Tears started streaming down Hari’s face, making him look suddenly even younger. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry? Don’t cry. Do you not like this room? I’m sorry, maybe we should have looked at a few hotels before we settled on this one.”

“No, no! It’s a very good room. But, but . . . I slept on the carpet. Are you angry with me? I don’t want you to be angry with me.”

“I’m not angry with you,” Vansh said, maybe a little more angrily than he’d intended. Then much more calmly, he added, “Why would I be angry? And even if I were angry, you can tell me not to be. Are you uncomfortable on beds?”

Hari nodded, and even with a lifetime of exposure to the head nod of his people, Vansh could just never decipher what Hari’s head nods meant.

“I’m not sure what that means.” He pointed at Hari’s head and shook his own.

“What if the bed gets spoiled?”

“Spoiled? Do you, are you . . .” Was he incontinent? That was not a question he was asking a grown man. “Do we need to get you something to help you? Medicine. Plastic sheets. Whatever it is, there’s a solution. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”

Those words fell on Hari like he had never heard them before, never considered them. He pressed a hand into his forehead, looking completely flummoxed by them.

“I don’t mean to suggest that you have a problem. All I’m saying is that if you do—”

“I don’t wet the bed.”

“Okay.”

Hari’s fingers squeezed his temples. “If I damage something, they’ll make me pay for it.”

“How would you damage a bed by sleeping in it?”

Hari’s only response was to look ashamed.

Vansh put a hand on his shoulder and met his eyes, a sick feeling rolling inside him. He kept his voice even. “You’re not dirty, Hari. You’ve had a stretch of bad luck. You’ve been screwed over by someone who claimed to be your friend. You’re a survivor. You are educated and smarter than most people. You helped a good man win an election because you can do things other people cannot. You built a company. Even without any of those things, you are as worthy of respect and comfort as anyone else. Even without any of those things, you are not going to dirty a bed by sleeping on it.”

Hari didn’t respond. He was staring over Vansh’s right ear. He tended to retreat behind a wall when Vansh tried to give him any sort of pep talk or vote of confidence. The only way to deal with Hari when he was in this sort of mood was with action, moving along and doing things.