The Boy Toy - Nicola Marsh Page 0,69

shocked, and with her mom prone to theatrics—she’d practically fainted when she’d heard the news of Avi’s infidelity and their resultant separation—she’d want to do it in the privacy of her home, not visible to curious eyes.

As Samira let herself in, the tantalizing aroma of rasam and fried okra filled her nose. It had been her favorite comfort meal as a kid, the simplicity of spice-flavored boiled water poured over steamed rice with a side of okra. Fitting, that her mom was cooking it tonight. She had a feeling she’d need all the comfort she could get after the big reveal.

“Hi, Mom,” she said, entering the kitchen and inhaling. “That smells so good.”

Kushi glanced up from the stove, tilting her head to receive a kiss on the cheek. “You sounded stressed on the phone, so I made your favorite.”

“Everything you cook is my favorite.” Samira wrapped her arms around her mom from behind and gave her a brief hug. “I’ve missed your cooking.”

“You should come home more often.”

Samira accepted the chastisement and grabbed cutlery to set the table. “How’s Sindhu?”

She felt a little guilty for using a roundabout way to pry, but she couldn’t ask how Pia was, considering they worked together and her mom would instantly know something was wrong.

“She’s almost as bad as you. I never see her.” Kushi turned off the stove and removed the lids. “But I understand. She leads a very hectic life, a lot more social than me. She’s on this committee and that, always buzzing around like a busy bee.”

It shamed Samira she didn’t know this. She’d envisaged the two sisters being very close, considering both their husbands had died years earlier and they had no other family apart from their daughters. At least Sindhu had Pia living in the same city and Samira knew she played the dutiful daughter.

It made her feel guiltier for abandoning her mom and only returning home once in over a decade to visit.

“Are you lonely, Mom?”

Considering the news she had to impart, it wasn’t the best time to probe into her mom’s emotional state, but she felt bad hearing how busy Sindhu was.

Kushi’s eyebrows shot heavenward. “I’ve always been a homebody who values my peace. You know that.”

Samira did know. In primary school, while other mothers would congregate at the gate to gossip after their kids had entered, Kushi would give her a wave and walk briskly up the street toward home. The local school she’d attended had been like a gathering of the United Nations, with families from Sudan, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, India, Vietnam, China, and Kenya. The mothers would trade recipes while keeping an eagle eye on their younger children, who were often swinging precariously from the monkey bars just inside the school gate.

But Kushi had never been a part of the school community. It hadn’t bothered Samira at the time, because she’d had Pia a few year levels below her, and Sindhu had been on the Parents and Friends social committee. Later, in high school, none of the parents were involved, and they certainly didn’t walk their kids to school, so Samira hadn’t given it much thought. Had her mom been lonely even when her dad was around?

She’d given up her job as an architect in a small local firm when Samira had been born, and her dad had kept long hours at the university. When he wasn’t in town at work, he’d live the academic life at home, with his nose buried in books well past midnight.

Her parents had always seemed happy. Until her marriage debacle, that is. Her dad had been against it from the start, but he’d given in to Kushi because he loved her and saw how important it was to her. But he’d never liked Avi, and her dad was a good judge of character. Once her dad saw how she’d fallen for Avi, he shelved his concerns and supported her like he always did. But when her marriage fell apart, she saw the toll it took on her parents’ relationship. Her dad blamed her mom, just like she had, and even though they’d never discussed it as such, she sensed the distance in her parents’ marriage.

It had been a relief to flee Melbourne for a number of reasons when her divorce came through, and the guilt over the part she’d inadvertently played in her parents’ marriage problems had been one of them. Kushi and Ronald had seemed happy enough after she’d left during their many video conferences, and