Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors (The Rajes #1)(20)

“Well, I didn’t expect you to go nuts and start coming to everything all of a sudden!” This time she didn’t sound quite so gentle.

Maybe Nisha was right. Why was she even here?

“One of my surgeries was rescheduled,” she said, contemplating a U-turn on the narrow, sloping private street. “The free afternoon seemed like a sign.”

Predictably, Nisha harrumphed, albeit daintily, and responded with, “A sign? What? Are you Esha now?”

No, she was not their clairvoyant cousin, thank you very much.

She pulled through the Anchorage gates and watched them slide shut behind her in the rearview mirror with a growing sense of dread. “I’m here now and I need you to be here too. I can’t do this without you, Nisha!”

“Stop being silly. The rest of the Animal Farm is there,” her sister said in the exact kind of tone her family used when they thought Trisha was having what they referred to as “one of her overreactions.” “Also, sweetie, you’re two hours late.”

“What? But . . . but . . . you told me it was at two!” Her wail had to have echoed around the woods she was driving through. This could not be happening.

“Nope, twelve,” her sister said absently. She was probably juggling five other things while speaking with Trisha on her Bluetooth. “Ma rescheduled.”

“Ma didn’t say anything to me. You didn’t say anything! And I texted both of you that I was planning to come.” It had been an act of courage to put herself out there like that.

Her sister remained ominously silent.

“Nisha, what?”

“Well, we didn’t really think you’d come!”

“I came to the dinner yesterday! Admit it, you say you want me to be there, but you don’t really!”

“Are you seriously accusing me of that?” Nisha didn’t sound angry, just hurt. Which was worse.

“No,” Trisha said sulkily. “After yesterday, I thought Ma might be okay with including me.” Ma had said she was glad Trisha had come. She should have known that their mother would never go up against their father. And Trisha would not be surprised if HRH had decided that things were better off without Trisha’s involvement.

“You’re being unfair,” her sister said. “You also showed up two hours late last evening. Ma probably stood up for you to HRH, and she probably got the ‘I told you so’ treatment from him.”

“So she punishes me by telling me the wrong time for the tea? And you go along with it?”

“Stop being so dramatic.” She sounded tired. “It wasn’t like that. When Ma told you the time, she had postponed it to two, then she moved it back to noon. And, well . . .”

“And what?”

“And you aren’t on the campaign family group chat. She probably just forgot to text you separately.”

Right. “Wait, there’s a campaign family group chat?” The thought was a bit horrifying. Trisha hated that she wasn’t on it, but she couldn’t imagine the torture of being on it either.

She could almost see Nisha rolling her eyes at the other end. “Listen, I have to go. If you’ve decided to make amends, you have to be patient. You can’t barrel through this like you barrel through things at work.”

She did not barrel through things at work! Microneurosurgery was not something you could barrel through. And she was the one who had been shut out—why was she the only one responsible for making amends? And why was Nisha suddenly sounding so tired?

“I really have to go. Take a deep breath. I have to pack for Neel and Mishka’s trip. Call you later?” And just like that, she disconnected the phone.

This was totally not like her sister. But what was really scary was her sister missing a postmortem tea. Sure, it didn’t seem like a big deal on the surface. Unless you knew Nisha. The only person as batshit serious about Yash’s political career as their parents was Nisha. She had quit her job two years ago to start doing the groundwork for his gubernatorial run. Now she was the one officially running his campaign.

So, yes, this was completely out of character. Even more out of character was how exhausted Nisha had sounded when she hung up. Nisha’s default mode was perpetual motion. Trisha redialed her number to make sure she was okay as she pulled under the columned porte cochere. Her sister didn’t answer.

Yash’s Tesla was parked in front of her, which meant she wasn’t so late that everyone had already left. Ugh, weren’t there supposed to be silver linings to family fiascoes? Her attempt at barreling herself back into the fold might have crashed and burned, but did the entire family need to witness it?

Backing her car right out and leaving sounded tempting, but she was here and she could really use one of her grandmother’s hugs right now, and maybe some advice on how to keep herself from becoming too emotionally invested in Emma’s case. Last night had gone by in such a blur, she’d barely gotten to see Aji.

She got out of the car, and then idiot that she was, she peeked into the garage to see if HRH was still here too. Yup, there was no silver lining in sight. HRH’s black Tesla, one of the test models from the first batch to leave the Fremont plant, gleamed in its spot under the rest of his cars stacked up on the hydraulic platforms of his garage. Maybe she could just hide until he left. He had to be going back to the hospital soon—he had consulting hours this afternoon.