The door to Ravi's office opened suddenly to admit a shocked Diana Parrilla.

"Something tells me this isn't the staff meeting." Her tone wasn't entirely convincing. We have an eavesdropper.

"No," Ravi offered from the opposite side of his tablet.

"Just me trying to do right by my son," Anthony commented, droll.

Diana's quirked a brow.

"We both are," Hana remarked, taking Anthony's hand. Jockeying for position already, Hana?Sora almost had sympathy for her.

Meanwhile, Diana's look of revulsion was telling.

"The two of you shouldn't have custody of an immature goldfish," she opined, "not that anybody asked me. I'll show myself out."

The jewelry designer swung the door shut behind her, leaving the four of them in a state of bemused puzzlement.

"On that bizarre note, I'm going to get Tommy from the daycare center. Anthony, if you'd like, you can take him for the night."

"I'd like that." His tone was light, if grudgingly so.

"He needs to be home for his party tomorrow afternoon." Her baby was turning two.

"I have a meeting at noon. Maybe I can bring him by after breakfast."

"I'll be home."

"I'll go with you."

Sora didn't protest. Anthony opened the door to Ravi's office and she allowed him the belated chivalry. It was a joke well-told.

Sora and Anthony brought Tommy up to say goodbye to Hana and Ravi before Anthony headed out to get him strapped into the car. Her son wriggled gamely when Ravi tickled his belly and squealed into Hana's raspberry against his cheek. Her son was lucky to be so loved by so many. For all their interpersonal squabbling, they had that love in common.

When Sora returned from saying her second goodbye to Tommy, she heard a duo of murmuring voices inside Ravi's office. She stopped short at the sound of her name.

"If you keep taking potshots at Sora, you're going to find yourself down a sister. She stayed loyal to you out of habit. How long do you expect that to last when she realizes there are all sorts of people who are loyal to her, not because of blood relation but because she's just a good person?"

"We're sisters, Ravi."

"That's not how you're acting. You treat her like an enemy enough, you'll make one of out of her. Coming after her job was bad. This? Hana, you had no business putting yourself in the middle of this."

"Don't stand there all high and mighty like you weren't right there in the mud with me. What 'business' is it of yours who has custody of Tommy?"

"It isn't. I offered my opinion, Sora welcomed it. I don't dictate where Tommy goes and doesn't or who with. Sora does because she's his mom. Whatis my business is who has custody of our son. Remember him, the one you swear devotion to and yet you keep shipping off to boarding school?"

"He wanted to go, he's talked to us about this."

"Not two years ago. Not last year. This year, yeah, he copped to that, but more than he wanted to go, he wanted to be close to us. He's not going back to Fresno in the spring. This term wasn't a test, it's for keeps."

"That isn't your decision to make."

"Unless you want to go to court and have a judge make it my decision, it is."

"Is this really how it's going to be, you trading me in for Sora, letting her raise our son? Our son, Ravi, the child we dreamed about."

"We did dream about him and we love him. You'll always be his mom and you're always going to be part of his life—I'm not throwing up roadblocks between you two. I am, however, taking steps to protect him from the worst of you, and protect Sora and Tommy, for that matter. When you do things like this, you show me you can't be trusted to act in good faith when your feelings are hurt. Anthony brings that out in you."

"It's not Anthony. You bring out the worst in me."

"I see it and I don't like it. That's one reason I'll never come back to you. Because if this is you at your worst because of me, what do you turn me into?"

"And I suppose Sora inspires you."

"Like a chorus of Greek muses whispering my ear."

"I used to inspire you."

"I used to be in love with you. Love and affection feed my creativity. This warring between you and me and Sora and Anthony doesn't do anything for me. Everybody gets their fingers trampled on, nobody can move forward. Let's put a stop to this while there's time to keep from getting hurt."

"I'm already hurt."

"But Sora got the scars. I love 'em all, they're part of her; that doesn't mean I wouldn't give my skin to keep her from coming to harm again. This ends now. I'm ending it. Play any dirtier, you and I are going to have big problems."

Sora's instincts as a sister were at war with her feelings as a lover. She wanted to intervene, to tell Ravi to let this one go, but how many times had Sora let things go and suffered as a result. If he can't stop her, she cannot be stopped.

She left Ravi to his conversation with Hana. Opting to wait them out, Sora went to the conference room for solitude, but she found her nephew instead.

"Narsi, hi."

He looked up from mockup he was examined and smiled in greeting. "Aunt Sora. I didn't know you were here."

"Visiting Ravi. We're just about to leave, actually. He's just got a couple of loose ends to tie up." An easier story than the truth. Sora was in favor of what was easier for the moment.

"Sure he does." She got a distinct feeling that Narsi didn't buy her explanation.

"So, how is the summer line coming along?"

"Imogen says it's nearly done. She's already getting a jump on fall/winter 2019."

"That's wonderful. You must be very proud."

"I am."

"So am I. Her parents are over the moon to see her this happy." Sora was proud of both of them. They'd built a happy home and couldn't be more in love; they were at the top of their field. It couldn't have all been luck.

