Chapter 57
Diya sobbed in my arms. She’d woken screaming for her mother, and in the end, I’d had to tell her that Sarita was gone, as was Rajesh. I wished we could have had more privacy for that terrible moment, but she still needed the attention of the ICU—and the other patients had their own problems, weren’t concerned about us.
“Bobby, too?” she’d asked, teary-eyed, after I’d told her about her parents.
“No one’s heard from him since, but they haven’t found conclusive proof that he was in the house.” At least not that anyone had told me—or had been revealed to the media.
Her tears were unending, her pain so extreme that Chen suggested a mild sedative. As she was hysterical, I had to be the one to make the call.
“It won’t knock her out,” he said when I hesitated. “Just soften the edges. She’ll remember your conversation.”
“I just don’t want her to wake up to unknown horror time after time.”
“She won’t. The sedative I’m suggesting will just give her a therapeutic distance from her emotions.”
Unable to see Diya in such agony, I nodded.
It took five long minutes for it to start to work, but the effects were obvious—Diya’s tears turned softer before stopping, but she wasn’t vacant, as I’d feared. She just seemed a touch slower to react—but her mind was all there. “Is Shumi really alive?” she asked me dully.
“Give me one minute to prove it to you.” I shot Ajay a text asking him to come over.
Diya’s face lit up the instant he appeared in the ICU. “Ajay!”
“Hi, Dee.” His smile was so huge it creased his face. “It’s so good to see you.”
“Shumi?”
“She’s starting to exhibit signs of coming to consciousness, too.” A glance at me, the overhead light sparking off his spectacles. “I didn’t want to interrupt you, but she began to make small sounds a few minutes ago.”
“That’s great news.” I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that I’d convinced Ackerson of my innocence—but Shumi could,ifshe remembered what had taken place at the Lake Tarawera houseandwas willing to talk. “You’ll tell us when she comes out of it fully?”
“Absolutely.” He gave Diya a hug made awkward and all the more endearing by the fact that he was attempting to avoid pressing on any of her bandaged wounds. “I’m so happy you’re okay.”
After the younger man left, Diya chewed on her lower lip. “I want to remember what happened, but there’s a fuzziness over everything.”
“Don’t push it.” Walking over to her bed, I sat on one side, myhand holding hers. “I’ll ask the doctor to go over your injuries when you’re ready, but you either were hit on the head or fell against something during the fire.”
Her free hand—trailing an IV line—lifted to the side of her skull, a featherlight touch against the bandage there. But when she spoke, it had nothing to do with her own head injury. “I was thinking about Ani,” she whispered. “I remember that. I was thinking about Ani.”
Her pulse jerked, her breath faster.
“Shh.” Not wanting her to spiral back into the dark, I moved so that I was seated beside her, my arm around her—like Ajay, I was careful of her injuries, but being able to do this, hold her so close, God, fuck, it meant so much. “I’m here, baby. You don’t have to be afraid.”
“I was hurt,” she murmured, leaning into me, “like Ani was hurt. That’s all I can remember thinking.”
I didn’t push her for more. Not when she was so wounded and barely holding it together. I just held her until she asked to lie back down, then sat with her as she fell into a disturbed sleep.
Every so often, she’d whimper, and it was always the same name.
Ani.
A chill of certainty began to spread through my veins. I’d been wrong about the inciting incident for Bobby’s rage. It hadn’t had anything to do with his upcoming bankruptcy. No, I had the strong feeling that for whatever reason, Diya had confronted him with Ani’s murder, breaking the silence held by the entire family for almost twenty years.
“Ani,” Diya whimpered again. “No! No!No!”
Her eyes snapped open, both hands flying to the sides of her head. “Stop, stop!”
“Baby, wake up.” I cupped her face as one of the monitors began to beep. “You’re in the hospital.Diya.”
