Natasha’s face has that flushed look that always tells Bina she’s had too much to drink. She yells into the microphone, “Can any of you imagine telling your mom—your Indian, set-in-her-ways mom—that there’s no way you can think about getting married? Because you think too much about everything? Your brain is so fried that even your vibrator isn’t doing it for you? I mean, hello?”

Bina gasps. Blood pounds in her ears. She turns off the video. Natasha talked about this in public? And now it’s online?!

When she looks up, Mona, Kavita, and Mira are standing a few feet away from her. A strained silence falls over all of them. Even though Bina appreciates that they’re doing their best to not react, their wringing hands and wide eyes give away how appalled they are.

“We should go,” Mona says.

But Bina doesn’t hear her or even notice them leaving a minute later. Rage flows through her, infiltrates all her organs. She picks up her own phone and considers hurling it across the room, letting it break. But she needs to watch the rest of the video. She needs to see how fully her daughter insisted on humiliating herself, all of them.

The front door creaks open. Bina doesn’t even look up or ask who is there. She hears the fridge door open, then close. Deepak shouldn’t be done with golf yet. Maybe Anuj is back from hanging out with his high school friends.

“Mom? Is your meeting over already?”

Bina’s ears perk up. “Suhani? What are you doing here?”

Suhani steps into the formal living room. She’s in a long blue-and-white tiered dress. Her eyes are red and sunken in, as though she hasn’t slept all night. Everyone always commented on how Suhani was a younger version of Bina, with the same large, almond-shaped eyes, delicate chin, and pointy nose. But Bina’s always thought of her daughter as more conventionally pretty, the type of pretty that people stop to admire. She also exercises and wears makeup, two things Bina rarely made time for even when she was in her thirties.

Bina is so thrown off by Suhani’s presence that she temporarily forgets about what she just saw. It’s only after Suhani moves closer to her that she sees the large black suitcase in the hallway.

“Why’d you bring that?”

“Oh, I’m going to stay here for a little bit,” Suhani says. “You know, Zack’s traveling for work and it gets boring being in the apartment by myself and all.”

“Isn’t your sister there?” Bina asks as she takes in a whiff of jasmine and tuberose from Suhani’s perfume.

“Yeah. She is.” For a second, Suhani seems to lose her composure. But then she stands up straighter. “I just needed a change of scenery.”