by Nalini Singh
Seagrass was located about two hours outside Auckland.
When she checked, she saw that today’s date as well as tomorrow and the day after were blacked out. The place was booked.
“This is a long shot,” Nayna said to Raj. “But it’s where she went with her last boyfriend.”
Raj leaned over her chair, his arms braced on the back. “Owner’s number is listed, but there’s no information about if there’s a direct line to the cottage.”
“I’ll call the owner, say I’m trying to touch base with my sister and I think she’s at the cottage.” If Madhuri wasn’t there, no harm, no foul.
If she was, however…
Nayna crossed her fingers behind her back and made the call. The owner was suspicious at first, but softened when Nayna stayed polite and threw in phrases like “family emergency” and “no cell phone reception.”
“I still can’t give out information on my guests, dear,” the other woman said at last, but Nayna could feel her wavering. “And we don’t have a landline out there.”
That was when Nayna had a burst of genius. “She usually uses my phone number as her emergency contact on any forms that require it,” she told the owner. “If that’s on your records, would that ease your mind?”
The owner didn’t say anything, but Nayna heard clicking on the other end. “Well, I’m so glad you mentioned that,” she said at last. “Your name and phone number are right here on her reservation, so I think it’s all right to tell you your sister is at Seagrass. I hope the news isn’t too bad.”
“Thank you so much for your help.” Nayna asked a few more questions to ensure she understood how to reach the seaside cottage, then hung up.
Raj already had his keys in hand. “Let me call Navin, make sure he’s home to deal with anything that comes up, then we can go. My grandparents are there too, but they’re elderly. I don’t want them panicking if Dad needs medical help.”
His brother proved to be at home and willing to do what was necessary.
“Being half-drunk and out of reach while Dad was undergoing major surgery screwed Navin’s head on straight in at least one way,” Raj said to her as they walked out to his truck. “He’s become way more reliable.”
Nayna waited to reply until they were both in the truck and belted in. “What about Komal?” Despite her strong negative reaction to the other woman the first time they’d met, after learning of Navin’s partying ways, Nayna had come to have a certain sympathy for Komal.
It couldn’t have been fun for a young bride to spend endless weekends alone while her husband hung out with “the boys.” No wonder Komal had started going out to parties of her own. It didn’t excuse her abrasive and often unkind nature, but it gave Nayna insight into the reason she might’ve become that way.
“Hard to tell,” Raj said. “Komal’s been picking up extra shifts at work, so I haven’t seen her much.”
“I guess their relationship is their private business,” Nayna said. “I wish I could say that about Madhuri and Dr. Patel and Madhuri’s lover, but this has the potential to devastate my parents and grandmother.” Aji had been bragging about her granddaughter’s upcoming nuptials ever since the engagement. “I can’t sit by and do nothing.”
And if the news got out, it would reflect badly on her too. More, it would create gossip about the Sens and whether their son was marrying into a family with bad blood.
Nayna’s hands curled into fists on her thighs.
45
Seagrass Tears
In full fury when she got out of the truck two hours later, Nayna strode down the sandy path to the cottage without waiting for Raj.
The cottage was picturesque, surrounded by the waving seagrasses of its name, as well as other foliage designed to survive the saltwater-laced winds that came off the ocean that crashed gently to shore on her right side. She was about to knock on the door when something made her look to the water… and there was Madhuri, sitting on the sand in the dark, her knees tucked up under her chin and her arms wrapped around her legs.
Her hair flew back in the sea winds, knotted and wild.
She looked so very alone that Nayna’s anger broke under the power of the love she felt for her mixed-up, beautiful mess of a sister. “Will you wait here?” she asked Raj, who’d caught up to her.
A nod. “I’ll see if there’s anyone else in the cottage.”
Leaving him to the task, she took off her shoes and socks and left them on the edge of the sand. That sand was soft and sparkling between her toes when she started the short walk to Madhuri, the grains yet warm from the sun. But the sea air carried enough of a chill that she regretted not bringing a cardigan.
