"I suppose congratulations are in order? I wish you both the very best together." You're going to need it.

"I wish I believed you meant that."

"I have no reason not to mean what I say, Hana. I have nothing to gain by lying."

"Really?" She touched Sora's arm. "You really mean that?"

"I always mean what I say. I only want you happy. Whatever has happened has been water under the bridge a long time." She wanted it to be. "You're my sister, Hana. Be happy, whatever that means for you."

Hana threw her long arms around Sora and they hugged. It was strange and wonderful; so like being a sister. Sora had been the loving sister and the bitter sister; she'd been clingy and remote, at turns, but in all she only wanted to be the good sister. The sister that was loved in return. Sora hugged Hana.

"Take care of yourself, okay?"

"Only if you take care of yourself, too. Ravi can be unpredictable."

"I'll say." It was what had made Hana and Ravi mutually obsessed for years. They couldn't suss each other out. They were caught in the cycle of a perpetual, mutual mystery. "Anthony's the same way."

"Seems like we have the same type. Who would have expected that we'd both go for the mercurial international playboy type? I expected you to go for someone quieter." So had Sora. Somehow she never had. Hana's influence, she supposed.

"Ravi's plenty quiet for me at the end of the day. Love appears how it does and we take it or we don't."

"And you took it."

"I took it."

"No regrets?"

"Not one."

"I wish things could have been different between us, before." Sora knew what she meant. She wasn't prepared to talk about it tonight.

"I wish different choices had been made and more thought had been given to who would be hurt by those choices. But that didn't happen, and I'm ready to live in the present instead of in the past."

"You always know the right thing to say."

"I know how to say what will let us all move on." She had learned that by listening to what Hana didn't say. Hana added fuel to flames; Sora put them out. "Otherwise we're just going around in circles. I'm too tired to relive the worst year of my life again. It won't change anything for anybody. Not me. Not you. Not Anthony, or our boys. Let's move forward, find happiness. Try to keep it."

"You think you'll keep Ravi?" Sora felt the trap being laid. She wanted so very much not to step into it.

"That's the plan." Please don't disappoint me. We're doing so well.

"It was always the plan for me. That didn't stop him from straying."

"I hope he won't. That's all I can do, Hana. I can be the best I can for him and hope that will be enough."

"It wasn't enough for Anthony." Direct blow. Sora gritted her teeth.

"Nor were you. Neither of us were. Men are notoriously fickle; these men in particular. I wish Ravi had a better history of honesty, but he doesn't. I've chosen to love him anyway. You've chosen Anthony and god knows why but he's chosen you."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Don't play coy, we both know what you are capable of."

"And you're so perfect? Sora, you've never met a mere mortal you haven't found wanting."

"Because everyone is wanting! People aren't perfect, and expecting perfection is a recipe for heartbreak. But expecting decency shouldn't be. I expected decency from my husband and my sister, and I didn't get it."

"I thought we were putting that behind us." Her voice quavered.

"I would love to, if you would let me. I would love to never think about it again. I want to move on, I want to love again and trust again, and I am trying so hard. You make it your sworn duty to undermine me, my joy, my attempts to find peace. You do that because you cannot bear for my reconciliation with anybody else to be about me instead of you."

"That's rich."

"Is it? I can't talk to Anthony without running into you."

"I'm part of his life."

"Wonderful! You're married to marry him, I wish you an ounce of luck, because you will need it. Why do we have to have a contest of whose marriage has the longest shot of lasting? Can't we just wish each other well and go? That's all I want. Not this, not a fight whenever we talk. Not everything is a contest."

"I don't want to see you get hurt."

"That's new."

"Ravi will come back to me. He always has. We gravitate together; we will again."

"Maybe so, maybe not. But today? Ravi is mine and I will do all I can to keep him."

"And what do you think that entails?"

"I'll love him, Hana. Just him and no one else. For some of us, that isn't even hard."

"You're naïve if you think it's only about love."

"Then let me be naïve." She shrugged. "Try it. Love isn't a game you have to win. The prize at the end isn't a throne, it's a rewarding, loving relationship. You could have that."

"I've had that."

"So did I, until you. Until other women. Until Anthony showed his true colors—and good luck with that." She licked her lips. "He's the mess that you wanted, and Ravi is the one for me. No matter what you say, no matter how you try to get in my head, I'm not leaving and I'm not letting go. You let go this time. It's your turn to lose."

Hana swallowed audibly. "I thought love wasn't a game."

"Looks like lying runs in the family." Sora loaded her small dessert plate with adhirasam and barfis. "This is not the first time you've lost. Stop letting your ego do the talking and walk away. Anthony says he loves you. You've agreed to be his wife. You can have everything you want with Anthony. You don't have to be alone."

"You say that like Anthony and Ravi are easy substitutes. Men are not interchangeable. People aren't."

"You tried to replace me as mother and wife of my family, but people aren't interchangeable?" Sora pressed her lips together to steady her temper. I cannot have this conversation again. "I want you to think about what you just said to me. Get in touch when it makes sense. I won't wait up." She grabbed her plate and plunged into the social fray. She was remembering why she hated parties.

She sought a quiet corner upstairs and ended up int Manendra's study. Thinking at least it was deserted, she made for the window to look outside. The chill out of the outdoors seeped through the glass. She hugged herself. She wasn't feeling terribly joyful.

"I have a confession to make." It was Manendra. She couldn't say whether he'd been in the dark office all this time. She hadn't noticed him if he had.

"Is it a confession I want to hear?" Sora had all the truth she thought she could stand tonight. This was the family she wanted to join? These were the people she wanted to love her once more?

He poured her a drink and she took it. It warmed her right down. He didn't drink himself.

He sat in his executive chair and gazed upon her, all the heavy honesty so present in Ravi evident in him.

"I offered Ravi his old job back if he'd end his relationship with you."

Somehow Sora hadn't doubted that. "That offer doesn't come cheap."

"The price was his deciding to move out." She had wondered what had made the perpectual daddy's boy move out of the family pile. An insult to the heart would do it. Not in Manny's house, no longer under Manny's rule. She was proud of Ravi for standing his ground even if it meant moving away from home.

"You thought he could be bought. That was the insult."

"I made the mistake of thinking this was revenge. He and Hana have danced this dance a dozen times, and he always goes back to her."

"Not this time."

"So it would seem. I misjudged your relationship and it's very nearly cost me my son." Manendra sniffed. Sora was mildly horrified to realize Manendra was choking up. "When I found out he'd been sick and hadn't told anybody, not his mother and me or his siblings, but that he turned to Chakrabarti of all shady characters for support...I was forced to accept that I'd lost my son well before he found you. I wanted to do what I thought was best for everyone and all I did was cause chaos. I'm sorry."

"I'm not the one in need of an apology. I know you and I have a spotty history, what with Anthony and me plotting a hostile takeover of Misra back in the day." Not her finest hour. "Don't punish Ravi for loving me. He's your son, he is loyal to you. That's why he's still at Misra. If you fail to step in to take control of the battle brewing between he and Narsi, he may not be for much longer and you'll have no one but yourself to blame."

Manendra's Adam's apple worked rapidly as he tried to speak.

"I can't be seen as picking favorites."

"The only favorite you seem to have is Hana and everybody can see it. That's a choice." Sora put down her snifter of brandy. "I'm taking Tommy home. Thanks for inviting us. Happy holidays."

...