Nimita sighed and looked at Reena. “I wasn’t fired. I quit.”
“Why would you do that?”
Tears filled Nimita’s eyes. “I wanted to come home.” That was really all she had wanted. To come home to her sister and her father and bepartof something, part of them, again.
“But that video—”
“That really happened, and the airline wasn’t pleased about me not letting a first-class passenger walk all over me. But they weren’t going to fire me over it. It’s just, I had been thinking about resigning for a while, and that was the incident that clarified things for me. Why was I supposed to give all my time and care to undeserving strangers? Why was I choosing to be anywhere but home with my family? So I quit. I’ve wanted to come home for a long time. Every time I came home, you were so mad—and you were right to be—I just didn’t know how to fix it.” Tears rolled down her face. “This time, I saw the moment, and I quit. And I’m not leaving.”
Reena was speechless.
“I’m going to change and find the cardiology waiting room. Take Naya home before she catches something.” Nimita put some authority into her voice, and shockingly, her sister complied.
She turned to thank Roshan. But he was gone.
Chapter Nineteen
Nimita waited for Reena to leave before she found a place to change into her scrubs. Then she found her way to the cardiac unit. She stopped in at the nurses’ station and found that her father was still in surgery. So she made her way to the waiting room and sat there.
And thought about everything.
How she had run after her mother’s funeral. How her family had needed her, and she hadn’t been there. How when it got too hard to face them, she’d stopped coming home.
That was not going to happen anymore. She was done running. For better or for worse, she was here, and she was here to stay. Of course Reena was angry with her and had every right to be angry with her, but anger was not going to fix this. She wanted her sister back. She wanted to be a masi to Naya. She wanted to be a daughter. If that meant putting friendships and relationships on the back burner right now to prove that she was dedicated to the good of the family, then so be it. It was a small price to pay for getting her family back.
She tried to ignore the ache in her heart when she thought about Roshan. If she chose her family over everything else, that meant not trying to fix things with him. When she thought about facing all of these things without his undying support…
But she was strong. And hadn’t Roshan decided he did not need her? That she didn’t care about family, couldn’t be trusted not to turn tail and run?
After about forty-five minutes, the door opened. And of all the people that came through, it was Reena.
“What are you doing here? Is Hiral home with Naya?”
“I called the nanny to stay with her till he’s off work,” Reena told her.
“I’m here. You can go home and stay with your daughter. I can take care of this,” Nimita assured her.
“He’s my dad, too, and he’s having heart surgery. I want to be here.”
Nimita shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
The waiting room was completely empty apart from the two of them. For the first time since Nimita had gotten to California, she and her sister were alone. Silence descended.
Wasn’t that weird? They had grown up together, and now suddenly it seemed they had nothing to say to one another. Or was it that there was so much to say?
The nurse came in to give them an update. “He’ll be out shortly,” she told them kindly. “But you have a bit of time if you want to get a bite to eat.”
“Thank you,” Nimita said. The nurse left. There was no way to eat right now. The one parent they had, the literal glue in their relationship, was undergoing heart surgery.
She looked at her sister.
Her sister looked at her.
Nimita remembered the day that Reena was born. She was old enough to know that everyone was concerned she would be jealous of the new baby, but not old enough to really understand what jealous meant. But when she went with Papa to the hospital and they laid a pillow on her lap and a baby on that pillow, Nimita’s breath caught.
In that moment, she’d realized that she had been expecting a doll of sorts, and instead, there was this creature. This creature had soft skin, the tiniest fingers, and the cutest most perfect little mouth. She moved without a battery or a charge. Nimita was instantly smitten. When her parents allowed her to name this baby, Nimita felt oh-so-grown-up. She contemplated deeply and came up with Reena. To this day, she had no recollection as to why. What Nimita did know was that Reena was going to be her very best friend.
Or so she’d thought then. Nimita looked at her sister. “It’s just us. Have at it.”
