Rebel Hard (Hard Play #2)(60)

He gave the slightest incline of his head. “I’ll leave your fami—”

But he never got to finish the sentence, her mother waving off his words. “Of course you must stay. You are like one of us.” So much happiness in every word, that of a mother who had two daughters safely settled. “I’m sure Sandesh would love to talk to you—you’ll be seeing each other quite often now.”

Nayna’s insides lurched again, but there was nothing she could do at this instant without wrecking Madhuri’s day; it would cost her only a few more hours of tangled nerves to give her family this night of happiness. After going inside and saying hello to her father and her grandmother, both of whom welcomed her back with a smile and—from her father—a suspicious lack of questions, she walked down the hallway to talk to Madhuri.

Raj remained in the living room with her father and Aji.

“Maddie,” she said with a quick knock on the door before entering. “What the bejesus is going on?” A hissed whisper as she shut the door behind her.

Madhuri looked up from her seat in front of the vanity. She was dressed in what Nayna called a half sari. A flared ankle-length skirt in pale amethyst sprinkled with crystals. A cropped and fitted kurta in the same shade. And a really long dupatta that could be pleated and tucked in to appear as if the woman were wearing a sari, but without the complications of having to handle meters of fabric.

Huge kohl-rimmed eyes met Nayna’s in the mirror when Nayna came up behind her sister and put her hands on her shoulders.

“He’s a good man,” Madhuri said, reaching up to touch one hand to Nayna’s. “And I’m getting older, Ninu. I need to settle down and start a family before no one will have me.”

Madhuri was only thirty-three, soon to be thirty-four, and looked ten years younger at the very least. “What about the surfer?”

A liquid shrug. “That wasn’t serious.” Dropping her hand from Nayna’s, she picked up the mascara to finish doing her eyes. “And I realized it wasn’t going anywhere. When Sandesh proposed… It’s the second time, you know.”

Nayna raised both eyebrows. “The second time? I never heard about the first time.”

“That’s because I didn’t tell anyone.” Madhuri capped her mascara and put it aside. “I knew how the family would react. You’ve seen what Mum and Dad are like right now. Can you imagine if I’d told them he’d proposed and I’d said no?”

“I see your point.” Not only was the doctor hugely respected, he was also incredibly wealthy as a result of a medical invention he’d patented while a student. “But Maddie, he’s at least ten years your senior.”

“Fourteen,” her sister said, correcting her. “He’s stable and so mature.” In the mirror, her eyes met Nayna’s. “I know I’m not the most mature person.” A wry smile. “It’ll be good for me to have him—and maybe I can loosen him up a little.”

Nayna’s head was still spinning. “As long as you’re sure,” she said. “I just want you to be happy.”

“He’s not as bad as he comes across, you know.” A softness to Madhuri’s features. “It’s going to sound weird with how involved he is in the community, but I think he’s shy and deals with social situations by going all stiff—he’s not like that with me.”

“No, that’s not weird at all.” Nayna had gone mute herself at times when she was younger; who knew what others had taken from her unsmiling features? At least a few people had probably thought her stuck up and snooty. “Hopefully we’ll get to see the man you see once he becomes comfortable with us.” She hugged her sister from behind, the crisp scent of Clinique Happy, Madhuri’s favorite perfume, as familiar to her as their mother’s heavier bouquet.

Madhuri touched her fingers to Nayna’s again. “If I tell you something, promise me you won’t ever tell anyone?”

“Promise,” Nayna said at once, because whatever lay between them, they were sisters underneath it all.

“Vinod hit me.”

Nayna froze in the hug, her eyes colliding with Madhuri’s stark ones in the mirror again. “What?”

Turning sideways in Nayna’s arms, Madhuri glanced at the door before whispering, “The first time was three months after we eloped.”

“Madhuri.” Nayna was kneeling in front of her sister before she realized it, her hands locked with Madhuri’s. “Why didn’t you say? Why didn’t you call?” No matter how angry Shilpa and Gaurav had been, they would’ve brought Madhuri home, of that Nayna had zero doubts. Their parents had their faults, but never would they have stood by while their daughter was being physically abused.

“I was ashamed.” Madhuri’s hands gripped at Nayna’s. “First time in my life,” she joked shakily. “I’d chosen him and he turned out to be a violent abuser. But that first time, he told me it was a mistake, apologized, and I forgave him.”

Nayna clenched her stomach to quiet her rage. “Did it happen again?”

“Yes. Not all the time. Couple or three months between each time, so I could ‘forget.’” She smiled. “I’m not like you, Ninu. You would’ve kicked ass and taken names. I was too scared of being on my own to walk away.”