Meera tried her best to follow what was being relayed to her in cold medical terms, while Abhimanyu slept, splayed across the bed, still as rock. Dr Patel continued, ‘This could result in subnormal visual acuity – I am not saying this is confirmed – but there’s always a chance. As we said, he suffered a retinal hemorrhage, but the optic disc pallor usually develops, if it at all develops could take weeks.’ And on and on he went. Meera’s quiet panic reached a full-blown meltdown when Dr Patel uttered the only coherent sentence at the end of his soliloquy: ‘So, we suggest that he be flown to Mount Sinai in New York tonight to continue treatment.’

Meera looked at Ranjit Singh expectantly, who, without batting an eyelid, declared that he will make the necessary arrangements to transfer Abhimanyu at once. He rushed out of the room with the doctor to make a few calls, and, more importantly, get an authorization from Ranakpour.

This new development had thrown Meera off completely. She was supposed to wrap up for the day and leave for home. Instead, she found herself pacing the halls, waiting for Ranjit Singh to somehow facilitate Abhimanyu’s big move. In a way, she found herself thrown off track from her life in general ever since she had met Abhimanyu. The whirlwind romance that started at the Orient Club and continued miles away in Ranakpour, the queen’s death, the prince’s horrific injury – everything felt unreal to her. She didn’t have a single moment to herself to think things through. But she felt compelled to continue. That was the frame of mind she was in when she ran into Kamal at the hospital, who had come to visit Abhimanyu.

‘Meera! What are you doing here?’

‘Bhau!’ Meera threw herself into her brother’s arms, and for the first time since she watched Abhimanyu collapse on the field that day, she cried. Every secret in her heart began to reveal itself, and in between her sobs, she told Kamal about her relationship with Abhimanyu – how it began and how they had kept it a secret for so long; that they would have spoken about it after receiving the royal approval, but everything had gone so, so terribly wrong. Kamal stood stunned in the hospital corridor. But before he could say anything, Meera blurted out, ‘I have to go to New York with him. I don’t know how, but I just have to!’

‘Meera, calm down. What are you saying?’

‘The doctor, he came to the room a few minutes ago and he said so many things. I didn’t understand him. But they’re taking Abhimanyu to New York to a hospital that will save him, and Bhau, I cannot be here and wait and wonder what will happen to him! I have to go, please!’

Kamal took his sister back home and sat the family down, speaking for Meera, who could barely utter a word without bursting into tears. He had been upset when he found her at the hospital and when she told him her secret, but his initial misgivings were quickly replaced with happiness – his little sister was in love, and was loved back by a man he so admired. While his mother and Veena chided Meera for being naïve and starry-eyed for even imagining that she could have a life with Abhimanyu, Kamal remained instrumental in subduing their protests and made a case for allowing her to travel to New York. He stepped out “look for Ranjit Singh to seek his help in getting Meera a passport and a ticket to fly to America. For all his indiscipline, Kamal, like Meera, was a practical sort, and he knew that these things took time to come through, and given the situation, he understood that there was none to waste.