Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors (The Rajes #1)(115)

“Your dad, he . . . he was the only person who cared about what was right and wrong. People think he fell in love with me, because people only saw the mask on the screen. But I was too ugly for anyone to fall in love with. I showed him everything right at the beginning and it was all ugly.

“It was the fact that what my father was doing was wrong, that’s what made him dig his heels in. He would have died for me, but not for me, not at first—for what was right. He let my father’s goons break his arm rather than give me up. Because he sees right and wrong as absolutes.”

Trisha found her arms wrapped tightly around herself. It was a good thing she had her bugeye glasses on because her contacts would never have withstood this. “And he thinks what I did by introducing Julia to Yash was that absolutely wrong?”

Ma cupped her cheek. “No, silly girl. He thinks what Julia did was that absolutely wrong. And the fact that you don’t feel that way, too, is what makes him incredibly angry. He always thought you were the most like him. That you saw things in black and white too.”

“But I do! What she did disgusts me. If I could do anything to change it, I would. The guilt I felt for not stopping her, for not seeing what she was, ate me alive. It still eats at me, every single day!”

“But you’ve never said that. You’ve always acted as though we did something incredibly unfair by taking care of it the way we did. You stopped coming to family gatherings. You refused to participate in Yash’s campaign.”

“You stopped asking me to come!”

“When, Trisha? All you wanted to do was work and sulk when anyone talked about Yash’s career. You barely came home from college after that. You acted like you were being dragged into things, dragged away from your work. Always late. You know how you are. You’re so impatient with everything that’s not your work. We thought you wanted nothing to do with it.”

God, Ma wasn’t entirely wrong. Of course she wasn’t. “I just hated myself so much for what happened. She violated him, Ma. And it was because of me.” Maybe she’d wanted to be banished—because she believed she deserved it. But not anymore. Talking to Yash had changed everything. Or maybe she’d just grown up.

“You’re right, though,” Ma said. “I should have told you it wasn’t your fault. I, of all people, should have known that you needed to hear that. But . . . Yash . . . I thought I’d done everything to keep you kids safe, and—”

Trisha crawled over to her mother and wrapped her arms around her. “No, Ma. It was a lot. It was . . .” How had Ma even borne it after what she’d been through herself?

Ma stroked her hair. And she smelled so good that somehow everything didn’t seem lost. “I didn’t tell you then, but I’ll tell you now. The thing about human beings is that they heal,” Ma said. “We’re nature’s creations, we regenerate like the seasons. We just need someone to let us know that we’re worthy of healing. Yash knows that.” Then she rolled a lock of Trisha’s hair around her finger and held it tight. “And you are, too. But the healing itself, the changing, that you can only do yourself. No one else can do that for you.”

How solid Ma had always seemed, how hard she must have worked to get there, to heal herself so she could be whole for them. Her ferocious protectiveness made sense now. How had she even let them out of her sight? Trisha reached out and rolled a lock of her mother’s hair around her finger in turn. And the two of them sat there like that, soothing each other in that way that was all theirs.

“How are we going to get rid of her, Ma?”

“Well, we’re lucky the evil Ms. Wickham is also stupid. She’s gone and released the video about your patient claiming she’s dying. The last time I checked people have donated over a hundred thousand dollars. If I understand correctly, Emma Caine is going to be just fine and Julia knew this. That’s fraud, and our lawyers are on it. If DJ and his sister cooperate, we can send her to jail, or at least use it as leverage to make sure she stays out of our hair and out of our state.”

Oh God. Did DJ know the video was out? There was no way that he would have authorized it.

Ma didn’t look worried. Ruthless, badass Ma. And that made Trisha feel like everything would be okay.

“Did I just see you spit out a chocolate-blueberry muffin earlier?” her mother asked suddenly. “Are you sick?”





Chapter Thirty-Two


DJ had been staring at Emma’s monitors like a hypnotist’s victim and drifting in and out of sleep. It had been two days since Emma’s surgery. She had regained consciousness a few times for only a handful of minutes at a time. For the most part, her body was too filled with drugs and painkillers for her to be coherent, but she had mumbled his name when she’d woken.

All he’d been able to do was hold her hand and tell her he was right here.

Trisha had said it might take her a few days to actually wake up, but she insisted that Emma was going to make a full recovery. Which was all the assurance DJ needed. She came by several times a day to check on Emma and each time she stopped by, his confidence rose, along with other feelings.

It had been coming on slowly, but he was plagued with the sense of having made a huge mistake, of having lost something because he was too stupid to know its value. Worse yet, he knew he had done something unforgivable. He had hurt someone unfairly. Trisha didn’t deserve the things he’d said to her. Not even remotely. But how did you take words like that back?