Chapter 23
Hem was going to hell.
He couldn’t stop thinking about the way Mina looked so delicious, even though his mother was in the same room. It just felt wrong, but he couldn’t help it.
He leaned against the kitchen island and watched her work cross- legged on the couch with a Macbook in her lap.
Her hair was twisted haphazardly on top of her head, secured with a pen, and she still wore the dramatic makeup she’d painstakingly put on that morning, but a pair of reading glasses were now perched on her nose.
The power suit she’d worn to work was brilliant and energetic, but he loved her in leggings and baggy sweaters, too.
“You’re staring,” his mother said at his side.
“Mhm. I know Ajay called for us to have a meeting at the estate instead of at Bharat offices, but I should’ve taken her home, so she’d be more comfortable, Mom.”
“Nonsense,” she whispered. “How can I coddle her if she isn’t here? Do you think she would like the chai now? I can have the cook bring her a cup.”
“I think she needs a little more time. She’s busy right now.”
When his mother sighed in contentment, Hem wrapped an arm around her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. “Tuhanu pyaar karda, Mom. I love you.”
“I love you, too, my serious puttar,” she said affectionately. She had to stand on her toes to grab his face in her hands and squeeze his cheeks.
“You happy?” he said when he pulled away.
“Very. She’s good for you. You’re smiling more than I’ve seen in years, Hem.”
He was going to talk to his mother about the nature of his relationship on Saturday, but after visiting Kohli & Associates that morning, he knew she couldn’t be alone today.
He looked down at the other woman he loved in his life. “Mom. I asked Mina to move in with me. She hasn’t said yes, but I’m hoping that within a few months, she’ll change her mind.”
His mother’s breath caught, and then she began to sniffle. “You’re getting married?”
“No, not yet. The topic hasn’t even come up. I know that Mina isn’t Lisa, but I still want to give her plenty of time to get used to the idea.”
He wasn’t prepared, he was never prepared, for when his mother smacked him upside the head and swore at him in Punjabi. “She’s a proper Punjabi woman. She’s different. Treat her that way.”
Hem looked over to see Mina’s curious expression. “So, by treat her differently, you mean propose right away? Isn’t that the same thing I did with Lisa?”
“Don’t try to be smart with me, Hem. I will hit you with my rolling pin. Then you’ll truly know what pain feels like.”
“Okay, can we talk about this after Dad gets better? It’s not that big of a deal.”
“It’s a big deal to my puttar who never loved a woman quite like this before,” his mother said, squishing Hem’s face between her palms again. “My handsome boy. Go tell your father. A good Punjabi wedding is just the cure he needs.”
“We’re not?— ”
“Go!”
With that, he shot Mina one last look, who was still watching him with curiosity, and left the great room.
His heart thudded at the idea of marrying Mina.
He wanted to spend his life with her. That wasn’t even a question.
He loved her more than he could ever imagine in such a short amount of time.
But marriage? Mina was already skittish with how fast they were moving.
He understood her brain a little bit better now.
She liked compartmentalizing, and until Bharat’s results meeting was over and a report to the major shareholders was complete, she’d be on edge.
When Mina and he got married?—
Hem stumbled on the marble stairs.
When. He’d thought about when, not if. He’d never had that certainty before.
Hem’s future didn’t seem complete without Mina in it, which meant that . . . damn it, yes, he was going to keep her in his life. He grinned as he finished ascending the staircase. Maybe his mother had the right idea after all.
Hem entered his parents’ wing, and at the end of the hall, he turned into the master bedroom.
A nurse dressed in simple sky- blue scrubs was rearranging the sitting area while Hem’s father sat in a glider by the window.
The air smelled like antiseptic and incense.
He called out to his father before he crossed the room.
The older man looked a little gray, his hair was limp, and he wore a white kurta pajama with a beige shawl draped over his shoulders.
Hem waited until his father slowly acknowledged his presence, his sharp eyes shining with intelligence and fatigue.
“Puttar,” he said slowly.
“Should you be sitting up?”
His father said something pithy in Punjabi before switching to English. “Sit up, lie down, your mother is always on my case. I don’t need you to harass me, either. It’s bad enough that my life is over.”
“What? Dad, don’t say that.”
“It’s true. No more whiskey, no more cigars, no more ghee, nothing. What do I have to live for? My company is good as gone, too.”
