Priya in Heels (Entangled Embrace) (27 page)

“Barely.”

“Can I see her?”

“No,” Jeeta replied. “We’re all just waking up.”

“Please?”

“You have the rest of your lives to see each other.”

The rest of our lives sounded like an awfully long time.

I didn’t know what Manuk did to bribe the girls, but Tulsi opened the door for him. He grinned at me when I could barely pry open my eyes. He was so happy.

The girls scampered out of the room, closed the door, and left us alone. All alone. Just like how it would be for the rest of our lives.

Manuk glided over the bedspreads and sheets on the floor and landed beside me on the bed as I sat up. He placed a hand on the other side of me and leaned in.

“How are you?” he asked.

“Okay.”

“Just okay?”

“I feel kinda sick.”

“Uh-oh.” He touched me forehead, then my forearm. “You don’t feel warm.”

I shook my head. “I’ll be all right. How are you?”

“Perfect.” He leaned in for a kiss.

I turned away.

“Still so shy, even on our engagement day?” He pecked my cheek. “I’ll let you get ready. Going out for a coffee run. Want something?”

The thought of sweet, milky coffee made me gag a little. Manuk cringed at my expression. “Never mind. Call me if you want something—pastry, muffin, fruit, crackers?”

“Fruit, thanks, any kind.”

“Sure thing. See you soon, fiancée.” He grinned and left.

I groaned and dragged myself out of bed and showered. Vicki worked on my makeup while Tulsi did my hair and Jeeta did my nails. I felt like an actress with so much attention and so many people at my beck and call. Manuk brought fruit, as promised, and an Italian soda to ease my stomach.

Over the course of the day, the pain in my chest intensified. Headaches came and went, but I managed to keep from vomiting. No one seemed to notice, or they didn’t bother to ask.

The
lengha
was heavy, and I made every effort to keep my shoulders from drooping by maintaining a proper posture. The women
ooh’d
and
ahh’d
, and Papa’s glimmering eyes made everything worth it.

“Pictures!” Heena said.

Papa and I posed for several. Then I posed with my girls, forcing convincing happiness across my face. I posed with Manuk for more pictures than I could count, then with his parents, then with everyone. I refused to take pictures with the
fois
, and they didn’t ask.

I waved away snacks and drinks and entered the ceremony on an empty stomach. The pain gradually increased, and flashbacks of Mummie and Ty hit hard. Thank God, I’d taken my seat in front of the altar, on the floor. The priest sat kitty-corner to me, Manuk’s parents on his side and Papa on my other side. Everyone else was hushed behind us.

The priest’s chanting became a buzz. All the minor issues that had troubled me throughout the day struck at once: the pain in my chest, the nausea, the headaches, flashbacks, shakes, chills. In addition, dizziness hit and everything closed in around me.

How could I have overlooked the symptoms? Everyone thought I was nervous about the engagement when they’d noticed my pale color, the sweating, the slight shaking of my hands. Some
fois
had even sheepishly implied I was nervous about the wedding night, though that was far away.

The
choli
bodice felt too tight. My chest constricted. I gulped, perspired, panted. It was hard to breathe. I had to get away, get out. The panic attack hit harder.

Mummie’s voice haunted me. I looked around, but Mummie wasn’t here. Papa frowned, his eyes full of worry. Manuk studied me with silent questions, a tilt of the head as if to ask if I were okay.

My chest smoldered. I tried not to clutch it. I tried to grin and bear it and sit still and pay attention. My entire body lit up, caught and disintegrated in a fire. My flesh burned, itched. Tiny bugs crawled beneath my skin. Nerves jolted.

Black spots formed in my vision, growing, fading, and coming back to take over my sight.

Manuk’s hand came around to my back, but I pulled away and reached out to my father.

“Papa,” I muttered, one hand reaching for him, the other tugging on the top of my
choli
. His warm hand wrapped around mine as he came toward me. Everything went black. Pitch black. Haunting black. The kind of darkness that made me believe I was dying.

Chapter Forty-One

Tyler

I
paced Steve’s living room long enough to create a groove. I stuffed my hands into my pockets, then pulled them out, and stopped every now and then to think.

