Chapter 15
·
Mehndis were meant to take place at night.
At least, Lulu’s was. The whole aesthetic—bridesmaids carrying glowing votives on gilded plates to the vibe of nostalgic Bollywood songs—relied on a dark sky.
Instead, it was late afternoon. The sky was wide and blue and the sun beamed bright through the windows, which meant the candles would flicker, but they could not glow.
But at least it was happening. There was still a mehndi.
Her mother was here, alive, wearing a pale silk kurta with a trail of pearls around her throat.
No one would ever guess she had been discharged from the hospital barely an hour ago.
Aunties hovered around her, complimenting her bangles, asking too many questions.
But she was smiling, and for that Hena was grateful.
She tried to push away the memory of the fortune teller. Her final words:
The knives are out for you.
She wanted to dismiss it as nothing more than cheap theatrics to close the session out with a bang. The event was meant to entertain, wasn’t it? And these women found nothing more entertaining than digging up more dirt on her, no matter how real or imagined it might be.
Except how did Mariela describe the night in Lulu’s suite with such accurate detail? The flash of lightning. The creaking of metal steps. She recited it as though she’d been standing off to the side watching everything unfold.
She headed to the bridal suite tucked away next to the mehndi hall. She walked past the trays, the golden palanquin set by the door that her sister would soon sit in as she was carried into the hall.
When she stepped inside, Irum, Courtney, and Maheen were already there. Lulu was at a makeup table and caught her eye through the mirror.
“Is it time?” she asked.
“Almost. The guests have arrived.”
The other bridesmaids headed outside to light the mehndi trays, leaving the sisters alone.
Lulu was in a flowing emerald gown. The dupatta draped over her head was threaded with intricate mirror work, and with her sparkling jhumar and golden tikka framing her face, she looked like royalty.
“You should join them,” Lulu said. “You’re a bridesmaid too, remember?”
“I wanted to make sure you’re all right,” Hena said.
Lulu studied her lap, twisting the edge of her gown with her finger.
“What’s the matter?” Hena asked. “Ammi’s doing great out there, I promise.”
“It’s not that…” She was quiet for a moment. “I wanted to say I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“You should have been in the bridal party from the start. Honestly, you should have been my maid of honor.”
“Don’t worry about that. It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine. I hate all these rumors. People saying you’re a wedding crasher. But I gave them the fodder, didn’t I?”
“Who cares what they have to say?”
“Even if they weren’t gossiping, I shouldn’t have invited you last minute. Gossip or no gossip, it was wrong.”
“Lulu.” Hena drew closer to her sister. “Given everything…I don’t blame you.”
“The truth is, I was pretty pissed at you.”
That tracked.
“I can’t imagine what you dealt with,” Hena said, and then she pushed past the knot in her throat.
Because it was time to say the words she’d needed to say for far too long.
“And the trust—Ammi delayed your trust because of the mistakes I made. You have every right to be pissed. My mistakes cost you. I’m so sorry. ”
Lulu’s eyes welled with tears.
“Is that why you think I’ve been upset? The trust? I mean, yes, I wish Ammi hadn’t delayed it. It’s millions of dollars, stuck. That sucks. But no. Hena, you just…you left.” She sniffled. “You didn’t even say goodbye. It’s like you couldn’t wait to be done with us. With me.”
“That was never true,” Hena began, then corrected herself. “I mean, I did want to get away from this place. Our community. There were too many painful memories, and the gossip was so hard to deal with. But done with you? Never. Leaving you was the hardest part. And it never got easier. Ever.”
“It’s like one minute you were my best friend. I told you everything. And the next…” Lulu trailed off.
A bird trilled outside the window. Hena took a seat across from her sister.
“I tried to call you early on, but you never answered. I decided to give you space. I thought it’s what you wanted.
I didn’t want to make things harder. Especially since you lived with Ammi. You were still part of the community.”
“When I got engaged, I knew I had to tell you, but I didn’t know how.” Lulu sniffled again. “So much time had passed. Then Ammi’s diagnosis…I shouldn’t have waited so long to reach out.”
“I’m here now, right?” Hena said, squeezing her hand.
“You are here.” She drew a steady breath. “Not sure how I’d have made it through this wedding week without you.”
“I’m glad I could help.”
Lulu dabbed her eyes with a tissue and adjusted her makeup.
“What do you think of Khaled? You haven’t said much about him.”
