“You know what’s going on?” Nandita’s voice surprised them both, and Claire sat up quickly. She was standing at the door, her usually glossy sheet of black hair dull and falling out of a messy braid. Her eyes had dark shadows beneath them. She hadn’t been sleeping—in fact, Nandita didn’t look like she would ever sleep again. “Father wanted to get me back to India, so he persuaded Ravi to make me fall in love with him? I don’t get it. It doesn’t make sense.”
Satish crossed to Nandita, put his arm around her, and led her to the couch. “I don’t think love is ever part of one of Father’s plans.” She sat between him and Claire. “I can tell you what I know, but a lot of it isn’t pleasant. Are you sure you’re ready to hear it?”
She took a deep breath and seemed to hold it before she nodded, letting it out with a loud sigh. “Yes. Tell me. I want to know.” Claire took one of Nandita’s hands and Satish took the other.
“A long time ago, when you were very young, Father asked me to help him make your match. Yours was the first match I was involved in—I was too young to contribute to our sisters—but Father said that, since I would be head of a household one day, I would need to understand what was involved to carry on the tradition. Father was surprisingly amenable to my suggestions. You see, I knew you so well, Nandita, even back then. Your letters were my window into your character, and you were never one to hold anything back.” He chuckled a little, and Claire was surprised to see Nandita trying to suppress a grin. “I knew you would find life in a small village difficult. You had an adventurous spirit and a wandering soul. I thought you’d do well with an American match, but I was convinced father would say no. Praveen’s parents are well-connected back home though, and although they weren't wealthy, their network would be indispensable. Father couldn’t resist.”
Nandita leaned back against the couch. “No one ever told me that. I always thought Praveen lived in India. I wrote him letters to an Indian address.”
“Mother didn’t want you to know,” Satish said. “She was devastated at the thought of you leaving her. She wanted you to grow up without the prospect of that painful separation hanging over your head. The letters were re-routed through Praveen’s family in India, as were his to you.”
“The escape money—it was for me to take to my marriage, not to use to run away,” Nandita said.
“Escape money?” Satish asked, but she shook her head, dismissing her last comment.
“It doesn’t matter.” She moved to sit on the edge of the coffee table facing Satish. “This doesn’t make any sense, though. Why didn’t you tell me this when I was writing to you—when I was telling you I wanted to marry Sachin?”
Satish smiled at her. “Would it have made any difference? Would you have married Praveen just to escape Father? You considered him just as evil as Father for engaging in such an effort to… what were the words you used? ‘Destroy all sparks?’”
“No, but you could have told me after, when you knew Sachin and I weren’t together anymore—after I was in school here and everything had changed.”
“For what purpose, Nandita?” Satish sighed, “It would have changed nothing. I was trying to give you the freedom to navigate your own life without interference from me. Granted, I didn’t always manage it, but I tried.”
Claire grabbed his hand and squeezed. “You did an incredible job, Satish. It wasn’t easy.”
The young woman chuckled. “I think what you mean is that I wasn’t easy.” She turned to her brother. “I wasn’t easy, Satish. I was naive and selfish. You were trying so hard to do right by me, and I took you for granted—I took you both for granted. I’m sorry for that.”
Satish patted her knee. “Nan, I wouldn’t trade our life with you for the world and neither would Claire. Would you, love?”
He raised an eyebrow in challenge, and she laughed. “Of course not. I love having you here, Nandita, and now I’m going to make us all a cup of tea to prove it.” She stood and moved into the kitchen, trying to give the two some space. The next round of questions was going to be much trickier to answer.
“So, why Ravi?” Nandita asked the question Claire had been waiting for. “Why did Father reach out to Ravi?”