“You’re making me dizzy,” Steve said as he leaned back. He watched me from the couch. “Just go after her.”

“She’s already shoved me aside several times. She’s made it clear she doesn’t want me.”

“Dude, she’s getting freaking engaged today. Isn’t that what Vicki said?”

I twitched at the thought.

“Keep fighting. Everything you said about her returning your kisses, getting jealous about Meagan, behaving how she did after her mom passed away tells me she wants to be with you but is scared. What is she scared of?”

“Disappointing her dad. Letting her mom down. This isn’t a movie where I go riding in on a white horse and give a lovey-dovey spiel in front of her family and she chooses me and we ride off into the sunset together.”

Steve groaned. “You are both making this too difficult.”

“Not me. It’s her. How many times can a man express his desires and take rejection?”

“Numbers don’t count when you’re in love. If you give up now, and she gets married, she’ll never leave him. Then what? You’ll both be miserable forever, and you’ll wish you’d tried one more time.”

I couldn’t. I could not keep going through this with her. She’d chosen him, time and time again. No man deserved this. Just as I was about to tell Steve my decision, my phone rang. I checked it, half hoping it was Pree telling me she’d come to her senses and had almost made a mistake. It wasn’t.

“Hey, Vicki.”

“Tyler, Priya’s in the hospital.”

My entire world crumbled around me. My heart lurched into my throat. “What?”

“She passed out right before the engagement ceremony. They rushed her to the hospital. She’s in and out of consciousness.”

I gulped. Without having to be asked, without questioning if my appearance would cause more heartache than help, I said, “I’m leaving right now.”

My hands trembled on the steering wheel the entire way to Austin. I cranked up the volume to the radio to overpower my thoughts, the ones that wandered toward sinister things. What if Pree was really sick? What if I lost her forever? How could I live without her?

We’d both been nothing but emotional wrecks since Pree’s mother had passed away, and I had a gut-wrenching feeling things were about to get worse.

I couldn’t get to Austin fast enough, and it was a wonder I made it there without getting a ticket or crashing.

I thanked the stars I found a parking spot and followed Vicki’s text instructions to the hospital and room two-twelve. I rushed out of the elevator and nearly ran over a nurse.

“Tyler!” Vicki jogged toward me in a glittery pink Indian dress.

I grabbed her shoulders. “Where is she? Is she okay? Better? Worse? What happened?”

“Calm down,” she said softly.

I chuckled bitterly. “That’s like telling me to stop breathing. Just tell me.”

She escorted me into the corner of the waiting area, away from the nurses and staff, far from the elevators but close to a lobby full of Indians dressed in finery. Mr. Patel sat on the edge of his seat, his face in his hands. Beside him was the dentist. If ever I had a moment of nearly killing someone, this would be it.

I took a step toward him, but Vicki yanked me back. “Focus.”

“Okay.”

“Priya loves you.”

“I know that.”

“She thinks marrying Manuk is the right thing for her family, to honor her mother. You get that, right?”

“I do.” Unfortunately.

“But the decision is killing her, just like it’s killing you, me, her dad.”

I watched as Mr. Patel wiped his face and stood to pace the room. The dentist shot up, but Mr. Patel held up a palm and the dentist sat back down.

“She tried hard to forget you. She tried harder to make things right. She blames herself for her mother’s death.”

“I know. We discussed that. There’s no getting through to her.”

“All the heartache and stress has caught up to her. She’s been messing up at work.”

“What?”

“And she’s been having panic attacks more and more. Today, everything just exploded into one major panic attack, and she passed out before the engagement ceremony.”

“Is she going to be okay?”

“Physically, yeah. Mentally…”

“What does that mean?”

“Tyler?” Mr. Patel asked as he approached us.

Vicki backed away and left us alone.

I offered his hand and spoke in Gujarati, “I came as soon I heard about Priya.”

“Your accent is better.”

“I’ve been practicing. How is she?”

“Sounds like Vicki filled you in. She…” He cleared his throat. “Tyler, she loves you. More than any of us realized.”

I nodded, tears stung my eyes just as tears filled Mr. Patel’s eyes.

