“I told you those things in confidence. You aren’t supposed to use them against me. That’s the opposite of trust.”

“I’m not using them against you. I’m just trying to open your eyes. There’s so much more to life than what you’ve settled for.”

“I haven’t settled for anything.”

“You’ve rebuilt yourself from the ground up. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. You’ve done such hard work and changed so much, it inspires me. But you’re still clinging to things that you’ve obviously outgrown.”

“My life is what it is.”

“But what do you want?”

“Want?”

“Out of your life?”

“I want everything to be different. I want Sunil to be alive. I want to be able to go back in time and do everything over. But that isn’t possible. All I can do is make the best of things as they are.”

“You’re right, everything’s changed since your brother died, right down to the people you thought you knew, and yourself. There’s no way back to the way things were before. So, since that’s the case, where do you want to go from here? Because this holding pattern you’re in can’t last forever.”

Time passes as she breathes unevenly. “I don’t know,” she confesses at last.

“Let me put it this way. Do you want to hide forever? Keep just getting by from day-to-day? Or do you want to reinvent yourself with me?”

“Nothing’s ever that simple.”

He lifts her chin with his warm fingers and reaches deeply into her eyes. “I’m not saying it’s going to be easy. What I’m offering you is a fresh start. With someone who understands you. Someone who knows what you’ve been through. I’ll take the burdens your heart can’t take, Kavita. I’ll stand by your side. Isn’t that what you’ve been searching for? I have, although I didn’t realize it until I met you.”

Part of her knows he is right. That their time together has been as much about connection as healing. With him she has found a new cave to dwell in, full of light, and warm. In him, she found someone like her.

A fresh start, she repeats silently to herself. Is such a thing even possible in the wake of tragedy? Can anyone touched by trauma ever really start again?

“Was this part of your plan all along? Prey on the sad girl?”

“You know me better than that.”

“Do I?”

“Of course,” he says, his voice tender. “You know me better than anyone. Even better than Sequoia in some ways. After all, she missed all of this. But you haven’t. You’ve been here with me.”

Her cheeks flush with embarrassment. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. But you caught me off guard.”

“Then I’m sorry, too.”