Ashna wiped her tears. “No, you don’t.” Her tone had a hint of teasing, which stunned her. But she felt no anger right now and it was rebirth. “You would do the same thing again.”

Her mother’s smile was tenuous. “I want to say that I would not. But it’s not simple. I do wish you hadn’t been hurt; that part I would change for anything. I would give up everything now, to keep that from happening. If you believe nothing else, believe that I’ve regretted not having you in my life every single day. But I didn’t know how to put my head down and comply.

“Growing up, we were surrounded by stories of women being married off without their consent, and it was always about how they compromised, reconciled, and found love in the end. It was romanticized so much. What an abhorrent thing to tell someone—that your love isn’t where your interests lie, or that your parents know what’s best for you better than you do. You know what’s best for you, beta, only you.”

How could Ashna argue with that, or begrudge her mother not having put her head down and complied?

“So you just went back to him? Mrs. Shoban Gaikwad Raje who was in the papers all the time. Weren’t you scared of the media, of scandal?” Even as she asked it, she couldn’t imagine her mother being scared, and if she were scared, she couldn’t imagine her bowing to fear.

Shoban gave Ashna a cheeky look that made her laugh. “Basically we snuck around. My choice, not his. I realize that it’s not fair to him, but he’s never asked for any more than I could give him. We don’t hide our relationship, but we don’t share it with the media either. I’ve kept the press’s focus on my work and kept my life private. The world is filled with open secrets.” She took Ashna’s hands again and kissed them, gratitude shining in her jet black eyes. It was obvious how very much she wanted Ashna to like Omar. “When we first met, he was the only person I knew who wanted me to be me. By the time we found our way back to each other, I had become a person who could only be me, no matter what anyone else wanted. Maybe that’s the big love story. Finding that.”

Chapter Thirty-Four

It had been six hours since Ashna had seen Rico, but it felt like a lifetime. She missed him something fierce. The worry in his eyes when she’d left that morning, the determined hope, had been burning inside her. The fact that it hadn’t occurred to him to push her to stay or to try to figure things out for her made her want to climb into his arms and never let go.