She knew how to end this kind of agony. A neighbor, four houses away, whose only daughter had run away and married a Christian, drank a whole bottle of bleach. A servant found her body the next morning. Deepa could do this tonight, while Bala slept. She could make this day her last on earth.

“Deepa, please, you mustn’t say such things,” he said.

“Why not?” she asked. “You’re going to Pakistan. You’re going away forever. I will be here, alone, in this godforsaken country. I will have no one.”

“That’s not true.” He brought his hand to her chin. “I promise you will never be alone.” He leaned over, touched his lips to her forehead. “Promise me, you won’t hurt yourself. Please. I couldn’t bear it.”

He kissed her cheek. His lips were warm.

He was the only person left who cared about her.

She took his hand. “Don’t go to Lahore, Amir. I won’t survive if you leave me too.”

“I have no choice, Deepa. I need to make sure my family has reached my aunt’s house safely.” He paused, glanced toward the garden where the plants, without her care and attention, withered in the heat.

He turned back to her.

His eyes lit up. An idea had taken hold of him. He leaned close, as if to confess his secret. His words enveloped her face like a gentle breeze.

“After I take my family to Pakistan, I can return here for you. We could be together. We could … if you want … we could get married.”

For a brief moment, joy washed through her. She could be with him. He would be her family. But it would not be fair. He had not thought it through. He couldn’t leave Laila, his sick father. He couldn’t abandon his mother. It would break her heart. “Amir,” she said. “We can’t—”

He silenced her with a kiss, wrapped his arms around her waist.

She melted into him, ran her fingers along his collarbone, his jaw, his expanding and contracting ribs. The more she breathed him in, the less she hurt. He immersed her in a dream from which she did not want to wake up.

He broke away. “Marry me, Deepa,” he said, more urgently now. His kiss ran down the side of her neck, back up to her earlobe. He traced her lips with his thumb, as if to pry the answer from her. “From the moment I saw you at the Taj Mahal, I knew we would marry.”