“Make me a villain if you want, Tavish”—a sultry whisper—“but you know the truth: Of the two of us, I’m the only one who’s never killed anyone.”
—
My face as haggard as if I’d been on a bender, I walked into the ICU the next morning to find an alarm going off and medical staff rushing about. My heart shoved into my throat, but all the patients I could see, including Diya, seemed stable.
It was only a half hour later, when a harried-looking nurse came to log Diya’s vitals, that I said, “Jack, what happened? Before?”
The sandy-blond man’s eyes widened. “You don’t know? It was your sister-in-law.”
“What?” I jerked to my feet. “No. I’ve been with Diya all this time. Figured I’d stay out of the way.”
“She went into cardiac arrest,” the nurse said. “No one has any idea why—her heart wasn’t touched during the stabbing. But she isbadly injured, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that her heart just gave out under the pressure, though the doctors are thinking she’s had a reaction to a change in medication.”
My mouth went dry. “Could someone have messed with her meds, given her something they knew would hurt her?”
Jack’s expression closed up, an acute alertness in his gaze. “Why would you ask that?”
“The cops still aren’t sure there are three bodies in the house, not just two,” I whispered, quick and low. “And Shumi’s husband beat her.”
“Christ.” Open shock. “Do the police know?”
“I tried to tell them, but—” Shrugging, I stroked my hand over Diya’s hair, my fingers trembling. “Diya and Shumi are the only witnesses to what happened in that house. I’m terrified Bobby is alive and about to come after them.”
The nurse’s breathing was faster now. “Look, don’t worry. It was probably a genuine medical reaction, nothing more.” He took a deep breath, was calm again by the time he began to take Diya’s pulse for the chart. “I feel even worse for her now, though. I didn’t realize she was an abuse victim.”
“All hidden. Shame’s a big thing in Indian families.” Enough to silence a woman who’d once held a high-powered job and had endless interests. “With the Prasads being so notable, and with how much she loved them, I don’t think she would’ve wanted to rock the boat.”
“I can imagine. What a mess.” He touched my shoulder. “I’ll give the other staff the heads-up to keep an eye out for Bobby Prasad. Just in case.”
After Jack left, I went to look in on Shumi…to find her alone but for Ajay; as with Diya, the nurses were keeping an eye on her from their station. He was dressed in jeans and the same checked shirt he’d been wearing the day he arrived in New Zealand; his expression was stark, his voice shaking as he described the events of that morning.“I was the only one here. Mum and Dad were having breakfast near the motel. I didn’t know what to do, Tavish.”
I hugged him.
Arms clenching tight around me, he clung to me and sobbed, a young man who was doing all he could to be there for his sister. “It’s okay,” I said, over and over, until at last he was able to breathe again, speak again.
Drawing away, he took off his glasses to wipe the backs of his hands over his eyes. “My parents will be here soon,” he said, almost as if he was apologizing for their absence. “They love Shumi so much.”
I just nodded, the Kumar family’s relationship dynamics not my business except for the fact that they went a long way toward explaining why Shumi had attached herself to Bobby from such a young age—and why she’d never turned on him even when he hurt her. To her mind, his controlling nature might well have equaled love.
Because even when they weren’t dating, they’d spent time together.
Shumi fell down a gravel embankment. Scraped up her legs, bruises everywhere. She said she wasn’t paying attention and slipped, but I know she was out walking with him.
It was attention, after all—of which, it was becoming clear, Shumi had received precious little from her mother and father. One preoccupied with her golden boy, the other a workaholic. “I’ll stay with you until then,” I said. “You want me to get you coffee?”
“Yeah, thanks.” A shaky smile. “I’m so glad you’re here, Tavish.”
—
It was just over twenty minutes later that I returned to Diya, thinking of how desperate Mrs.Kumar had looked as she checked thatAjay was okay after the fright he’d had. All the while, her brutalized daughter lay unmoving in the ICU bed behind her.
“I wonder if either she or her husband ever think about how they set Shumi up for abuse,” I said to Diya. “I know she’s your best friend, but she’s broken inside, sweetheart. I don’t know if she’ll tell the truth about what happened the morning of the fire.” Because to do so would be to betray the one person she believed loved her. “You have to wake up, D. For me.”
A twitch under my hand.
“Diya?” I jolted up, staring at her.
Her eyelids fluttered.
