“You know,” Mom said, looking at Ashna in a way Ashna still wasn’t used to, and might never be. Then again, maybe her mother had always looked at her that way, she’d just never been able to see it. “The night you were born, I remember having a vision, a vision like this, of us with this feeling in our hearts. Like anything was possible because we were loved and free. That vision filled me with so much hope, I scratched out your name on the birth certificate and put down the only word that could describe how I felt. Ashna.”

Acknowledgments

Some books have such a deep impact on you that they shape how you expect to love and be loved. Jane Austen’s Persuasion laid the foundation for how I felt about love and constancy in the face of society’s influence. Ashna, Rico, and Shobi’s story is my tribute to that timeless tale and what it taught me about second chances. As in the writing of all my books, I stumbled through this one lost at first, then slowly found my way because so many people held my hand.

Thanks first and foremost to Annika, Mihir, and Manoj, for their endless, albeit amused, support and to my parents, for their unconditional pride. The creation of any story comes second only to our family, even though our vacations might forever be interrupted by deadlines.

Writing a soccer player was exciting (read: terrifying) and I could never have hoped to capture the nuances of the game without the patient sermons from my sports-mad nephew, Sarang Navkal. You are brilliant and I’m sorry for all the times I laughed when you cried for the loss of your team. It was unforgivable of me. Thanks also to Lynne Hartzer, for making sure my soccer cleat did not end up in my mouth. For those of you who take such things seriously, I apologize for taking liberties with the historical accuracy of World Cup and Premier League wins.

My deepest thanks to Patricia Friedrich and Frances de Pontes Peebles for sharing their invaluable cultural expertise and their lovely books. I love Rico deeply and he could not be who he is without your generous input. Any inconsistencies are all my own.

Now to the heart of my writing process, my beta readers and critique partners: Emily Redington Modak, Sally Kilpatrick, Virgina Kantra, Falguni Kothary, Robin Kuss, Katherine Ashe, Nishaad Navkal, and Priscilla Oliveras. Thank you a million times over; without your eagle eyes and insights I couldn’t say anything halfway coherent.