Taking a seat beside Madhuri, who looked at her with a devastated face, her beauty buried under shadows and darkness, Nayna just opened her arms. Her sister fell into them, wrapping her own arms tight around Nayna and sobbing. She tried to speak, but her words were unintelligible. Nayna just held her, stroked her back, and waited.
Finally, when she’d cried herself out, Madhuri raised her head and, voice tear-rough, said, “Sorry about the mascara stains.”
“I’ll survive.” She wiped her thumbs under her sister’s eyes. “Are you truly in love with someone else?”
Fisting her hand in the sand, Madhuri watched it slide through her fingers. “I was stupid,” she said. “Bailey messaged me. I hadn’t bothered to tell him about the engagement, and he asked if I wanted to come out here for a good time.”
Nayna frowned. “You hadn’t seen him until all this?”
Avoiding the question, Madhuri said, “We were never serious, only friends with benefits.” Her lips twisted. “I don’t know if we were actually friends either, or just bed buddies.”
Nayna didn’t interrupt, though she was unable to see how a text from an ex had led to Madhuri breaking up her engagement.
“After he messaged, I called him, and I told him about Sandesh.” Another fistful of sand, Madhuri watching the grains fall with too much attention. “And Bailey, he was jealous. I got all… I don’t know.” A shrug. “I went to him. And we had a night together.”
“Was that last night?” Nayna asked, a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Madhuri shook her head. “It was two weeks ago,” she admitted, shame writ large on her features.
“Maddie.”
Her sister kicked at the sand, squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them again. “Other than when we drove here, I only saw him two more times.” She began to draw in the sand. “He’s always been charming. Charming and funny and full of ideas. And Sandesh… He’s so staid, so solid.”
“I thought those were the things you liked about him.”
“I got blinded, Nayna.” Madhuri drew a heart in the sand, and in that heart she wrote M Loves S. “The shiny and the sparkly. That’s who I am. No substance at all.”
Frowning, Nayna took her sister’s hand. “Those aren’t your words. Who said that to you?” Who’d been so cruel to her sister?
“Vinod emailed me. Can you believe it?” Huge, tear-drenched eyes. “He heard I was getting married and wanted to congratulate me. I saw his name in my inbox, and all at once, I had his voice in my head, screaming at me for being useless and stupid. And I thought of how smart Sandesh is and my chest went all hot and painful, and then Bailey got in touch.”
So help her, Nayna would punch Vinod if he ever had the misfortune to appear in her path. “Maddie, you can’t let that bastard destroy your future. You make Sandesh laugh, and I’ve never ever seen him do that with anyone else. You give a joy to his life that he never before had. That’s a gift.”
Madhuri’s lower lip trembled. “Ma and Pa will never forgive me for this.”
“They don’t know,” Nayna told her sister. “Sandesh came to me.”
Two more tears leaked out from Madhuri’s eyes. “Do you think he could ever forgive me?”
Nayna considered her words with care. “I think that man would forgive you almost anything,
” she said quietly, “but if this wasn’t a one-off mistake you made because of how Vinod hurt you in the past, if you aren’t sure you can be faithful to him, you need to walk away.”
She held her sister’s eyes, no give in her voice this time because they were talking about a good man’s happiness. “He’s not the kind of man who would bounce back, do you understand? He’s forty-eight years old, and this is the first time he’s fallen in love. It’s probably going to be the only time.”
Her sister swallowed hard, her voice shaky. “I need help, don’t I? Like from a counselor or someone?”
“Yes, Maddie, I think so.” Nayna’s heart squeezed at seeing the depth of the wounds on Madhuri’s psyche. That her sister had also caused wounds on others, that didn’t negate her own hurts. “I think the one thing Sandesh knows how to be,” she told her sister, “is loyal. But don’t break him, Madhuri. Because I really think you could.”
