Page 78 of Spooked

“So, why did you run out on me?”

“I…I don’t know where to start.”

“How about at the beginning?”

“At the beginning…” she echoed. “At the beginning, I…” She paused and took a long breath. Let it out. “I was born Indali Azarin Vadera in Springfield, Massachusetts.”

“Indali? That was your name? When did you change it to Meera?”

“I didn’t. I’m still Indi.”

Indi? But that made no sense. He’d been calling her Meera for months. In the office, in his daydreams, in bed.

“Then why are you calling yourself Meera?”

“My best friend is Meera. I sort of…borrowed her identity. We look almost the same.”

“Why?”

“You said to start at the beginning.” Another pause. “My family still lives in Springfield. My father’s side is wealthy. Not your league of wealthy, but very comfortable financially. My life, though, it wasn’t comfortable. My first mistake was being born female. My second mistake was having an independent streak.” She closed her eyes for a moment, steeling herself. “My father, he’s very traditional. A woman’s place is in the home, cooking and cleaning and raising the children, that kind of traditional. My late grandfather was more progressive, and it was thanks to him that I was allowed to go to college, but in my father’s eyes, I was only whiling away time until he found a suitable man for me to marry.”

Fuck.

“Tell me you’re not married?”

“No, I’m not. That’s why I left. Because I didn’t want to marry the man he chose. I wanted my own life, a career that fulfilled me, a husband I married for love rather than out of obligation. I couldn’t have any of that in Massachusetts.”

“That still doesn’t explain how you ended up on my payroll as Meera.”

“Meera was my roommate in college. We shared an apartment for four years, but she had her own family problems. Her folks are quite pushy. It didn’t help that she signed up to study engineering and then switched to environmental science without telling them, or that she wasted a year partying. But she knuckled down from year three, after her father threatened to cut off her allowance.”

“So she’s the environmentalist? What did you study?”

“Oh, I went to medical school. I was meant to start my residency at Johns Hopkins last summer, but I had to quit before I got there.”

Oh, I went to medical school.She was a doctor; she just threw that out so nonchalantly. Guess that explained the Heimlich manoeuvre. His Meera was smarter than he’d ever suspected. No, not Meera. Indi. And was she even his anymore?

“Because your father made you quit? But you’re an adult.”

“He has ways of forcing people to do things. And I may be an adult, but in his eyes, women are property. Unmarried, I belong to him. When I’ve got a ring on my finger, I’ll pass into the ownership of my husband.”

“That’s archaic.”

“Yes, but it’s also how things are. My brothers are the same. Raj married four years ago, and he already has three kids, all girls. You can’t imagine how annoyed he is about that. His poor wife—she just has to keep going until she gives him a boy.”

At least Indi was talking now. Brax hated every word she was saying, but he still wanted to hear it.

“What if the boy never comes?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. Maybe he’ll get a new wife?”

“He didn’t marry for love, then.”

“No, his wife came from a good family in Mumbai. It was a strategic match. She’s everything I’m not—homey, subservient, family-oriented. Oh, and she can cook. I can’t cook, not at all, which is weird because my mom’s an excellent chef, but… Never mind.”

“You don’t want children?”

“Maybe? Someday? I just hoped to establish myself in a career first, and… Why are we even talking about this?”

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