Chapter 33
Wet, weary strands stuck to my face as I lay wrapped in Sameer’s arms, happy and content.
“I really need to start working out if we’re going to do this,” I said. “You’re so demanding.”
“Me demanding? As if you didn’t make me work hard. How many times was that?”
I smiled as my chest heaved. “I never count. But this is what you’re signing up for.”
He pulled me closer and nibbled on my earlobe. “I work out. I have my routine down. I’m ready for whatever you want, whenever you want.”
“That’s a tall claim, Mr. Rehani. You better have the means to back it up.”
“Oh, I do,” he said and slapped my buttock with his exhausted means.
He had rolled me over to hold me from behind, and I felt his breath ease up on my neck.
“You’re not going to fall asleep on me, are you?” I teased.
“After this, not a chance. I want more.”
“Sameer, when you were in India, I got a call from my brother. He said he’s checked himself into the rehab place he was at the last time.”
“Well, that’s good news, isn’t it?”
I turned around at the tone of his voice. He tried to deflect by gripping my nipple between his fingers, but I swatted him off. “What surprises me is that he’d never check himself in on his own, and he doesn’t have that kind of money. So, it makes me wonder how that came about.”
Sameer kept his face passive.
“Well?” I demanded.
“Do you really want to know?”
“If you had anything to do with it, I absolutely do, yes.”
“Okay,” he said with a resigned sigh. “I might have put some pressure on him.”
“Pressure? What does that mean? And how?”
“Do you really want to know?”
I frowned. “Dammit, Sameer! Tell me everything now.”
“Okay, okay, don’t get mad. Heavens! I sent some people over.”
“What people? Goons?”
He stroked my arm in preparation for what came next. “Not exactly. They’re just some friends who can be quite persuasive. I had them contact your brother and make some threats. But no real violence, I promise.”
“Sameer!” I gasped with wide eyes.
“Listen, when your mom was here.” He continued stroking my arm. “I spent some time talking with her. She was pleasantly surprised that I spoke Hindi, and that’s how we began chatting. She casually mentioned that she hopes to return to her life in India soon. She has very few friends here and no relatives, and despite your best intentions, it gets lonely. And she worries about Aditya.”
“She never said anything to me!”
“She knows you worry about her, and she doesn’t want to add to your burdens. She thinks it will upset you.”
I squinted in disbelief. “And she said all this to you?”
“Not in so many words. But I can read between the lines. Don’t forget, I’m just as smart as you.”
“That’s what you think!”
Planting a kiss on my forehead, he grabbed a lock of my hair to twist around his finger. “No one should be forced to live where they don’t want to, Tara, if they have another option. I brought my father here against his wishes, and he hasn’t been happy a single day since. He can’t return, but your mother can, and she should have the freedom to do so. I asked my friends to talk some sense into your brother and got him into that rehab. Once he’s sober, they’ll keep checking up on him. I’ve also talked to someone about getting him a job. One that he likes. Your mother should be able to return if she wants. It is her home.”
I pulled in a deep breath. “That’s an expensive program, Sameer. You shouldn’t have paid for it.”
“Hey, our destinies, our fortunes are linked now. It’s no longer just my money. It’s ours. So are our families, for better or worse. Mostly for worse.” He grinned. “We have to deal with them together. I hope I didn’t overstep my privileges.”
“Oh, darling!” I leaned in and kissed him.
He took my hands in his and kissed them, and then I felt him exhale hard against my forehead. “I haven’t told you everything about Riya,” he said.
I looked into his eyes.
“I was the one who compelled Dad to leave them and come to the U.S. with Mom and me. I left them alone and desolate in a cruel world where an unmarried mother and a child born out of wedlock face the worst kind of stigma. I took Dad’s love out of their lives and replaced it with money. Juhi and I were both grown up. We didn’t need him, but Riya did, and I stole him away from her.”
I gaped at him, speechless.
“There are two things I need to ask you,” he whispered. “Can you see yourself spending the rest of your life with a man who would do this to a woman and her child?”
I pulled in a breath at the end of a long pause. “Did they forgive you?”
“Sangita did. I’m not sure about Riya.”
“I think you’ve more than atoned for it, Sameer. You shouldn’t keep punishing yourself.”
He clutched my hands between his and kissed them. “Thank you,” he said as a tear rolled down the side of his face and onto the pillow.
I wiped his eyes with my palm. “What’s the other thing?”
“When Riya is here, I might end up being responsible for her. Will you be alright sharing our life with her?”
I smiled and smacked his forehead. “You are a silly man. I’m already sharing you with your parents, your friends and loved ones, and I’m happy about it. You’re sharing me too, with my family and my loved ones. What makes you think being in love means loving only one person in life?”
“But it’s not the same. Riya is…”
“Family,” I concluded assertively. “We’re not living in the 1980s, Sameer. No one cares anymore, and if they do, it’s their problem.”
