It was a huge risk, sharing her secret. But she had no choice. She needed a conduit. So many of her friends’ parents wouldn’t even let their daughters visit Deepa. They worried the attack on the clinic was proof that Deepa, too, had been a target, that being with her was too dangerous. Patri had written as much in a note that her family’s driver had left at Deepa’s front door.

“Madam Grover, I need to tell you something,” Deepa said. “I hope I can trust you.”

Her teacher glanced at the paper in Deepa’s hands. “Of course you can. Always.”

Deepa cleared her throat. “Amir and Laila have left for Lahore, but Amir is returning in a few weeks.” She picked off flakes of skin that had started peeling from one of her blisters on her wrists, took a deep breath. Her teacher cared about Amir and Laila, had given them money. Deepa hoped she would continue to help him, to help her. “Amir is coming back for me. We’re going to get married.”

Madam Grover’s eyes widened. “Oh.”

“I have to move to London with my Aunty and Uncle. There is no one here for me now. Even Bala, our cook, is returning to her village. But I hope … I hope that once Amir sees I’m no longer living here, he’ll look for me at school. He’ll ask around about me.”

Deepa handed her teacher the paper. “This is my address in London. Please, give it out to the class. Tell everyone where I’ve moved. Ask them to write. When Amir looks for me, hopefully they’ll tell him where I’ve moved, give him the address. Or if you see him, I hope you will. Once he writes to me in London, he and I can make a plan.”

Madam Grover took the paper. Her eyes scanned the address. She folded it. “You two are so young, Deepa. How will you survive? How will you support yourselves?”

She had not yet figured out the details. But Deepa would find some kind of job in London to earn money, even if it meant delaying her return to school. She would use the money to purchase Amir a ticket to London. They would have a better life abroad than in India, even if they had to end their education to do so.

There would be danger, though, in Amir living in Delhi until she could send for him. She desperately hoped his friends would take him in, that they would help keep him safe until he left for England. She did not want to share these fears with her teacher. She worried Madam Grover wouldn’t have confidence in her plan. Deepa had to believe it would work. “We’ll find a way, Madam Grover.”