Her sister began to cry again, and Nayna took her into her arms. This time, however, it was short, and then Madhuri leaned her head against Nayna’s shoulder and said, “I kicked Bailey out an hour after we arrived. He’d spent that entire hour chatting about how, now that I was free, we would have fun like before. No strings, no drama.”
A self-mocking laugh. “All the panic and confusion in my head suddenly cleared. I saw past the flash and the charm and I saw the immature boy within. And I realized what I’d given up when I left Sandesh.” A shudder. “What should I do? Should I call him?” Her gaze begged Nayna for an answer.
Nayna thought of the distraught man at her door, the way he’d gone so painfully quiet by the time Raj took him home. “Yes. Put his mind at rest, tell him you’re coming back. And ask him to book a hotel room.”
Madhuri’s head jerked up, nearly clipping Nayna on the chin. “What?”
“I think you two need time alone.” Nayna smoothed Madhuri’s hair back from her face. “Tell him to make sure the hotel room isn’t within surveillance reach of an auntie. Pick an obscure bed-and-breakfast maybe.”
“He’s really old-fashioned, Ninu. Like the guys in those books you like.”
“I know, but he’s also heartbroken right now,” Nayna pointed out. “If you want this to work, you need to be honest with him, tell him everything. And you need to forge a bond with him that’s as honest. I don’t mean sex necessarily. I mean being together, just you two.”
Madhuri’s lower lip trembled again, tears filling her eyes. “What if he tosses me away afterward?”
As her last husband had done.
As her own parents had done when she hadn’t acted as they wanted.
Nayna’s eyes stung. “I don’t know Sandesh as well as you,” she said softly, “but he came to me rather than go to our parents because he wants to be able to forget this ever happened. That doesn’t mean he couldn’t turn out to be a bastard—and if he does, you call me and I’ll get you out. But maybe it means he’s willing to try.”
It took ten more minutes of gentle encouragement before Madhuri picked up the phone and called her fiancé.
* * *
Two and a half hours later, they dropped Madhuri in front of a tiny hotel owned by an otherwise retired couple. Located approximately forty minutes from central Auckland, and to the west of the city, it was private, with small rooms, but had access to walking paths through native forest.
Madhuri’s maybe-fiancé was waiting for her on the doorstep.
Dr. Sandesh Patel was no longer wild-eyed, but he had new lines on his features.
Madhuri got out of the truck, hesitated for a second, then ran straight to him, throwing her arms around him as she sobbed. Sandesh’s own arms snapped around her at once, and in that moment, Nayna had hope. When his eyes met hers, she saw both gratitude and the same bright flicker of hope.
The doctor was a smart man. And from what Nayna had overheard during Madhuri’s phone call, her sister had spilled everything already. Including the fears and torments that had led to her self-destructive and hurtful actions. That he held Madhuri so close now told Nayna he loved her. Enough to forgive. Enough to give her the safety and stability she needed.
Leaving the two, she got back in the truck with Raj.
“Nayna,” Raj said ten minutes later. “You’re sure?”
Her skin chilled. She knew at once what he was asking and why. “I’m sure,” she said, emotion raw in her voice. “I want to marry you, Raj. I’m not Madhuri—I’m not mixed up and worried about my choice.”
Raj nodded, but they didn’t speak the entire rest of the way to her place.
His father’s illness and their resulting decision to marry, Nayna realized with a numbness in her cheeks, would always lie between them. It didn’t make any difference what she said. Raj would have to spend a lifetime knowing that his wife hadn’t come to him on her own, free of all outside interference.
Nayna didn’t know how to fix that.
Once inside her place, Raj took her face into his hands and kissed her until he was her breath, his body her only anchor in a tumbling universe.
Nayna didn’t remember taking off her clothes or stripping him of his, but his big body was moving over her, branding her, all silken skin and heat. She moved with him, her hands clawing at his back and her voice throaty as she whispered his name. He stroked her, caressed her, pushed her over the edge not once but twice. And in all that time, he didn’t speak.
