Chapter 5

Tara was sitting beside her mother when Vidya entered the bridal suite. Her jewellery had been removed, except for the bracelet that had belonged to Naina. The heavy silk saree remained draped around her, but her makeup had been washed away, leaving her face pale and exhausted.

She looked up. "Dadi."

Vidya crossed the room and sat beside her, for a moment, she simply held Tara's hand.

Then she said, "My darling, I want to ask you something."

Tara looked at her uncertainly, Vidya glanced towards Kavita. "I've spoken to Neil."

At the mention of his name, Tara frowned.

"Neil?"

"Yes."

"Is something wrong?"

"No."

Vidya drew a breath. "I've asked him to consider marrying you."

Tara stared at her. For several seconds, she appeared unable to understand the words.

"What?"

"Neil."

"Naina's Neil?"

Vidya's expression softened. "Yes, darling."

Tara looked towards her mother.

Kavita was equally stunned. "Vidya ji..."

"Please hear me out."

Tara slowly withdrew her hand. "I don't understand."

"I know this is unexpected."

"Unexpected?" She looked at Vidya. "Dadi, I haven't seen Neil in ten years."

"I know."

"He was married to my sister."

"Yes."

"And you're asking me to marry him?"

Vidya nodded, Tara stared at her. For a moment, the absurdity of the suggestion was almost enough to distract her from the pain that had consumed the evening.

Her eyes filled. "I love Samar." Vidya's expression changed. "I was supposed to marry him.” A tear slipped down Tara's cheek. "I don't even know why he left."

Vidya moved closer. "Oh, sweetheart."

Tara shook her head. "I can't marry someone else."

"Then you won't." The answer came from Kavita. She had been silent until then, but now she moved towards her daughter. "Tara, listen to me. You don't have to marry anyone tonight."

Vidya looked at her.

Kavita continued, "We can go home. Your father and I will deal with everything."

Tara looked at her mother, she wanted to believe her. But she had seen her father.

She had seen the terrible exhaustion in his face, the way he had struggled to speak, the way his hands had trembled when he tried to comfort her.

She remembered Naina's funeral. Her father standing beside the photograph, accepting condolences from people whose faces he barely seemed to recognise. She remembered the months that followed, when he had moved through their home like a man learning to inhabit his own body again.

Tara looked at Vidya. "Did Neil agree?"

Vidya hesitated. "He has agreed to consider it, provided it's what you want."

Tara gave a faint, humourless smile. "What I want?"

Nobody answered.

She looked down at the bracelet around her wrist, Naina’s bracelet. She had worn it that morning believing it would bring her sister a little closer on her wedding day. Now Vidya was asking her to marry the man Naina had loved.

The thought should have horrified her. Instead, Tara felt strangely empty. She had spent months being certain about Samar.

Certain of his affection.

Certain of their future.

Certain enough to challenge her father's reservations and defend a man she had known for less than a year.

What had that certainty brought her? She no longer trusted it. She no longer trusted herself.

"Papa knows Neil," she said quietly.

Kavita frowned. "Of course he does."

"He trusts him.” Tara looked at her mother. "Doesn't he?"

Kavita hesitated. "Neil is a good man, Tara. But that doesn't mean—"

"I know.” But she also knew that if she went home tonight, she would spend the coming days reliving every moment of Samar's betrayal, questioning every conversation, every promise, every decision she had made.

She wanted the evening to end.

She wanted her father to stop looking so defeated. And she wanted, desperately, to feel that something in her life could still be trusted. Or perhaps, in the state she was in, it was all she could ask for.

______

Neil was standing near the entrance to the private lounge when Tara approached him. He had put his jacket back on. His expression was composed, although there was a faint tension around his mouth. Vidya stood a short distance away, Tara stopped before him. For a moment, she studied the man she had once known as her sister's husband.

He looked nothing like the Neil of her childhood memories.

Time had sharpened his features and introduced silver at his temples. His shoulders seemed broader, his manner more reserved. Even standing still, he possessed an authority that made Tara suddenly conscious of the difference in their ages.

"Neil."

He inclined his head. "Tara."

She took a breath. "Dadi told me."

"I assumed she would."

Tara glanced towards Vidya, then back at him. "Do you want to marry me?"

Neil's expression didn't change. It was a question he hadn't expected her to ask so directly.

After a moment, he said, "I hadn't planned to marry anyone."

Tara lowered her eyes. Something passed across his face, he looked at her for a long moment.

"You love Samar."

It wasn't a question.Tara nodded. "Yes."

Neil absorbed the answer without visible reaction. "And you understand what this marriage would mean?"

She looked at him. "I think so."

"Think carefully."

Tara's throat tightened. She had spent the evening being told to think carefully. She had spent months thinking carefully about Samar. None of it had protected her.

"I've spoken to Papa," she said. Neil waited. "He trusts you."

"That isn't a reason to marry me."

"No." She looked down at her hands. "But it's the only thing I'm certain of tonight."

Neil said nothing. Tara raised her eyes again. "I don't expect anything from you."  His expression hardened slightly. "Don't make promises you haven't had time to consider."

She fell silent. He looked towards the ballroom, the flowers were still in place. The priest was waiting. His grandmother stood nearby, watching them with an expression that was both hopeful and anxious.

Neil thought of Naina. Of the day he had married her, of the four years that had followed, of the hospital corridor where his life had changed forever.

Then he looked at Tara.

A young woman he barely knew, dressed in bridal red, with swollen eyes and a heart that belonged to another man. There was nothing romantic about the moment.

Nothing he would have chosen.

Yet when he looked beyond her, he saw Vikram standing beside Kavita, his face exhausted and his shoulders bent beneath a grief Neil recognised too well.

Neil drew a slow breath. Then he turned towards his grandmother. "Make the arrangements."

Vidya stared at him. "Neil?"

He looked at her. "You heard me."

For the first time that evening, Vidya Oberoi seemed to have nothing to say.

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