Page 289 of A King's Oath

“Yes, yes, yes!” She yawned.

“Ok, now close your eyes,” Tara’s palm landed softly atop her eyelids. Her voice softened — “It’s getting late and the moon is getting tired of staying up for you.”

Siddharth rested his head back on the headrest and saw her put Brahmi to sleep like she used to put Sharan to sleep, like recently she had put Samarth to sleep when he had been writhing in fever for nights.

“When will the moon sleep?” Brahmi kept muttering, the sleep in her voice heavy now.

“As soon as you do,” Tara patted her forehead. “Once it knows Brahmi has gone to sleep, it will send out whispers to all the stars.”

“Moon cannot talk…” she yawned again, eyes half-lids now, then fully shut again.

“In your dreams, you will see that moon talks.”

“What will he say?”

“Whatever you want him to say…”

“Mmm…” her breathing evened out and within a minute she was out cold. Tara stopped patting her head and set her palm on her tiny stomach. Her eyes rose to his — those beautiful, enlightened eyes that even at first glance had held so much of the world in them. Siddharth couldn’t believe he had lived a full life with her. That within 18 years, he had seen the worst and the best that could be — both with her.

“What are you staring at?” She whispered.

“You made my life complete,” he breathed. Her eyelids fell, along with a chuckle from her mouth.

“Do you remember something?”

Her gaze rose back to his, brows knitted together. The curly mane of her hair was fluffed around her face, making her just as beautiful to him as she had been eighteen years ago. More so now with everything between them, including this preciouslittle girl. Siddharth glanced at Brahmi, her tiny mouth open, her spiky long lashes dark on her bright skin.

“Our heart’s deepest desire,” Siddharth whispered, helpless to pull his eyes away from her.

“What we couldn’t have is still ours.”

He looked at Tara, her eyes on Brahmi too.

“She is all that I ever imagined in a daughter from you. Even better, we get to spoil her and return her if it’s time to discipline,” he chuckled. Tara’s hand turned and opened over Brahmi’s stomach and he wove his fingers through hers.

“I was a little worried,” she confessed. “When Samarth told me about her on the phone. Will I be able to gel with her? I am not old enough to be a grandmother,” she joked.

“You think I am?” He frowned.

Tara nodded playfully.

“With Samarth, it took me so long. I am ashamed that it took me a decade to come to a place where I can command him openly and know that he will come to me for his every need, even as an adult. I was scared… what if I wouldn’t be able to bond with his daughter? Given the circumstances… and my nature to go slow and with caution with everybody… But she just opened everything like she knew what doors she was knocking down,” Tara swallowed. “She has your quality.”

“Oh, thank you, Rajmata.”

“Chana na jhaade jayine na besta have.[99]”

“Ava raised her well.”

“Better than well. So happy, so receptive, so open to new environments. Look how she slept between us in a new place when she knows us for all of seven days.”

Siddharth caressed her hand, their eyes meeting again over Brahmi’s head.

“Did I thank you, Tara?”

“I do a lot of things in a day for you. Please specify — for which one?”

He smiled — “For making my Samarth your own?”

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