How the only way to push back with her father and to get him to let her do things she wanted to do was to use Yash. The excitement she had felt when she’d been accepted into the fellowship in Nepal. Ten people from over fifty thousand applicants around the world had been chosen. From the moment Naina heard about the program, that was where she’d wanted to do her doctoral work. It was all she had wanted. It had gripped her soul. Infested her dreams.

“Absolutely not.” Those were the words her father had said. “You’re twenty-eight. You’ve spent enough time on this rebellion against me. You will marry and then you and your husband can decide what you can and cannot do.”

She hadn’t expected pride or congratulations, she wasn’t that reckless with her hope, but the absolute dismissal of her dreams—that had killed something inside her that day. Finally snuffed her out.

In its place had risen a girl who had looked her father straight in the eye and told him a bloodless lie. “I will only ever marry Yash, and Yash doesn’t want to marry until he’s won his next election.”

They had been at Nisha’s wedding reception in Sripore. A time of joy, a time when the Rajes had virtually burst with love and laughter. Naina had watched as Shree Uncle held his daughters and teared up as Nisha did her bridal thing. Mina Auntie and Ashna’s mother, Shobi Auntie, had lectured the girls about not losing their identities when they became wives. So much wisdom and support.

All the while Mummy had fluttered, terrified that Naina might tell her father to go to hell and then go to Nepal without his blessing, leaving her to consequences Naina had never been strong enough to ignore.

It had been a cruel joke that Naina had received the email accepting her into the program at that particular moment in time. Or maybe it had been her luckiest break. She’d made the announcement to her father without asking Yash, knowing he’d back her up. Knowing Yash had no interest in a relationship either.

Yash had always hated the way Naina’s father treated her. He’d always been angry that she’d never had her family’s support. Naina had believed that he shared her righteous anger enough to help her. Truth was she had never stopped to ask him if he would.