Abhimanyu wasn’t sure why she mentioned that. He looked right into her eyes, hoping to be able to read her thoughts. His vision was worse off in the dimly lit restaurant. Meera’s image, as everything within his sight, was split in two with a white, greyish hole of nothingness floating around the centre.

‘He stopped playing and settled into his job once he realized the family needed another steady income. Didn’t complain, dragged his feet every morning, but showed up. And now, he’s with me as a manager,’ Meera continued, still pacing her words evenly.

‘That’s great to know.’

‘Well, he does everything, really. Drive me around, schedule appointments. If tomorrow this all goes away for some reason, he’ll find his way. Do something else.’

Meera stopped eating and finally looked up at Abhimanyu. They gazed at each other for the first time in that trip.

‘I don’t see you doing that, Abhimanyu,’ she said, her eyes welling up despite her best efforts. ‘You’ve lost an eye, but the game runs in your blood.’

That was a lightbulb moment for Abhimanyu. It was so painfully simple, what had to be done – all this time, it was hiding in plain sight. All those years he had spent agonizing over his injury and his future, through the drunken nights and ever more depressing days, not once had he seen the light. The moment of truth had to come in the form of those plain words from no one else but Meera. If she could bask in Abhimanyu’s assuring gaze on the night of her first performance, it was now her turn to lend him a hand and lift him up from the swamp of defeat. His eyes hurt, but he couldn’t look away from her. Far away from India, far away from the past that had demanded so much from him, so much from them, he felt as though he could finally breathe. For the first time in his life, he felt as though he was just Abhimanyu – not a prince, not a commoner, not a cricketer or a politician, or even a half-blind recovering alcoholic – he was just a man.

And sitting right across from him was a girl he’d seen grow into a woman. A girl he knew he was in love with from the moment he set his eyes on her on that hot afternoon in Bombay all those years ago. The lines on her face were more defined now, and though she was still recovering from Sahil’s dastardly attempt on her life, she looked radiant. He wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of his life with her beside him. Abhimanyu sat up suddenly, startling Meera.

‘What is it, Abhimanyu? Are you feeling well? Is it your eye?’

‘No, everything is fine. That’s just it. Everything is fine.’

‘I don’t understand …’