“There will be whispers, eyebrow raises, and questions all the same.”
“And we’ll tackle them together. Did you really think this would bother me? I’m offended,” I grumbled.
He gathered me in his arms, and I breathed in his comforting scent. “When you told me about your pregnancy, my first thought was that she would’ve been about eighteen months younger than Riya,” he said in my ear.
I held my breath. When I finally found my voice, I confessed, “I want a baby, Sameer. I want our baby.”
“We’ll have as many as you want, my love. We can have a whole cricket team.”
I laughed at his ridiculously silly joke, but it flooded my heart with warmth.
“And you’re not scared, are you?”
“A bit. But I have you, and I have Riya for a trial run. I bet she’ll tell me exactly what my parenting failures are.”
“I’m looking forward to meeting her,” I said, and he brought his forehead against mine in gratitude.
“Come on, let’s have some cake,” he said, brushing his finger against my chin. “Yeah?”
“I want to call Dada first.”
“Come outside when you’re done. I’ll get the cake ready.” His lips met mine in a delectable embrace. Pulling two robes from his closet, he handed me one. “I’ll be outside.”
It was early morning in India, and after jumping through several hoops at the rehab center, I finally managed to get in touch with Dada. In his sober condition, he sounded like the brother I had known all my life. “I’m sorry, Tara. I’m so ashamed of myself for what I said to you. You’re my baby sister, yet you’re the one who’s always protected me.”
His shameless weeping had me blinded with tears. “I miss you so much!”
“Baba was right to be proud of you. You’re everything he hoped you’d be. Maybe that’s why I was jealous. But no more, Chimni. I am very proud of who you’ve become.” It had been years since I had heard him call me Chimni. His little sparrow.
The word “catharsis” gets thrown around quite freely, but I didn’t grasp its true meaning until that day. The strange lightness I felt in my soul was something I couldn’t express in words if I tried.
“And tell Sameer, I’m coming for him once I get my bearings back. The bastard threatened me!”
I laughed from my belly. “I’d pay to see that brawl.”
“You trust me this time, Chimni, don’t you?” he asked softly.
“I do, but I need you to trust yourself. You’ve got a second chance. Make it count.”
“I promise.”
“I’ll call you again tomorrow and every day until you’re out. You’re not alone in this, Dada. Aai and I are with you, okay? Aai will be home as soon as she’s ready,” I reassured him with the confidence Sameer had projected.
When I wrapped myself in the robe and walked out, Sameer was sitting at the island, reading on his phone, with a beautiful cake before him. I walked up to read the inscription, Happy Birthday to the Only Star in My Universe.
“Everything okay? How is he?”
I hugged Sameer tight. “He’s doing well. Everything is…as good as it can be.”
“Scared of using the word perfect?” he said, making me laugh.
“He said he’s coming for you when he’s healed.”
He released a guttural laugh. “I’ll welcome him with open arms.”
Holding the knife together, we cut the cake. Exquisitely flavored chocolate frosting sat between delicate layers of vanilla sponge that melted in my mouth. He smeared a bit of the frosting on my lips and lapped it up.
“That’s a waste of cake,” I said with faux annoyance.
“You think?” He dug out a small piece with his bare hands, spread it on my chest, and licked it clean. He smeared another piece across my neck and clavicle.
“What are you doing?” I wailed. “I’m all sticky and greasy now.”
“Well, we can take a shower…together.” He grinned with a wink and put his mouth on my neck. His tongue was just about to melt me away when he stopped and said, “Hey, before I forget, I have something for you.” He rushed inside and emerged with a canvas in his hand.
“What’s this?”
“Your birthday gift to me, remember?”
I tried not to smile, but a tiny one slipped out anyway.
“Yeah, that was pretty smart of you. But here, I did paint a perfect picture, one that I wanted.”
In bold oil pastels, the canvas said:
Tara
Sameer
Forever
I hid my smile behind a forkful of cake.
“Yeah, missy. I bested you. Accept it.”
“Never,” I said, and stuffed my mouth with cake.
He leaned in to kiss me when his phone went off in the bedroom.
“You should get that,” I said.
“Don’t move. I’ll be right back,” he said and walked into the bedroom. When he returned a few minutes later, his face was pale with worry.
I leaped off my seat. “What happened?”
“Tara, I’m sorry, but I have to go back to India.”
“Sangita?”
Before he could respond, his phone rang again. “Amar, yes, Riya called me. I’ll be on the next flight. Can you be with her until I come? Hey, wait for me if anything happens.”
After listening quietly for a few seconds, he said, “Yeah, see you soon.”
He stepped forward and hugged me. “I’m scared, Tara.”
“I wish I could come with you. But Amar’s there. Lean on him. He’s your anchor.”
“You’re my anchor. He’s my mast.”