“Yash supported me too,” Naina said. “So it wasn’t exactly selfless.” She dropped back on the couch, drained of every bit of energy.

“See, you care about what selfless and what not. All life, you pushing boulder no one care that sit in all women path. Don’t write off to yourself. Don’t make up value of yourself by one cruel man just because Mummy don’t know how to deal him.”

Cruel. All these years it had taken her, but she’d said the one word that said it all. I hate him, Naina wanted to say. I hate him from the bottom of my soul. Yet, she wished so badly that he’d been someone she could love.

Her mother pulled her head into her lap and she went willingly. Her Mummy smell, her Mummy warmth, all the things she hadn’t experienced since . . . since that broken arm. How much she’d missed it. She’d thought her mother had lost her ability to love her daughter, but no, she’d only lost her ability to show it. Or Naina had lost her ability to see it.

Had one apology, one act of kindness from Vansh, really changed her mother so much?

“You not the same Naina who lie about Yash. Don’t you see, beta, you change. I never seen you like this way.”

She’d let him make her come in a restaurant. With his family sitting right there.

“You keep saying you not capable of love. But look at you. I think it little late. Already falling in love is done.”

A laugh escaped Naina. Mummy was right. She’d changed, and when she didn’t let the fear overwhelm her she liked who she was with him. Loved it, actually.

“But he’s spoiled and indulged, and so smug it can be the most annoying thing.”

“That describe pretty much all Rajes, no?” Mummy said, a happy gleam brightening her eyes.

“True.”

But Vansh was also different from the rest of them in that he had no shell. He left himself wide open. What he knew to do was give everything. Unlike them, unlike her, he was not terrified of what it might cost him.

Suddenly she sat up.

How had it taken her so long to realize this? The fact that he’d sent Mummy here meant that he wasn’t far behind. A smile spread across her face. Minutes ago she had felt like she’d never smile again.

“He asked you to come here.”

“I never see any man look so much worried. So much miserable not look good on face like that.”

He’d wanted to make sure Naina was okay. I’m obsessed with your pleasure. He was. But it wasn’t just her physical pleasure. It was her happiness. God, what was she going to do with him?