“On the count of three, okay?”

She nodded.

“One. Two. Three!” I tugged and she shimmied and somehow landed on top of me, still giggling.

This kid was way too trusting. It hurt my heart.

I heard footsteps rushing toward Kaavi’s room.

“What’s going on here?!” Mrs. Fonseka yelled. Her face was pale and she clutched onto the door.

“Nadia? Are you okay?”

“Ammi!” The little girl shrieked, running up to Mrs. Fonseka and reaching for her. Mrs. Fonseka picked her up and held her close.

“What are you doing?” she hissed at me.

“I—I’m sorry. I was just leaving—”

“I don’t want to hear it, Amaya. You just show up here, unannounced. Creep around this house. Spread vicious rumors about Spencer—don’t tell me it wasn’t you!”

I had tried to interrupt but she practically hollered over me.

“We had an arrangement, Amaya. My husband may be too soft to enforce it, and my daughter might have been misguided enough to invite you to her wedding, but that still doesn’t mean you are welcome here. You were supposed to stay away, so stay away. From me. From my husband. And most importantly”—she held Nadia tightly to her chest—“from our daughters.”

“I’m sorry.” I was trembling. “I didn’t mean to—I didn’t know she was—”

“You need to leave. And while I can’t uninvite you from the wedding celebrations, please know that you are not welcome in this house.”

And with that she left, leaving me a quivering mess on the floor, thinking of all the horrible, painful ways she could die.

—

I was such an idiot. Of course I should have known better. I should have known better than to go snooping around that house. Trying to fill in the gaps of the lives I’ve missed, the moments I could never be a part of.

I tried taking deep breaths to steady myself. I did everything Dr. Dunn said—I did my counting exercises, I gave myself a little pep talk, I thought about how someone I admired would handle this situation and tried to emulate that in my thoughts. None of it seemed to work. What Mrs. Fonseka said, though it didn’t really surprise me, well, it broke my heart.

Luckily, no one else seemed to have witnessed her outburst. I gathered myself off the floor and picked up the box of photos, stuffing it into my bag. I was so silly, bringing them in here. I should have just gotten rid of them. Gotten rid of them like the Fonsekas had gotten rid of me. I made my way out of Kaavi’s room. I needed to get home and take a long shower and crawl into bed. Maybe I’d message Beth. I know it’s still the middle of the night for her, but maybe she’d be awake if I was lucky enough. I needed to do something to feel better. Maybe I’d message Alexander?

The hallway was still deserted since everyone was downstairs having tea, thank goodness. I had made it about halfway down when I heard whispering and a loud sniffle, like someone was crying. I peered off the staircase banister to see who it was.