“I’ll talk to her.”
“Do that. And then we can discuss what you know of Jia’s favorite sweets. I must make her something when we come together.”
Dev didn’t think his uncle meant pancakes, so he made a mental note to ask Jia if there were any Desi sweets she liked or was interested in. “Yes, of course.” Dev patted Adil on the shoulder as he walked past him.
Dev knocked on Luna’s door. There was no answer, so he knocked again.
“What?”
He raised an eyebrow at the sullen tone. “Luna, it’s me. May I come in?”
There was such a long pause, Dev shifted, wondering if she’d deny him. “Fine.”
He opened the door slowly. “Hey, beti.”
Luna didn’t look up from her phone. “What do you want?”
“I heard you learned some gossip about me.”
She stiffened. “Is it gossip or is it true?”
Dev came to sit on the edge of her bed. “Can you please put your phone down?”
“No.”
He raked his hand through his hair, taken aback by her blatant defiance. This must have been what Adil Uncle had experienced with the great Bagel Bites War. “Please?”
He was relieved that she tossed the phone to the side, because he wasn’t sure what to do with open and obvious mutiny. He was also relieved she was speaking in Hindi and not a language he didn’t understand.
The hurt in her eyes made him cringe. He sat on the side of the bed. “The rumors are true.”
“You said you were just friends with her. My friends sent me messages this morning asking if you’d really been talking to her for months.”
“We started as just friends.” He hoped she didn’t notice that he was sidestepping the thing about him talking to her for months. He felt like he had. Did that count? “You’re upset, and you’re right to be,” he said gently. “I should have told you earlier.”
“Why would you? My dad barely told me what was going on in his life, either. You’re like him. I’m nothing to you.”
Oh no. Dev slowly gathered her hands up, giving her time to pull away if she wanted to. “I know I wasn’t around much before your father passed, but it sounds like he tried to protect you as best he could.”
Luna blinked rapidly, and he waited for her to cry, but she kept the tears at bay. He’d rather she cry. A good sob never hurt a teenager, as far as he was concerned.
“He wanted to hide me,” she said.
His rejection of that claim was immediate. “No.”
“Yes. You weren’t there.” Her chest rose and fell. “The other stars’ kids, they got paraded around town. He didn’t even want anyone to take photos of me.”
“I wouldn’t want anyone to take photos of you, either.”
“Because you love me. He didn’t.” Dev didn’t have a second to be happy that Luna was so conscious and secure of his love, because she continued. “I was too ugly. Ajoba said it was a shame I took after my mother, because I’d never be a great actress, and Baba agreed with him. I didn’t look like a Dixit.”
No. Surely his grandfather and Rohan wouldn’t be so insensitive to say such a thing to a tween girl.
Wait, who was he thinking of? Of course they would. Still, he tried one more attempt. “Chandu Uncle said he kept you isolated for your protection.”
She stared at him like he had grown two heads. “He only kept me because Aji made him. She bribed him.”
The air grew very tight in his lungs. “No.”
“Yes. Aji made him take me when he found out I was his and then paid his gambling debts whenever he wanted so he wouldn’t send me off to the boarding schools. All the servants knew. They told me from the time I was little.”
He needed to have a long talk with his grandmother when she arrived, clearly. He couldn’t quite picture his stoic, distant grandmother doing such a thing purely out of emotion, but it had also been out of character for Rohan to take on the responsibility of a young daughter when he didn’t have to. Did Dev truly know anyone in his family?
Her lips wobbled. “I know I’m not supposed to hate him, but I do.”
Dev thought back to yesterday and that swing set. Things change, life changes, you change. “It is quite acceptable to have conflicting feelings about someone.”
Luna looked away. “I’m starting to be happy. And now you’re getting married to someone who might hate me.”
“No,” he said forcefully. “Jia would never hate you, or treat you poorly.”
“You don’t know that. She’s barely met me. She’s so cool and cute, and look at me.” Luna gestured to herself, and the ratty shorts and T-shirt she must have slept in. “When she doesn’t like me, you’ll send me away. Baba talked about sending me away to school in England. I don’t want to go to England! It’s cold.”
“No one is sending you to England,” he said, as soothing as he could.
She sniffled. “There’s a boarding school in the south of France that’s not bad. Madrid, too. It’s why I learned both languages, so I could convince him to send me to one of those instead.”
Oh for crying out . . .
Dev might have unresolved grief for his brother, but right now, if Rohan had been in front of him, he would have punched him in his smug, pretty face. “The only time you will need to use your French or Spanish is when we go to one of those places on holiday,” he said firmly. “May I hug you?” He let his arms rest open, unwilling to pressure his niece.
She surprised him with a nod, and then shocked him by crawling right into his lap. She was almost too big for this, but he had plenty of room for her. He enclosed his arms around her and rocked her. She smelled like lavender and his heart hitched to finally embrace her. Those absent icy places in his chest were getting overfilled. “You have followed Jia online?”
Her curls tickled his nose when she nodded.
“Tell me, does she strike you as the type of person who would be cruel to someone? Or belittle their appearance?”
“No.”
“No. The opposite, I would say.” Jia’s platform was radically positive when it came to acceptance and kindness.
“People can be different offline than they are online.”
Wise girl. “That is true, but Jia is authentic. I wouldn’t think of marrying someone who wouldn’t be a good aunt to you, and I will listen to you if you have concerns after you meet her.”
“You will?”
“Of course.” He brushed his lips over her forehead. “And as you mentioned, she is younger and cooler than me. You might enjoy having someone around who isn’t ancient.”
That got a tiny smile from her. “When’s the wedding?”
“I don’t know. When Aji comes, we will probably discuss that.”
Luna sat up straight. Dev had wondered about the connection between Luna and her great-grandmother. If Aji really had given Rohan money to keep his daughter . . . well, their attachment made more sense. “She’s coming here?” Luna looked around and grimaced. “She’s not going to like this place, Kaka. It’s small, for her.”
“I’m aware. She’s rented a place in Malibu. We’ll go stay with her there for a few days.”