“I lost my wife already, Tyler, I can’t lose my daughter. We thought she was making a mistake by choosing you, that this was some silly crush, that you weren’t good enough for her.”

“You were wrong.”

“I see that.”

“We can’t help it if we love each other. Believe me, we both tried to stay away. Neither one of us can live like this. Please, Mr. Patel, talk some sense into her. She’s doing this for you, for her mother, and it’s killing her.”

He looked away. “In the end, it’s her decision. If she believes she has to keep her word to her mother, we can’t change her mind.”

“I’m begging you,” I pleaded. “I don’t want to lose Priya, either.”

He rubbed the bridge of his nose as the dentist eyed me from the waiting room. My fists turned white. I was going to kick his ass.

“Don’t,” Mr. Patel said.

“What?”

“Don’t waste your energy being mad at Manuk. He has nothing to do with these decisions. He’s a nice boy who got caught up in an emotional war. Spend your time on Priya. Go inside.”

I didn’t question him. I rushed into Pree’s room and found her asleep. Monitors beeped around her, haunting in the silence. I brushed the hair from her forehead and ran my hand down her arm, to her hand.

She didn’t move.

I stood there for a long time as a part of me died with every passing second. I thought I could leave her, let her make her mistakes, but I was wrong. I could never leave Pree.

I moved aside and sat in the corner when a nurse came in to check on her. Pree twitched and made slight, mousy sounds. Was she in pain? Was she having bad dreams? I slouched into the chair and chewed on my nail, something I never did. But what else was I supposed to do?

I watched her sleep for a little while before she stirred. The second she opened her eyes, I jumped to my feet and was beside her before she even looked up at me.

I wrapped my hands around her face and leaned in to press my forehead against hers. She didn’t budge or move away, and I wished life was this and only this: me holding Pree.

“Babe, what the hell? You scared me,” I said, my eyes closed.

“What are you doing here?”

Pulling away, I answered, “Vicki told me you passed out and were in the hospital. I drove as fast as I could to get here.”

“You drove all the way here?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think?”

“Ty, we’re over, remember?”

I gently kissed her dry lips.

“Why? I don’t mean anything to you.”

“You’re so effing stubborn, Pree. You probably shouldn’t mean anything to me, but you do.”

“Where’s everyone?”

“In the waiting room.”

“They just let you walk in here?”

“Like they’re going to keep me out? I have half a mind to go out there and tell them everything.”

She gripped my hands. “Don’t.”

“Babe, you scared the hell out of all of us. You can’t keep doing this, running from me, from us.”

“Ty, don’t.”

“Stop fighting me. You’re getting sicker.”

“I don’t care.”

“Well, I do, so get your head on straight and let’s talk to your dad.”

“And break his heart again?”

“You don’t think this is breaking his heart, that he doesn’t know what caused this?”

She closed her eyes. She knew I spoke the truth.

I kissed each eyelid and stood. “I can’t bear to see you like this. I already spoke to your dad. He’s waiting for me outside.”

“Ty, don’t!”

“Sorry, babe, this has to end.”

“Just don’t. Stop trying to interfere.”

“And what? Wait around and watch you die?”

“No one cares.”

I landed beside her and took hold of her shoulders harder than I intended. I asked, “You don’t think I care if you live or die? Or that it won’t kill your dad? Your friends? All for what? So you can keep your family’s
honor
?”

I let go of her. “You think this crap makes your dad happy? Even the dentist knows something’s wrong. And what about your mom?”

“Don’t talk about her,” she snapped.

“If she were alive, you’d be killing her by doing this. It’s killing all of us. So get over your pride and your misguided belief that you’re doing your parents a favor, because you’re not. You’re not doing anyone a favor.”

She rolled her eyes and flinched.

After a few minutes, I asked in a gentler tone, “So what happened?”

“I had a panic attack and passed out.”

“You’ve been hurting before this?”

“Yes. Chest pains started the day before.”

“Here?” I rested a warm hand over her heart.

The machine to her left beeped faster in accord with her heightened pulse.

I leaned down, kissed her cheek, and whispered in her ear, “You still love me.”