“I don’t know,” Hena said honestly. “I haven’t spent much time with him. He seems nice, though, and you both look happy together.”
“Maybe you can come back for a visit? That way you can actually spend time with us and get to know him.”
Hena’s heart lifted at the invitation. “I’d love that,” she told her.
Lulu smiled. “You know he’s all in with my dream of rebuilding the hotel empire?”
“Rebuilding the empire?” Hena repeated, hoping she had misunderstood her. “Beyond this resort, you mean?”
“This resort is only the start. I told you, I’m rebuilding a legacy,” she said. “It’s awful how Ammi sold every last building. They’d spent years, decades, creating this dynasty and then—poof—it was gone. Lucinda told me how it was so much more than hotels.”
“Like what?” Hena asked cautiously. “What did Lucinda share?”
“Well, I’d obviously heard about his charity work, but I didn’t know the extent of it. Did you know he had a whole side business helping people struggling financially?”
Helping people. Hena almost laughed. She wasn’t sure if the people on the receiving end would describe a loan shark quite that way.
“What Ammi did was wrong. I was too young to get a say, and I’m working on forgiving her,” Lulu said.
“But when I turn twenty-six and get access to my trust, I’m getting it all back.
I’ve already got a wish list of properties to buy.
You know the Miramar resort is coming on the market soon?
Wouldn’t it be amazing to grab it? You could come in on this with me.
Help with the redesign. Wouldn’t that be great?
We could make it a proper family business again. ”
Until that moment, their conversation had been so heartwarming and healing, but now a prickle of unease crawled through her. Her father’s legacy was best left where it was. In the past.
It wasn’t her sister’s fault. Her mother chose not to give Lulu the full truth.
After his death, they’d argued about it.
Back then, Hena could hardly blame her mother.
Lulu had been so young. But as the years went by and her mother refused to address the elephant in the room, Hena worried it would become a problem.
And it was a problem now, wasn’t it?
There was a knock on the door. The wedding planner popped her head in. It was time.
Hena helped her sister into the golden palanquin.
Reza and the other groomsmen and relatives lifted it up, carrying it on their shoulders.
Hena took a spare lit votive from Irum and slid into formation alongside the other bridesmaids and cousins.
They entered the hall to a romantic Bollywood ballad; the guests clapped and cheered as Lulu was taken to the stage.
As Hena set her votive on the stage alongside the other bridesmaids, she spotted Reza off to the side.
“Thank you again,” she said, walking over to him. “For the flowers. The gift. It was the nicest thing anyone’s done for me in a long time.”
“My pleasure. How’s your mother?”
Hena looked in her mother’s direction. Her eyes sparkled as she looked at her younger child.
“She’s better—” Hena began, but the weight of Khala’s words pressed against her.
It could be any day now.
Reza seemed to understand. Quietly, he reached for her hand. Gave it a reassuring squeeze. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a family hold it together like you all are.”
“Glad to hear it looks like we are. I guess there’s not really an alternative to keeping it together, considering it’s a wedding, right?”
“Maybe,” Reza said. “But you don’t have to hold it alone.”
“You’re sweet.”
“Just being honest. I’m here if you need to talk.”
“Thanks,” she told him. “You look nice, by the way.”
An understatement if there ever was one. In his cream-colored sherwani with gold accents on the collar, he was perfect. Painfully so.
“As do you.” His dimple deepened. “But what else is new?”
Yeah? she wanted to say. Then why haven’t you done anything about it yet?
The music grew louder in the background. From the periphery, Hena saw the bridesmaids readying the henna to apply to Lulu’s hands. Already the crowd was lining up for the ritual.
Hena cleared her throat. Excused herself to help.
Get it together, she told herself as she walked away.
After the rituals concluded, friends and cousins of the bride and groom took to the dance floor for choreographed routines.
The afternoon went smoothly. So smoothly that when the emcee announced the final slideshow before dinner, she was pleasantly surprised at how punctual they’d been.
This was the first event of the week that had stayed perfectly on schedule.
She searched for Haris and spotted him sitting with his mother.
It seemed like Auntie Nipa was keeping a tight watch on her son tonight, which meant Hena wouldn’t be able to sidebar with him quite yet, but they did need to talk.
She was sure the piece of gossip Irum had shared—about Nasir wandering the streets of Las Olas—was baseless chatter.
But given what Milcheck had said about Nasir’s phone pinging an hour south of the hotel, they needed to take it seriously.