Salima swallowed. “I’m not lying, Maa. And you’ll know that if you ever use a second to stop judging me.”

“Judging you?” Gayatri said, confusion and hurt mingling in her voice. “I don’t judge you, Salima. I pity you.”

“Because why?” Salima fired back, arms crossing tight. “I don’t fit into that image of the perfect daughter you keep imagining? Well, I’m sorry, Maa—you weren’t exactly the perfect mother either.”

Gayatri stood slowly, back straightening.

“I know I wasn’t the perfect mother,” she said, voice steady but laced with pain. “But I did everything to make sure you and Nandini never carried on with that Blackwood name. You know how...