“They had a fight. The biggest one yet, by the sound of it. I think.…” She can’t quite bring herself to say it, swallows, tries again. “They’re over, Niru.”

“Over as in split up?”

“Didn’t I tell you I can’t leave them alone?”

“Surely it’ll blow over like every other time.”

“You can’t take back the kind of things they’ve said to each other. Dad’s blaming Mom. Mom’s blaming Dad. Who am I supposed to believe? How am I supposed to choose sides? It’s all falling apart. I didn’t think things could get any worse, but they have.”

“One thing at a time, yeah? Call your dad. Let him know we’re on the way.”

“He’s allergic to cats.”

“We’ll arrange for him to stay in one of the guest rooms on the way out, all right? No one ever uses them.”

Kavita knows she has to move; they’re wasting precious time. Her brain tells her hand to pick up the phone and dial the number for the hotel, but her hand won’t listen, as if she never had a hand to begin with.

“Kavita?” she hears Nirav say outside her shell. She feels his hands gently grip her shoulders. “Take a deep breath,” he tells her. “That’s it. And another. Good. We’ll figure it out, okay? But first you need to call your dad.”

He dials the number for her and places the receiver in her stiff hand. As she listens to the tireless ring of the bell, she gnaws on her bottom lip, anxious for her father to put an end to the noise, and her worries. At last, he answers.

“Dad?”

“Kavita,” he says, a smile in his voice. “You’re back.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“We’re coming to get you, okay?”

“You know how to get here?”

“Yes, it’s not far.”

“Did you listen to my messages?”

“Yes, Dad. Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be fine. Meet us in the lobby. We won’t be long.”

She hangs up and holds the counter for strength. Her body goes from feeling like it’s been flash-frozen to flash-thawed. But there’s no time to go limp and shiver. Her father needs rescuing.

When they arrive at the hotel, she finds him waiting in the lobby, standing stoically beside the navy Samsonite suitcase, hard plastic and combination locks, that he immigrated with over thirty years ago, as though despite the decades and determination, he has as little now as he did back then.

25.

After getting him settled in the guest suite, they return to their condo to see if they can offer him something more substantial to eat than the McDonald’s he has been subsisting on for days. Nirav excuses himself to take a shower, claiming the man who sat next to him on the flight must have had bloody whooping cough.