away, trying to get control of her temper. She was staring into the parking lot, when she realized she had to be looking at Lee’s new car. It was a like a silver swan rising above a pond of squawking ducks. The vanity license plate on the front was the giveaway. RLEETR. Realtor, with his name smack in the middle.
“Nice SUV,” she said. “I’ve always liked Infinitis.”
“I needed a bigger car to carry clients and open-house signs.”
“Well, this will impress them.”
“I’m banking on it.”
And he’d been to the bank, too, to get a loan or to clean out his savings. She knew something about cars, and she made a guess that this model started at fifty grand or so. She thought about Alice, who had been forced to beg for money so she could buy clothing on sale. For the first time Tracy wondered if Janya’s suspicions about Lee had merit.
She tried to push that thought away. If Lee really was going through tough times, it would be unfair to turn against him while he was struggling to help and support his mother-in-law. Still, distrust had completely eclipsed the fleeting attraction she’d once felt for him. Distrust, and quite possibly the thought of another man.
The contrast between Lee and Marsh was enormous, but they did share one thing in common. Her.
Tracy knew if she had half a brain, she would take off running right this very minute and never look back to see if either of them was gaining on her.
After revealing so much about her past to the other women, Janya had expected to feel depressed. She had told bits of the story to school friends in India—the ones who had not been spirited from her presence by families or husbands. But she had never told anyone but her family and Darshan’s her conviction that her own cousin had engineered her downfall. The proof was gone. Padmini had probably destroyed everything long before Janya’s counterfeit page showed up on the Internet. Had anyone searched, there would have been no doctored photos, no text, no signs of any kind.
Now, having shared the story, Janya felt lighter, as if the weight of it had lifted a little. She could breathe easier. In Tracy’s words, Janya had been screwed. And yes, that was exactly what had happened. Certainly she should have been more careful. She should have realized her cousin wanted Darshan for herself and would go to any length to get him. But that was as far as her guilt extended.
There had been signs, of course. Padmini had cautioned her repeatedly about Darshan, how he would certainly marry a woman who was more well-connected than Janya, that his family wouldn’t approve such a marriage, so Janya shouldn’t risk her heart or reputation. Looking back, she remembered times when messages for Darshan hadn’t been delivered. Or others when Padmini insinuated herself between them. Janya had felt sympathy, wondering if Padmini hated to lose her cousin to a man, any man, because once Janya was married, they would never be as close.
When they were heading back to their homes late Saturday afternoon, Alice had said something important. The two women had been trailing the others, who were throwing a beach ball back and forth with Olivia. Alice put her hand on Janya’s arm. At first Janya thought she was having trouble walking in the sand; then the older woman stopped, and when Janya turned to help her, she smiled sadly.
“You made a mistake—” she paused, then she shook her head “—out of love, Janya. They are the hardest to bear, but…” She appeared to search for the right words. Janya didn’t try to help.
“But the angels bless us….” she said at last. “And they understand.”
Now Janya thought that, in her own way, Alice had been saying that she should forgive herself. She had trusted a cousin she loved. Trust and love, even misplaced, were virtues. She might have been foolish, but she had not been cruel. That had been Padmini’s role.
As he often did, Rishi worked all day Sunday, and Janya had spent the day lost in thought. By afternoon she’d decided to paint a portrait of her cousin, but not the affectionate portraits of old. This was a portrait to show the person Padmini had become. Not Padmini as a demon, but as a woman who had planned and executed the undoing of someone she claimed to love, a cunning woman who would not hesitate to harm others to get whatever she