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“No wonder you’re the only one who’s still in touch with her. You accept everything she says without pushing back.”
“I do not!” cried Reeva, stung.
“Well, none of this is a surprise, really, is it?” continued Sita. “We’d better just do what we always do and handle this alone.”
“Satya Auntie can help,” offered Jaya. “She’s such a babe; you’ll love her, Reeva. Ultimate Gwyneth Paltrow vibes.”
“That’s Dad’s sister?”
“Yes,” said Sita. “Which you’d know if you were here last night. Oh my god, chill, you don’t need to look so upset—I was just saying it would have been good if you could have been here. Anyway, go freshen up or whatever, and we’ll fill you in on what we know.”
—
Reeva sat downin the middle of her dad’s bed and closed her eyes. She’d been in the house for only twenty minutes and already she felt nothing like the thirty-four-year-old woman she was meant to be. Instead, she felt exactly like the teenager she thought she’d left behind. She’d spent a fortune on therapy; howwas shestillbattling the same insecurities that had plagued her since puberty? This was not how things were meant to go. But then again, nothing was really turning out how it was meant to.
On second thought, Reeva wasn’t sure it ever had. She’d been so naive when she’d gone to university, thinking that finally her life would start to take on the same shiny appeal that Jaya’s and Sita’s had. But it hadn’t. She’d felt just as out of place at Cambridge as she had at school. It didn’t make sense; she’d had as privileged an upbringing as most of the people there, and she was just as smart as them. But for some reason, Reeva had never felt comfortable around those confident beings who all seemed to know how to make pithy yet intellectual comments in seminars, exactly what one was meant to wear to an all-night ball, and most daunting of all, how to start sexual relationships with each other.
It had only been when Reeva had met Rakesh at the end of her second year that things had started to improve. With him, she’d finally felt seen. He was an only child, and with no experience of what complex families looked like, he’d calmly accepted her bizarre family setup as normal. He’d never judged her or expected her to be a certain way—even though his mum had all Saraswati’s albums and could be described as a legit superfan. He’d quietly taken Reeva under his wing, introducing her to his friend group and encouraging her to apply for internships at Magic Circle firms. When she’d succeeded, he’d been truly thrilled for her. The only downside had been that he hadn’t gotten along with Lakshmi—the best thing to come out of said law internship. But Reeva hadn’t particularly minded; she didn’t need her boyfriend and best friend to like each other. What mattered was that she finally had a boyfriend and a best friend and that they’d never leave her.
Until nine years later when Rakesh had cheated on her with her little sister. Just thinking about it brought the brutal agony straight back to Reeva. She couldn’t believe how much it still hurt. The pain was as physical as it was emotional. She hugged her knees into her chest and squeezed her eyes shut. She didn’t want to relive the memory, but she didn’t have a choice. Her mind was replaying it yet again.
Her mum’s wedding. Udaipur. They’d all been at a fancy hotel in the middle of the lake. Even though it was a weeklong celebration, Reeva had been having a surprisingly good time. It was just so beautiful, and the whole setting shouted romance. She felt grateful to have Rakesh by her side, and she loved how well he got along with her family. They’d been a little group of their own—Reeva and Rakesh, Sita and Nitin, and Jaya—sitting together at all the events, with Reeva happily spending afternoons curled up with Sita and the babies.
But while she’d been bonding with her nieces, Rakesh had been bonding with her sister. Reeva had been so embarrassingly naive. She’d thought it was sweet that he was hanging out with Jaya, who must have felt lonely without a plus-one. It wasn’t till the last day that she’d found out the truth. They’d been having a goodbye brunch on the Sunday morning after the official wedding when Reeva had seen a message from Jaya flash up on Rakesh’s phone. He’d been getting her dosas from the buffet, so she’d opened his phone to read it. She’d known his passcode for years—he’d never bothered to hide it from her—and Reeva had assumed Jaya wanted something from the breakfast. When she’d seen it was a picture message, her stomach had tightened. And when she’d opened it, everything had changed.
Reeva had run to the bathroom, with the phone still in her hand, and projectile vomited. Her sister had sent her boyfriend anude. And when she’d scrolled up their messages, she could see it wasn’t a mistake. Jaya and Rakesh had been meeting secretly the whole week. Their messages before Udaipur had been practically nonexistent, but after the pool party on the first night, they’d started arranging to meet. In secret. The man she’d been with for almost a decade, who’d become a part of her family, was fucking her actual family.