Hem sighed and sat on the floor in front of the chair. He pulled his knees up and wrapped his arms around them. “Well, if you’re this feisty, then you must be feeling better.”
They sat in silence, listening to the easy movement of the nurse in the background for a while.
“I’m sorry, puttar,” his father finally said. “I’ve made one mistake after another. I should’ve trusted your instincts that it was too premature to go public. I should’ve consulted with you and your brothers about Gopal owning company stock.”
It was the first time Hem’s father had talked about what he’d done since their fight a few days ago. The regret was etched in the age lines marring his face. “Papa, we don’t have to talk about this.”
Deepak Singh closed his eyes and rested it against the back of the chair. His chest lifted and dropped. “When I came to America, I never thought we’d have all this, Hem. The money wasn’t important to me. The life I built for my children. The respect I earned for my work. That’s what I wanted.”
“I think Mom would disagree about the money, Dad. She demanded you renovate that kitchen and spent over four hundred thousand dollars.”
“I’m glad I could give that to her, but she’d be okay using that galley kitchen in the Flushing apartment, too.”
“What are you getting at, Papa?”
“I’m saying that we have money, vineyards, buildings, patents because I pursued respect. Now that we’ve gone public, I’ve lost the respect of my peers, and I’m losing my money, too.”
Hem rested a hand on his father’s knee. “Don’t believe that for a second. You haven’t lost anyone’s respect.”
His father’s labored breathing slowed. “I can blame WTA, but it’s me. It’s me to blame. I trusted Gopal, and I didn’t trust you. Now you’re lost from me, too.”
Hem felt his heart crack. “I wasn’t lost, Papa. If anything, WTA brought us back together.”
“But you left. I caused that. I wrote that check to Lisa and told her to leave. And what makes me feel worse, is that I don’t regret it, puttar. I still believe I did what was best for my child. I want you to be loved . That woman didn’t love you.”
Hem sighed and slipped into Punjabi. “I forgive you, Papa.”
There was a long pause. “Puttar…”
“I don’t like the way you did it, but now I understand why.
I dodged a bullet and I’ve since met someone who I know, who I trust would never replace me with the check.
And I left because I needed time to grow.
I wanted something different. And Papa, if it wasn’t for you, I would’ve never been strong enough to start my own law firm.
You’re the one who taught me that I could do anything.
I know that we fought, and I know that a lot of things were said, but believe me when I tell you, there is nothing that will ever come between us. ”
He held out his hand, and his father looked at it a moment before resting his quivering fingers against Hem’s.
“Tell me you understand, Papa.”
“Okay,” Deepak said. “Maybe it was the right decision. I think— I think your brother loves your role more than you ever did.”
“Exactly. Ajay wanted the company to go public. We have to trust him now, because his instincts are better than mine.”
“He’s brash, puttar. He doesn’t have your finesse.”
“No, but that doesn’t mean he’s wrong. He does his job differently, but you and I both know he does it better. You have to trust him to make the right decisions for the company.”
They sat in silence for a long time. Deepak’s chair rocked back and forth and Hem let out a breath when he finally felt his father squeeze his fingers.
“I missed you.”
Hem’s throat constricted at the shaky sound of the old man’s voice. He hadn’t known how important it was to hear those words until his father said them. “I missed you, too, Papa. We’ll get through this. I’m not with the company anymore, but I’m here. And so is Mina.”
“I owe her an apology.”
“Yes, but right now, get better. Ajay, Zail, and I will protect Bharat.”
Those piercing dark brown eyes, the same ones Hem saw whenever he looked in the mirror, stared back at him. “It’s such a burden I leave you with.”
“It’s not. Mina taught me about legacy, and we are the legacy you’ve created, not the company. And Papa? There is nothing we wouldn’t do to protect you.”
“My uncle’s assistant downloaded all these emails for me.
This one is a message from WTA to my uncle requesting Bharat’s classified information.
And then this one, is where my uncle shared the preliminary patent documents that should’ve never left the company’s hands.
I forwarded all of this to my FBI contact.
” Mina pointed to the screen and watched as Hem’s mother put on a tiny pair of reading glasses and leaned forward.
“That dog,” she said in Punjabi. “Is this enough to make sure that Sanjeev goes to jail?”