Satish pulled his hands through his hair and took a deep breath. Claire could see the stress on his face. “Now, keep in mind that I haven’t spoken to Father. I have only spoken to Mother, who confirmed it wasn’t her Claire had been exchanging emails with. We considered it was possible Claire was emailing Ravi directly, but that didn’t make any sense. It was an Indian email provider, and besides, what would be in it for him?” Nandita nodded her agreement, but her face was still filled with questions. “Mother could only tell me that Father had been raving lately about getting you back to India. It had become an obsession. His intention was to shame you publicly, so the community would forgive you. Mother says he is struggling in many ways, with his business, his reputation, and money. She seems to believe his bizarre reasoning was that he thought he had lost me, but he could get you to return to restore the honor of the family.”
Claire saw Nandita shiver, and she felt a stab of fear herself at what Satish’s father would have put her through had she returned. Even Satish had been blind to the depth of his father’s viciousness. He wasn’t telling Nandita everything his mother and various relatives he had contacted since had told him, but suffice it to say that, had Nandita returned to India, she would have suffered terribly under his wrath. Satish had already contacted his lawyer about sponsoring her visa, but they were lost for what to do with her in the eighteen months it would take to process. They had a rough path ahead of them, but first they had to deal with the fallout from the mess his father had already created.
“So again, why Ravi? What did father expect to happen, and why would Ravi go along with it?” Nandita looked over at Claire, who lowered her head to the tea making. This was the tough part.
“We don’t know. We haven’t been able to figure that part out yet.” Satish squeezed Nan’s hand. “What we do know is that Praveen’s family was furious when you ran away and refused the match. You have to understand, Nan, this match had been planned for ten years. There were repercussions. A lot of favors were dealt out over the years under the expectation of the match with you. All of that collapsed when you ran away, and Praveen’s family suffered—not only emotionally from the shame, but also financially and socially.”
Claire brought a cup of tea to the coffee table and placed it next to Nandita. Would she get it? Did she understand?
“So, when I ran away, I wasn’t just making a choice in a vacuum. I affected the lives of those around me—even strangers—in some pretty awful ways. All in all, I’m a pretty terrible person.”
Claire dropped to her knees next to Satish and rubbed Nandita’s knee. “No, sweetie, that’s not true! You didn’t know any of this! How could you? Satish shielded you from this information on purpose, because you had to make the choice that was right for you. You didn’t choose to be betrothed to this man.”
“So, Ravi came to find me on father’s orders to bring me back to India? For what?” Nandita leaned back against the couch and folded her arms across her chest. She looked so very young and vulnerable. “Revenge—did he want revenge? He wanted to hurt me and get me back for what I did to his family?”
Claire watched Satish to see if he could handle this one—she had no idea what to say. He stayed quiet for a few minutes, reaching over to rub her back in distraction.
“Truthfully, I don’t know, Nan. You would have to speak to Praveen.” She shook her head violently. “Here’s what I think, and I may be wrong: Praveen’s parents have a strong influence over him. He may be just as in the dark as you about what happened between our families. He was probably doing as he was told, and he may have only just found out your true identity. He may have been tricked into it, or Father may have threatened him. We just don’t know.”
“I know something, though.” Nandita and Satish both turned to Claire. “I kno
w real love when I see it. I know real love and real pain. That man is in love with you, Nandita, and his heart is breaking.”
She scoffed and stood quickly, nearly knocking her tea onto the faded, but expensive, Oriental rug.
“Wrong,” she said, her voice like slowly melting steel. “You’re wrong. He lied to me the entire time. He’s had that photo forever, and he knew who I was the day he started stalking me.” Her voice hitched with a sob. “I don’t know him at all. Do you realize I never even knew his last name?” She had strong feelings for this Ravi guy—the idea of trusting him after this must have been terrifying. “He didn’t like me. He stalked me, pretended he hadn’t, and then pretended to fall in love with me for revenge. I never want to see him again.” She stormed back into the bedroom and slammed the door.
Claire sighed and picked up the still-steaming cup of tea to dump it in the sink. “Well, that went well,” she said. “What’s next?”
