Hena surveyed the scene. Except for a Ford Explorer next to a fitness studio two doors down, theirs was the only car there.
“Are you sure this boutique is even open?” she asked. It was early—barely nine in the morning.
“Of course it’s open,” her mother snapped. “Muni came in three hours early so we could get this matter sorted straightaway.”
That tracked. Who would dare say no to her mother?
Khala and Hena got out of the car while Gita retrieved thewheelchair from the trunk. She was around Hena’s age, and effortlessly plucked the steel chair free, setting it on the pavement.
“Stay where you are,” Gita warned as Ammi began opening the passenger door. “I’ll be there in a second.”
“I’m perfectly capable of walking a few paces,” her mother retorted.
Except she wasn’t. She took one step and lurched forward, but Gita swooped in and stopped the fall, gripping her by the elbow and easing her into the chair.
“I certainly don’t need to be strapped in,” her mother protested as Gita picked up the seat belt.
“I can’t have you flying out, can I?” Gita retorted. “No arguments. Safety first.”
Here we go,Hena thought. She waited for her mother’s eyes to narrow. For her to fire Gita on the spot. Instead, her mother chuckled.
“I’m seeing things,” Hena said as she and Khala walked up the steps to the shop. “I must be. How can anyone talk to her like that and not get swatted at the very least?”
“Gita’s a gem,” Khala said. “I can’t explain it, but she has a way with your mother.”
“There must be sorcery of some sort involved.”
Gita set Ammi’s purse in the back storage pouch, secured the oxygen tank holder, and adjusted her breathing tubes. Looking at her mother, a knot of grief formed in Hena’s throat.
She’s dying,Hena reminded herself. All of this—the wheelchair, the oxygen tank—was to be expected. Still, her mind struggled to accept it. How had the fierce woman she’d known all her life transformed into this fragile figure?
Turning to Khala, Hena leaned closer.
“What is Ammi thinking, coming out here?” she asked.“You and I could have sorted this out ourselves. She’s in no condition.”
“Gita cleared it. Your mother wanted to spend time with you.”
“Let’s try that again.”
“It’s what she said,” Khala insisted. “Things are complicated between you two, but she loves you, Hena.”
First Lulu. Now Khala. Hena wished so badly it were true, but the reality was, the only thing her mother loved was control—especially over her children. When Hena was a baby and not yet something her mother could tame, she’d been off-loaded to her aunt. She’d spent the first five years of her life in Khala’s flamingo-pink duplex in Cooper City. That’s how much her mother had cared. The official family lore claimed times were tough. Her parents needed Hena properly cared for while they got their first hotel off the ground. It had been for the best. Those first years with Khala were the happiest of her childhood.
A bell chimed overhead as they stepped into the store.
“Be there in a moment!” the store owner called out from a back room.
The interior was larger than it appeared from the outside. Floating shelves were stacked with neatly folded, colorful saris, and mannequins modeled elaborate bridal gowns in the center of the room.
Khala watched Gita adjust the unwieldy oxygen tank by the ramp outside the store. She turned to Hena, her eyes lined with concern.
“How have you been?” She lowered her voice. “Any updates about Nasir?”
Hena tensed. It was one thing to breeze through the topic over the phone from the other side of the country—another to talk about it face-to-face, mere miles from ground zero.Her brief conversation with Haris the night before had reminded her how fragile her defenses were. One wrong nudge and they could all come crashing down.
“You’d be the first to know if there was any news,” she told her aunt. “The police don’t even update me anymore about there being no updates. I think they’ve written it off.”
“That’s ridiculous. Nasir going missing is bad enough, but they should have at least figured out who broke into your bridal suite the night after. The way that man attacked you…it was obviously connected to Nasir.” She shook her head. “I’ll never understand how hundreds of people missed a masked man skulking about.”