“I think it’s a start. It’s up to my contact at the FBI to do the rest.” She waited while Hem’s mother continued to read through the messages Vibha had saved on the drive.
Mina had no idea what to say to Hem’s mother when she approached her, eager-eyed to get to know her better.
And because she’d never really dealt with mother’s before, save for her own when she was a child, she panicked and offered to show her the drive she was working on. She didn’t expect the woman to say yes.
Sangeeta Singh reached out and brushed a hand over Mina’s hair. “This must be hard for you. Going against your uncle.”
Mina shrugged, still trying to process the affectionate gesture.
She hadn’t had much of them in her years.
“Uh, not that hard actually. Sanjeev has always been antagonistic towards me.” Was that the right thing to say?
Should she have been that honest? Damn it, she wished that Hem would hurry up and come back.
“Hem and Ajay told me a little about your family,” Hem’s mother said. “You wanted to make sure that your mother’s death wasn’t in vain. I’m sorry you’re no longer at that firm, but I’m sure she’s proud of you as the woman you’ve become, regardless of where you’re employed.”
“I’m starting to believe that.”
Hem’s mother picked up the cooling chai from the coffee table and handed it to Mina. She stroked a hand over Mina’s head again. “A mother knows. Trust me when I say that if she could see you today, see how you’re helping my sons because it’s the right thing to do, she’d be bursting with pride.”
“Thanks, auntie,” Mina said quietly.
“You are Hem’s, which means now you are mine. You may not like that after a while.”
Mina laughed, and the tightness in her chest eased.
“What’s so funny?” Ajay’s voice echoed through the room as he approached them, phone in hand, suit coat dangling from his fingers.
“We are having girl talk,” Hem’s mother said as she stood to greet her second son. “It’s so nice Mina is helping you with your father’s company. Finally, a woman to keep you three idiots in line.”
“Love you, too, Mama,” Ajay said. He collapsed on the couch next to Mina and dropped his head back against the plush cushions. He looked haggard even though it was only Monday. His face was covered in two- day- old scruff and his hair was disheveled and slightly overgrown. Even his tie was askew.
“Rough morning?”
“You have no idea.” He grabbed one of her hands and pressed a loud smacking kiss to her knuckles. “Thank you. Thank you and your friend for the information that you’ve given us. Our head of security had to let Sahar go because Zail refused to do it. I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me for it.”
“I’m happy to help, but also sorry about Sahar. I only spoke with her for a few minutes, but I liked her. It was a shock when I heard the news.”
“She’s the least of our problems. We still have to flip the board before WTA comes in and flips it for us. If they do, their first move will be to oust Dad.” He walked through some of his updates about shareholders and the board members.
“Wow, you did a lot, Ajay.” Mina put her cup of chai down and picked up her laptop again. She tilted it so that he could see the screen. “I may have some information that could help delay the board changeover.”
Ajay took the computer from her and began scrolling through the documents at a rapid pace. One eyebrow jerked and his jaw tightened by the time he got to the end. “Did you talk to Hem about this?”
“I did. And then I sent it to my contact at the Bureau. Hopefully she’ll have something for you before the board meeting on Thursday.”
“Hopefully,” Ajay said. His jaw continued to work back and forth, his teeth grinding as he read through each and every attachment for the next twenty minutes. When he finished, he set the laptop aside. “Excellent work, Kohli. We got him. We finally got him.”
“We did. I’m sorry I won’t be able to be there to watch it happen in real time. I was let go from Kohli & Associates today.”
“Hem texted,” Ajay said, his eyes filled with sympathy. “You’re better than all of them. You’ll shine brighter on your own.”
“I hope so. It’s just that I’ve come so far with Bharat, Inc. It would be nice to see this through, you know?”
Mina turned when she heard heavy footfalls coming down the stairs. Hem’s lean form came into view, and she smiled back at him. Her heart, she thought. She’d lost her job, but she’d found her heart.
“Already putting her to work?” Hem told Ajay.
“No, but I was about to.”
Mina noticed the mischievous sparkle in Ajay’s eyes. “What are you talking about?”
“I had an idea,” Hem said. “If you’re good with it, you could join us for the board meeting.”
Mina glanced back and forth between the brothers. When both of them started grinning at her, she closed the lid of her laptop. “Okay, you have my attention.”