person India had judged her to be.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have interfered,” Brandy said, looking like she meant it. “It’s just that sometimes people who appear strongest on the outside can hurt the hardest on the inside.”
Chapter Twenty-One
It had been a week since Yash had run out of the Anchorage in the middle of the attempted engagement. In an unprecedented occurrence, no one from the family had hunted him down. Possibly because they had realized how ridiculous it was to have brought this up so close to the election. But more probably because he’d been on the road again. His entire campaign strategy was a ground game. Door-to-door.
“I will explain when I’m ready. I don’t have the time for it right now. Handle it,” he’d texted Nisha after the first burst of texts from her.
Never before had he spoken to his sister like she was an employee. Never before had she let him get away with acting like her boss. But here they were. Obviously, she’d taken care of it.
The last debate had been yesterday in San Diego, and preparing for that while trying to counter Cruz’s relentless campaign in SoCal was enough to keep everyone busy.
Naina had left for Nepal to pack up and hand over her responsibilities. He’d found out from Nisha. Naina and he hadn’t communicated since she’d threatened him.
If he let himself think about that conversation, he’d never be able to stop thinking. For all these years he’d ignored what he had lost because he hadn’t known what to do with his reaction to India. He’d been a coward and taken the easier way out. Now he’d dug up all he’d buried and he knew exactly what he’d lost. He knew.
The election, Abdul’s treatment, managing his family’s worry, those were things that needed all his focus. Those were things he couldn’t risk. They were also things that he could control right now, and he needed that to keep going.
There was nothing controlled about how badly he wanted to go to India. He wanted to dive into the ocean of peace that was her presence. The deep anchor of her eyes, soothing, magical, stronger than he’d ever be. He wanted it with the kind of hunger that had no measure. Years ago it had terrified him. But he hadn’t even known what fear was. Fear was knowing that living without her was living half a life.
Maybe he had healed. Or maybe the years had given him scabs that protected him. Or maybe being able to be the him he was with her again had shown him what he’d lost. He didn’t know how to lose that again. He didn’t know how not to. He didn’t know how he could hurt her like that again, but he also knew that he already had.
Truth was that there was no way for them to be together without the risk of destroying everything. Still, his finger hovered over the number she’d tapped into his phone every moment that he allowed himself to not be entirely submerged in the campaign.
He took the hospital elevator to Abdul’s floor. He was flying out to L.A. tonight to be on Good Morning America tomorrow morning. Constant motion was the only way for him to keep going. But he’d wanted to see Abdul before he left.
“His wife’s with him right now,” Myra, the on-duty nurse, said in her kind way.
“Thanks. I’ll wait outside. I won’t disturb her.”
They had crossed the seven-week mark since the shooting. One part of Yash was terrified that it had been that long. The other part was sure that meant something.
You’ve done your part. Trust the universe to do the rest.
Her voice in his head was all he had of her and he embraced it.
When he passed the glass window of Abdul’s room, he stopped short. Sitting next to Abdul, her hands on his chest, was India. Her eyes were closed, her face leached of color, her head bent, making her dark hair fall across her forehead. He pinched himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming her up.
On the floor next to India and Abdul, Arzu was saying prayers on a mat.
Time stilled. The constant need to spin stilled. Yash watched the scene before him, the power of what he was witnessing so strong it swallowed him whole. A weightlessness overtook his body. Every bit of helplessness that had been dragging at him stilled.
He’d been obsessively practicing the pranayama India had taught him every morning and meditating through the surya namaskar. He’d