Tears rolling down her face again, Shumi turtled in on herself. “I want to be alone now. I don’t want to talk anymore.”
—
No one stopped me when, two hours later, after Diya had fallen into sleep, I made my way to Shumi’s bedside. Everyone else had already attempted to talk to her, but she’d shut down.
However, she was awake—and alone right then.
“I know you’re protecting Diya,” I said in a soft tone between us alone, the realization having come to me when she’d looked at Diya with agony on her face after my wife pleaded for answers.
Huge brown eyes holding my own. “She shouldn’t know,” Shumi whispered. “She should have her memories.”
“She already knows deep inside,” I said. “And, Shumi? It’s eating her up to not have any answers.”
Shumi bit down hard on her lower lip. “I don’t want to say, Tavish. If I don’t say, it’s not real.” Her eyes moved around the room before settling back on me. “But it is, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” I touched her hand. “You did everything you could to protect the family, Shumi.”
“I never told. I never said what Bobby did to me.” A rasping breath. “Everyone loved Amma and Pitaji so much, and most of the time, everything was perfect. He loved me, hedid—he always wanted to know where I was, was always interested in my life, kept track of all my friends and called me throughout the day to say hi.”
To hear of her twisted view of a healthy love made me hurt for the girl she’d been, unloved and emotionally abandoned.
“It would’ve hurt Amma and Pitaji so much if I’d told. Brought such shame to the family.”
My stomach churned at the reminder of Rajesh and Sarita’s perfect image, but aloud I said, “They’re not around to feel that shame anymore…and Diya will drown in her thoughts if she doesn’t get answers.”
Our eyes met, a quiet understanding passing between us of Diya’s fragile mental state.
Then Shumi sighed. “Okay. Okay.”
I didn’t celebrate yet. She could still backpedal. “Shall I call Ackerson over?” I’d seen the detective talking to Ajay and the elderKumars in the waiting area. Probably hoping to find some way to get Shumi to open up.
“Yes. Just her and you, not my family.” A hardness to her as she said the last.
Two minutes later, when she began to speak, I realized I’d been wrong about her on one critical point. Therewassomething Bobby could do that would turn her against him, and he’d done it the night of the party.
“I was pregnant. I did a home test, then another, told Bobby straightaway and he hugged me and spun me around and brought me pink roses.” Rough, husky words. “I was so happy—and really doing my best not to show it at the engagement party because that was Diya’s moment and I wasn’t going to steal it.
“I thought we’d wait till I was past the first trimester to tell the family…though I’d probably have slipped up with Diya.” Her voice losing volume with each word. “Then Bobby hit me in the stomach that night, after we got home from the party, and I started bleeding. It had stopped by morning, but I knew my precious baby was gone.” It came out flat, as if her anger was so deep that she couldn’t bear to feel it.
“He still made me go to Amma and Pitaji’s that morning, pretend everything was okay. It was like he didn’t even care that he’d murdered our child, like it meantnothingto him.”
“Here.” I put the straw to her lips so she could drink some water, give herself a break from the emotional grindstone.
“Thank you.” An automatic polite response before she drank.
After she was done, she went right back to it, as if now that she’d started, she had to finish. “I was outside looking at the lake with Diya while he spoke to Amma and Pitaji. When we walked back in, they were lying on the floor, and he had a knife in his hand.” Herbreathing sped up. “He shoved Diya so hard she fell against something—maybe a table?—and got dazed. That’s when he stabbed me.”
“Do you know why your husband turned violent?” Ackerson asked.
“I didn’t know till we got home the previous night, but his finance person had called him before the party, told him that he’d run all the numbers again but there was no choice—he’d have to file for bankruptcy.”
I thought I was good at wearing masks, but Bobby had given not a single hint of stress or panic that night, just a big brother there to celebrate his sister’s engagement. Making plans for a fishing trip, standing beside his father while Rajesh bragged of his accomplishments, kissing Diya on the forehead with protective tenderness.
Her voice gone raw, stripped down to the core, Shumi said, “Bobby wassoproud. He loved that he could give me the life we had, loved that even though he hadn’t had the grades to do medicine, his parents boasted about him being a successful businessman.” A gulping sob. “He loved how Diya looked up to him.”
There was more.
Shumi had managed to stay conscious long enough to see Bobby attacking Diya, then leaving her for dead, as he’d left Shumi.