Everything was a horrible blur from that moment on. Rakesh had tried to deny everything, as though Reeva was that stupid. Jaya had sobbed hysterically and made the whole thing about her. Reeva had locked herself in the bedroom, no longer caring about missing her flight home. She’d stayed there for three days, sobbing and barely eating. She was at rock bottom and things couldn’t get worse. Until she let Rakesh into the room, and he destroyed the fragment that was left of her world by telling her he wanted to be with Jaya. Just when Reeva had needed him the most, he’d left her for her younger sister.
It was betrayal upon betrayal, and for reasons Reeva couldn’t understand, Sita had taken Jaya’s side. She’d found out about Jaya and Rakesh beforehand and hadhelped themcover it all up. When Reeva had confronted her about it, she hadn’t even apologized. She’d told her to move on. “I know it’s not easy, but you can’t be selfish, Reeva. It’s not just about you. Jaya’s family—you need to forgive her. What are you going to do, never speak to her again?”
That had been exactly what Reeva had planned to do, and she’d kept it up for four years. She’d ignored all of Jaya’s calls and texts for the first year, mostly deleting them without reading them. Slowly, they’d petered out. The last time Reeva had heard from Jaya was at the end of the second year, when she’d asked if she was ready to talk about what had happened. Reeva had not been ready—how could she be after Jaya had ripped her past,present, and future apart?—so she hadn’t replied. She hadn’t spoken to Jaya since, until ten minutes ago, when she’d had the naked audacity tohugher.
Reeva closed her eyes and focused on inhaling and exhaling deeply. She felt herself come back to the present moment. She wasn’t in Udaipur having her heart ripped out of her body. She was in Leicester. She tried to remember everything her therapist had told her. Rakesh choosing Jaya did not mean that Reeva was not worthy. She was enough. She was not going to be abandoned again. Their relationship ending had given Reeva an extra four years to live her life on her own terms, to grow, and to realize who she was without a man. She was a stronger person now than she’d ever been with Rakesh because she’d finally learned to take care of herself. And in times when she couldn’t, she had someone else who’d always be there for her. Someone she couldn’t believe she wasn’t on the phone with right now.
Reeva pulled her phone out from her pocket and speed-dialed Lakshmi.
She answered instantly. “Reevs! Tell me everything!”
Reeva lay back on the light brown duvet and looked up at the faded cream ceiling. Just hearing Lakshmi’s voice already made her feel more like herself. “Well, right now I’m lying on my dad’s bed. Because I have to sleep in his bedroom.”
“Seriously? That’s so creepy. What’s it like?”
Reeva craned her neck to look around. “Double bed. Pine wardrobes. Matching bedside table with a white lamp. So far all I can make out is that Dad did not like clutter. Or artwork. Or basically any decoration at all. But he’s really into pine. It’s just a... normal, basic three-bed-one-bath house.”
“You need to go through all the wardrobes and cupboards,” advised Lakshmi. “To find out more.”
“Okay, chill, Poirot. I’ve only been here half an hour. During which time Sita has already accused me of being a pushover and Jaya hashuggedme.”
Lakshmi’s piqued cry made Reeva laugh aloud. She might have terrible sisters, but at least she’d lucked out in the friend department. She had no idea what she would have done if the scarily confident, sexually aggressive trainee in the slightly too-short skirts hadn’t decided to befriend her.
“That’s fuckingtypicalof Jaya,” fumed Lakshmi. “We should have predicted it. And Sita’s just a bored housewife with nothing better to do than bitch at everyone. But remember who you are, Reeva. Hotshot lawyer, dating a sexy man, with a cute cat and the best friend a girl can ask for. You are incredible and strong, and unlike them, you’re a good person. So don’t let them get you down. You’ve got this.”
“Thanks, Lux. I needed this pep talk.”
“I’ll voice note it for you so you can listen to it whenever you need it. I should go now though.”
“Wait, just quickly, how are things with the Sherwood-Brown case? Have you asked the judge to appoint an independent social worker to conduct a full investigation into the ex’s substance abuse?”
