“Should I go after her?” Vansh asked.

That made her open her eyes. “God, no. Please. I think you’ve done enough.” But she didn’t sound angry with him. Not the way she’d been so many times.

“I’m sorry she reacted that way. But what was wrong with what I said? Shouldn’t someone have said it by now?” He studied her face, genuinely lost in the face of this lifeless avatar of her. “Shouldn’t you have?”

Naina’s hand shook as she pressed it into her temples. “Shouldn’t I have what?”

“Told her the way she treats you is unfair. The way she never stands up to your dad is unfair.”

She smiled then and touched his cheek. He grabbed her hand, relief washing through him.

“Vansh, it’s not like I can’t see what she’s doing. That’s not why I don’t say anything to her. Anyone with even the most minimal insight can tell how afraid she is and what she’s afraid of. It’s why no one ever says what you just did. Because they know why she’s like this. She’s terrified of her husband leaving her. She cannot imagine a life separate from him.” She swallowed. “Even though he’s a monster.” She pulled her hand back. “She knows this. If she could change, she would. She doesn’t have the capacity to change.”

Capacity. The word hung between them. She’d tried so hard to tell him that Hari didn’t have the capacity to do what Vansh had so stupidly pressured him into doing. The consequences of his actions had been horribly harmful to an innocent person. She’d told him over and over again she didn’t have the capacity to love.

“You telling her to suddenly gather the courage to change because you’re fucking her daughter is nonsensical. It’s exactly why I knew this—us—was a bad idea.”

Taking her hand again, he pressed it back into his cheek. “Naina. Please. Don’t say that. I should have seen that. I’m sorry. But we’re not a bad idea. I’m an idiot sometimes, but I’ll do better, I promise. I’ll fix this, I promise.” Promising to fix things he’d broken seemed like all he did these days. But what was wrong with that? He wanted to. He could.

Her eyes said she wanted to believe him. “You can’t fix what you don’t understand. My mother has stayed with him because she believes she has nowhere to go, because she believes she’s wronged him by giving birth to me. Or wronged him by not being able to have more children. Or wronged him in some way. He’s used his control over her to manipulate her into believing that. Trying to control people is the problem, not the solution.”