Satish dropped his head into his hands. “I honestly don’t know, Claire. I honestly don’t know.”
44
Ravi – The Test
Ravi had been locked in his room since Nandita had walked out of here—forever this time. He had no doubts about the way she felt about him now. She hated him, and she should.
When she had asked the dreaded question, he’d been desperate for something to say that would wipe the look of fear from her face. He'd seen her angry and he'd seen her upset, but he'd never seen fear in her eyes. It made his heart hurt.
He wasn’t good with words. Due to his introverted nature, he hadn’t had the social practice required to develop the smooth tongue of a salesman or CEO, but that had been the most important moment in his life, so far. He’d needed the perfect combination of words to explain everything that had happened and all he was feeling.
He had said nothing, though. He had willed his mouth to open and searched his brain for the perfect words, but at that moment, he’d had nothing. He’d just stared at her as she gave him one final look of disgust and turned away to leave forever.
There was banging on his door and he ignored it. Tammy had been trying to talk to him for hours, but he wasn’t interested. He'd kept secrets from Nandita and from Tammy. She'd want to know why he’d let her believe he was gay for so many years, and this he didn’t know how to explain. Since he hadn’t intended on having any female company, it had just seemed easier.
“I’m not letting you in, Tammy,” he said, raising his voice so she'd be able to hear him through the door.
“If you’re not letting me in, I’m not taking your dog out again. When she pisses all over the floors, I’m not going to clean it up. I’ll be taking the damage from your security deposit.”
Ravi sighed. She sounded mad. He dragged himself from the comfortable embrace of his bed and made his way to the door, which he’d barely opened before Sandy pushed her wet nose through and jumped onto his bed, her collar jingling.
“I guessed she missed you,” Tammy said, smiling at him.
“Go ahead,” he said, his eyes a challenge. He stood blocking the doorway—neutral territory.
“Go ahead what?” She looked genuinely confused.
“Go ahead and yell at me for keeping secrets—for letting you believe something that wasn’t true.”
Tammy shook her head and blew air through her lips in frustration as she pushed Ravi aside, came into his room, and flopped down to join Sandy on the bed. The dog plopped her head into her lap immediately. “You think I care about any of that?” His roommate scratched behind Sandy’s floppy ears and waited for him to answer. When he didn’t, she went on, “Seriously Ravi, I just watched two gorgeous people who are completely and totally in love with each other fall apart over a damn photo. I need to know what the photo is and what the hell just happened. I’m going to explode if you don’t explain this to me—and I’m going to help you fix it. It is unacceptable that you would destroy my belief that love as strong as I just witnessed can weather any storm. I would never be able to watch The Notebook again!”
He owed her an explanation. Ravi leaned against the door frame, folded his arms across his chest, and told her everything, filling in the gaps he'd left from their prior conversation on the subject. He even explained the horrible parts, about how anger and curiosity played as big of a part as the blackmail. She listened without saying a word, and when he finished telling the seemingly implausible story of his weird, screwed up life, he moved to the bed and sat next to her gently.
“So, I’ve screwed it all up. She hates me and she’ll never speak to me again. Her father will probably release the damning evidence he has on my parents, and they’ll be ruined and maybe even go to jail. I’ll be so wracked with guilt over what I’ve done to them that I’ll give up on everything. I’ll go to Penn with you, finish my residency, become a doctor, and try to give my parents some shred of happiness. They’ll find me some woman from back home to marry, and I’ll marry her and try to forget everything.”
“The hell you will!” The anger in Tammy’s voice surprised him. She stood and started pacing the room. “You think I’m going to let you ruin my silly dream that true love exists? My soulmate is out there somewhere, Ravi. You know how I know? Because today, I saw what soulmates look like, and if you, of all people, the smartest guy I know, not to mention the best-looking guy I know, can’t keep his soul mate around, then life is just too horrible to contemplate. I would have to chuck myself in Carnegie Lake in front of the rowing crew during practice. Do you want to be responsible for my death, Ravi?”
