used her leg to nudge it out like a ball.

It earned her impressed raised eyebrows. She slid the box into her pocket.

“I’ll leave you two alone now,” Mina said. “You have a lot to talk about. And yesterday was Monday and I didn’t go home. So Shree’s going to be extra grumpy today because Mondays are . . . you know . . . our day.”

Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. Could she unhear this?

Shobi let out a full-throated laugh. Where had she been hiding that thing?