Chapter 9: Khichdi

Dev unfolded the page on the hall table without a word.

Mira looked at twenty signatures going down the paper, each one better than the last.

She looked for a long time. Her hand did not shake.

"Where was this?" she asked.

"Her third drawer. Under a shawl." His voice was rough. "The date is eleven months ago."

"You went into her room."

"Yes."

"Dev, do you understand what that is?"

"I understand it is the first time in my life I have done it."

He folded the page back along its creases. "I'm sorry I didn't look at your video."

It was the second time he had said sorry. This time she heard it.

"Papa wants me to apologize to Rhea at dinner," Mira said. "In front of everyone."

"I'm not doing that."

"I won't let him make you."

"Then you'll be fighting him tonight with one page and no proof it's hers," Mira said. "She will say she was practicing for fun."

She picked up the handle of her suitcase. "She wants me angry and loud in that house. I'm going to be quiet in another one."

"Where?"

"Nandini's. She has a spare room."

"Mira..."

"Keep the page where Rhea can't find it. Don't tell your father. Don't tell anyone."

He nodded slowly.

"And Dev? Someone in that house will have to say sorry to the right person. Not me."

She left him standing in the hall.

Nandini's flat was on the third floor in Greater Kailash.

It had a balcony full of dying basil and a rug that had never been vacuumed.

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