He stared at his roommate. She was on fire. If he didn’t know her so well, he’d probably be a little nervous, but he knew her well enough to take her seriously. Their respect for intelligence was mutual, and she had it in bundles.
“What do I do?” he asked. “You saw the way she stormed out of here—she’s so angry with me. She’ll never listen to my frail attempt at an explanation, and she'll never respect me when she finds out how weak I am.”
Tammy pointed a finger in his face, raising her voice again. “You are not weak, and I never want to hear you say that again. You are kind, thoughtful, and doing your best in a shitty situation, as we all are. There are shitty people around us who make us do shitty things we don’t want to do. It’s the nature of nature—you learned that in class, you idiot. You aren’t weak, you’re biologically programmed, and sometimes that programming forces you to make bad choices. You can change it, though, Ravi. You know you can. We can get your girl back! We just have to put our heads together, and what could be more explosive than our two heads put together?”
Was it possible? Could he explain himself to Nan? There was a tiny flutter of hope in the bottom of his belly. He could do it. He wouldn't lose her. “I don’t even have to be a doctor if I don’t want to be one.” He hadn’t meant to say that out loud, and Tammy glanced over as she continued her pacing.
“One thing at a time, sweet Jesus,” she said. “If you can’t speak to her right now, who can you speak to? You need some help from behind enemy lines. If you can enlist someone who will hear you out without all of the emotion, they might be able to intervene and help you figure out how to get her back. Is there anyone you can think of?”
Ravi jumped off the bed. “Yes! There is, Tammy, you genius! There’s someone I can talk to who already knows everything and who has a huge influence over her: her brother!”
Tammy rushed over and grabbed Ravi by the shoulders. “Go get him,” she said, shaking him and making his head rattle. “Go get him and tell him everything! Bare your bloodied soul! He must know how his sister feels about you—it’s written all over her damned perfect face!” She stepped back and folded her arms across her chest, giving him her stern doctor look again. “You have one mission here, Doctor, and one mission only: go get your Nandita back!”
45
Ravi – The Quest
A scowling secretary led Ravi to Satish’s office. It hadn’t been difficult to contact him; a few Google searches a
nd Ravi had discovered he was a pretty big deal in the corporate world. He'd been polite on the phone, but guarded. Now he was here, and he was terrified.
The secretary tapped lightly on the door, and at Satish’s “come in,” she opened the door and motioned Ravi forward.
“I’ll fetch coffee, Mr. Bhatt,” the secretary said before rushing away, leaving Ravi standing awkwardly in the empty doorway. Satish jumped up from behind his desk and crossed the room to offer his hand. He didn’t look angry and was smiling at him, perhaps a little sadly. Ravi accepted the proffered hand and was surprised when, after a few pumps, Satish drew him into a quick man hug and patted him on the back before stepping away.
“It’s good to see you again, Praveen. I’m sorry it’s under these circumstances. Our other meeting was happier.” Satish stepped back behind his desk and gestured to the seat in front of it.
Ravi sat and said, “It’s actually Ravi now, and I think our other meeting was worse. I’m so sorry you had to witness my temper, sir.”
“Yes, well, we will discuss all of that later—and it’s Satish, not sir. That wasn't the meeting I was referring to, though. You don’t remember, do you?”
Ravi felt muddled. He wracked his brain, trying to come up with another meeting, but he was sure he had never seen Satish, other than in photos, before that day in front of the restaurant. “No, I’m sorry. I don’t.”
Satish opened his office drawer and withdrew a photo, which he slid across the desk. Ravi picked it up: it was him as a young boy wearing his school uniform from Lawrenceville.
“You were a very intense child—very thoughtful and solemn,” Satish said, “which was a perfect match for my sister’s exuberant willfulness. You would bring out the best in each other.”
Uncharted (Jersey Girls Book 3) Page 20