Narsi knocked on the conference table absently. "I suppose we can expect to see you at Misra more often now that you and Ravi are serious about each other."

Sora laced her fingers together in front of her. "No more than ever. This was an unusual event. I'm usually too busy to stray far from the office unless business calls for it."

"Sure." His smile had grown wan, even slightly mocking if Sora wasn't reading more into it than she should have.

"You must be excited about the baby."

His expression softened, growing more genuine with the change of topic. "I'm gonna be a dad. I wasn't convinced I'd get a shot at it and now I am."

"Scary, isn't it?"

"That's an understatement."

"You'll be a great dad, I know it."

"I'll do the best I can."

"That's all any parent can do. Love your child, give them the benefit of your experience and hope nobody tries to hurt them in a way you can't prevent."

"What about the other way around? What do you do if you're a child trying to protect your parent from other people's mistakes? What're the rules for that?"

Sora had foreseen such a conversation from their encounter in June, yet had hoped to avoid it altogether. This is not my day.

"Why don't you say what's on your mind, Narsi? You're obviously champing at the bit."

"He's selfish and he'll let you down just as he let my mother down."

"That could happen. I'm choosing to believe it won't. I have to believe that; otherwise, there's no point in trying."

"This isn't Aladdin, Aunt Sora, wishing won't make him faithful."

"I would tread very carefully when discussing fidelity if I were you. I'll go one step further, discussing your mother and fidelity with me is probably unwise. I'd recommend another tac."

"Fine. You're a businesswoman, let's talk business. He cannot be trusted to lead this company forward if he can't even confide in us about his health. You have to see that."

"Ravi's health is nobody's business but his."

"That's not how businesses work. I thought you'd be smart enough to know that."

Sora was compiling a list of the people who cast aspersions on her intelligence due to her association with Ravi. She hadn't decided just what she would do with that list yet, but someday she would.

"My intelligence is not in question, nor is Ravi's suitability as head of this company going forward."

"I highly doubt my father will see it that way."

"If Manny decides that Ravi's health makes him an unsuitable president, that's his loss and House Misra's. That's also a decision he needs to come to on his own."

"If my father asks for my advice, I'm duty-bound to provide it."

" 'Duty-bound'? That's laying it on pretty thick. You would dance on Ravi's deathbed to keep the upper hand. This is your chance to win fair and square. I suggest you take it."

"I don't think you have any business interfering with the conduct of business at this company given your most recent reputation."

"Considering how your mother, a one-eighth shareholder, and the CEO of Misra was determined to interfere not only in my relationship but in my business, I think I'm perfectly within my right to voice an opinion."

Narsi clasped his hands behind him. He was obstinate from his gelled hair to his shined shoes.Every inch Hana's prince. Sora was no less guilty of spoiling the boy he'd been or coddling the man he'd grown into. They were all a little guilty of his shortcomings, good and bad.

"You're my nephew and I love you, I do, but if you think about using Ravi's health to oust him from Misra, his mother's company and your father's, I'll help him ensure you become so toxic that you're not allowed on the same continent as the home office. Play fair or don't play."

"You're picking the guy that always breaks my mother's heart over your own flesh and blood."

"I'm choosing the person who stood by me when no one else did, not even you."

"You wouldn't do it. When it comes down to it, you don't have the guts. You couldn't stand the blowback."

Don't test me, Narsi. Greater men have tried and stumbled.

"I run one of the world's foremost media conglomerates. I have the power to total Misra with one phone call. I wouldn't even have to get out of bed. This company wouldn't be able to operate as a high-end dry cleaners by the time I was done. Don't forget, there isn't a scandal that has rocked this company that I don't know about in grave detail. Do not make your mother's mistake by underestimating me or you will live with the consequences. Do we have an understanding here?"

"Getting there." His firm jaw twitched his agitation.

Sora might well have mourned the loss of this bond if she believed it had for one moment meant as much to him as it did to her.

"Tommy's birthday party is tomorrow. Should I expect you and Genny?"

"I'll be working late, but she should be coming."

"Good. I look forward to seeing her."

"She's said the same."

Sora was turning to go when her nephew offered this parting shot:

"He shouldn't need you to fight his battles for him."

"I don't fight his battles. He has to win this on his own; that's how he likes it. Only I plan to ensure that the fight is just. Is that any less than Imogen would do for you?"

"We're a team."

"So are we."

Sora left him to consider her words as carefully as he dared. Considering who his mother was, she expected him not to listen as carefully as he should.

On returning to Ravi's office, Sora found him alone staring at a blank page.

"All done?"

He nodded and put the tablet away.

"Yeah, I don't think I'm good for much else today."

"That's where you're wrong. You're always good for a hug."

"You got me. I think I can pull that off. Come here." He beckoned her into arms and Sora settled into his embrace, exhaling for what felt like the first time in days.

"Tell me this is finally over."

He rubbed his hands down her back. "It's over. Let's get on with the rest of our lives."

"Until the next catastrophe," she quipped fatalistically.

"As far as dress rehearsals, I don't think it went too badly."

"You know," she confessed, snuggling closer, "me neither."