Raj and Nayna, they’d lost each other in the silence.
46
The Villainess Strikes
Raj got home late that Monday after a hard day at the site, his body heavy with tiredness. Despite that, he planned to shower, then go see Nayna. He hadn’t been able to go to her on Sunday, having already promised his grandparents he’d take them to visit various friends, and he hated how they’d left things. Madhuri’s actions, her hesitation, it had stirred everything up again and he’d let it get to him.
He wasn’t scared Nayna would run; she was too honest and loyal a woman to do that to him. But did she want to run? That was the worry that had blindsided him all over again, and it was his fucking problem. He had to get over it or he’d be responsible for the ruination of his marriage.
After locking his truck, he decided to look in on his parents.
He found them in the main lounge, watching their favorite drama. His father was looking encouragingly hale and hearty, though his recovery would be a long process.
They waved him in when he arrived, their expressions solemn. Then, for the first time in memory, they turned off the drama in the middle and asked him to sit. Chest suddenly cold, Raj took a seat across from them.
“What is it?” he asked, keeping an ear open for the rest of the household.
He had a gut feeling this was a private discussion he didn’t want anyone else to overhear.
“Son,” his father said, “I hope this is all wrong information, but Komal has a friend, and this friend said she saw Madhuri holding hands with another man on the beach.”
For God’s sake, that beach had been on the edge of nowhere. “Where is Komal?” He had to initiate damage control, stop his sister-in-law and her friend from spreading the news. The resulting gossip and whispers would hurt too many people, most of all his Nayna.
“Your brother took her out.” His mother, always the diplomat, didn’t add anything further, but it was obvious to Raj that his parents had made the suggestion and Navin had taken the hint.
“There’s no problem,” Raj said. “Sandesh and Madhuri are together right now.”
His mother put a hand to her chest and exhaled. “Oh, I’m happy to hear that. I was worrying so much about Shilpa and Gaurav.” A shake of her head. “Your Nayna is a lovely girl. Her sister though… But it’s all fine, and we can focus on the wedding again.”
Raj looked from one parent to the other, his chest yet cold. “What if everyone finds out?” he asked. “What if Komal spreads the gossip?”
“That girl won’t say a word.” His mother’s voice, sterner
than he’d heard it since he was ten and decided to climb up to the roof. “I told her not to say a word, because this is about family, and we don’t bring down family.”
Rising to his feet, Raj lifted her up off her feet and gave her a huge kiss on the cheek. “Thank you, Ma. Dad.” He knew his father would’ve been right there, backing his mother.
His father smiled and waved off his words. “Turn on the TV, Geeta. We can catch up.”
“Raj! Your aji made your favorite green pumpkin curry,” his mother called out as his father went for the remote. “You better eat some or you know she’ll singe your ears.”
He could just hear his grandmother’s voice: Oho! My food is no longer good enough for Mr. Big Construction Boss? I see. Now you only eat in fancy restaurants. And to think I went to the vegetable store especially to get this for you. How quickly children forget what we do for them.
His lips curved. “I’ll raid the kitchen after my shower.”
Leaving his parents watching their show, he headed out the back door and toward his flat. He decided to call Nayna along the way, relay the Komal situation and that it had been handled by his mother. The phone rang and rang on the other end without an answer. He left a voice mail, then sent her a text. At the last minute, he attached a picture of his chest from back when they’d first been flirting.
Nayna could never resist replying to those, not even if she was mad at him.
But when he left the shower ten minutes later, his phone remained dark. Telling himself not to worry—she was probably finishing up some work and had her phone on silent—he got dressed and walked up to the kitchen of the main house.
Despite the name, pumpkin curry as his grandmother made it had no curry powder in it. The unripe young pumpkin was washed, then cut and cored without removing the thin green skin, before being gently sautéed until it softened. Other than a tiny bit of oil to brown the onions at the start of the process, the only other things involved were fresh chopped chili, crushed garlic, fenugreek seeds, and mustard seeds.