When 22-year-old engineering graduate Meera Nair agrees to a fake marriage with Mohan Nambiar-a 32-year-old tech mogul -she expects a transactional escape from her abusive, superstitious family. Not a soulmate.
But Mohan is no stranger.
A millen...
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I watched the clock above Vijay's bed. One hour. Sixty minutes. Thirty-six hundred seconds. Mohan still hadn't returned.
I unlocked my phone screen. Would he roll his eyes at a "Where are you?" text? Or was he bleeding out in a ditch somewhere because I had dragged him into this chaos?
The door swung open.
My heart lurched hoping it was Mohan. Anika, trailing a surgeon in green scrubs. Amma rose swiftly, hands pressed together in greeting. I stayed seated.
"Vijay is stable," the surgeon said smiling. "We debrided the infected tissue. The wound will require a flap for coverage."
"Flap?" The word felt absurd, like the peek-a-boo cards we made in primary school.
He mimed pinching skin. "A muscle flap, transferred from his back. We'll graft it over the exposed bone."
I swallowed staring at the wall like it held answers. Exposed bones. How had it gotten so bad?
Amma stood statue-still, completely silent.
"He's been asking for you both," the surgeon added. "Quite insistently."
I looked up at the doctor. "Asking?" Vijay hadn't strung three words together since the accident.
The surgeon nodded, oblivious to the grenade he'd tossed. "He kept saying it was urgent."
Amma gasped. Our eyes locked.
"Can we see him?"
"All in good time. He is in the ICU. After he is transferred to wards, you can see him." he told us.
I stepped forward. "My brother doesn't talk." The words came out louder than I meant them to.
The surgeon paused, eyebrows knitting. "Let me talk to the resident..."
"Did he slur?" I cut in. "Was it clear? Or just sounds?"
"When you were not there, he walked!"
"There was too much damage to his brain from the smoke."
"He will never walk again."
"Amma." I whirled to face her. "What happened at home? When Achan said Vijay walked?"
She collapsed onto the spare bed, hands fisting in her hair, yanking. Her breaths came in jagged bursts, as she mumbled something I didn't understand.
"Amma..." I knelt, reaching for her, but she shoved me. Hard.
The floor slammed into my knees. Pain shot up my thighs.
