“Why are you here?” Ammi asked.
“To take you to your room. You need to rest.”
“You should leave. You’re not safe.”
“They’ve got plenty of security. Lulu said she’s getting more people to come tonight.”
“We need one for you in particular. You don’t have anyone.” She let out an agitated breath. “The marriage is official now. Why stay?”
“You want me to hop on a flight back to California right now?”
“I’ve heard the chatter. The man who tried to attack you. He’s back.” She shifted in her wheelchair. “It’s foolhardy to stay. Charter a private plane if you must. I’ll make some calls. We’ll set you up with security back home. It’s best to be safe.”
“What are you talking about? The shaadi is tonight.”
“Hena, be reasonable.”
“Iambeing reasonable,” Hena replied. “Whoever is trying to mess with me, they don’t get to win. I’m not going anywhere.”
“You are as stubborn as you ever were.”
“Hmm.” Hena pursed her lips. “I wonder where I get it from?”
Ammi exhaled, shaking her head, but Hena caught the faintest hint of a smile.
Back in the suite, she helped her mother into bed, then headed to the kitchen to get water. When she returned, her mother was on a video call with Gita.
Gita was raspy, but she was chatting easily.
“The doctor said ibuprofen should do the trick,” Gita was saying. “I don’t know why they won’t let me out already.”
“Patience is a virtue, Gita. Hospitals take the time they take.”
“Says the woman who was ready to bolt from the hospital room with her IVs still attached?”
Her mother laughed, and Hena felt some of the tension in her easing at the sight of her mother truly relaxed. When Ammi hung up, Hena regarded her thoughtfully.
“You and Gita get along so well,” she said.
“She’s a good girl.”
“I’ve never seen you speak so easily with anyone.”
Her mother considered this. “I suppose I see myself in her,” she told Hena. “She was in a bad marriage much like I was, but unlike me, she had the good sense to leave as soon as she realized it.”
“Whydidyou marry Abu?” Hena asked, seizing an opening she’d never had before.
A flutter of nerves rose in Hena as her mother considered the question. She waited for a scowl. A sharp retort.
“Why I married him is no mystery,” her mother said at last. “He was charming. Handsome. He had a charisma that drew everyone to him. The bigger question is, once the mask came off, why did I stay?”
“It’s not easy to leave,” Hena said. “Not someone like him.”
“Some people leave, though, don’t they?” Her mother looked toward the window, then back at her. “Gita did. The one time I tried, early on in the marriage, I barely made it out of the driveway before he dragged me back in and—” She exhaled sharply. “No use dredging it back up. The long and short of it is, after he was done, he let me know what he’d do to my sister if I pulled something like that again.”
He threatened Khala? A tremor went through Hena. “That’s horrific.”
“That was that.” Her mother shrugged. “You wouldn’t believe how fast I folded.”
