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“Not everything in this palace is about you, Isha,” she snapped.
“What did I do?” I demanded.
I was the victim here. My dreams had just been dashed yet again, and instead of sympathising with me, my mother was yelling at me!
“You didn’t do anything,” Diya explained hastily. “A scandal just broke out over Veer’s head, and we’re very stressed about that.”
“Ooh! What scandal?” I asked with delight.
On second thought, maybe I should have kept that delight hidden because my mother shot me a furious glare.
“Isha!”
“Whaaat? He’s mean to me all the time! Why shouldn’t I enjoy it when he gets what he deserves?”
“But he doesn’t deserve this,” said Diya quietly. “He’s done nothing wrong.”
I pulled out my phone and googled him. I began scrolling through the results and gasped at the wild accusations being made about Veer. It looked like everyone was jumping onto the bandwagon and bashing him just because he was a royal. The trolls didn’t even have any specific accusations. Based on the two images that were being shared everywhere, there were so-called influencers talking about the excesses of desi billionaires. They were clubbing him with the likes of Ayush Goel and those twins from Surat who totalled their Lamborghinis in a wild midnight race on the Mumbai Pune Expressway only to be presented with spanking new cars the very next morning. Even worse, they were calling him tharki and charsi.
“I didn’t realise it was so bad,” I said apologetically.
“It’s a conspiracy to stop the poor boy from becoming CM,” replied Ma.
I looked up from my phone in surprise.
“He wants to be a neta? Since when?”
“It’s complicated,” sighed Diya. “It’s not so much the netagiri that appeals to him as the idea of playing hero to his people. He wants to save the state from the local mafia.”
I wondered why he hadn’t said anything last night when we were running from the same mafia. Then again, why should he? It was nothing to do with me. I had my own problems, which had to take a back seat now because I was sure Bhai Sa was going to be busy trying to fix Veer’s problem. And I knew the problem of my inheritance paled in comparison to this scandal, but we were on a tight schedule here.
If we didn’t find a solution within a month, the Goels would inherit my dream house.
“I need to talk to Bhai Sa,” I declared.
“Isha, now is not the time to disturb him,” said Ma firmly. “He needs to help Veer first.”
“Ma, my dreams are just as valid as Veer’s. And I happen to be sitting on a ticking time bomb. Do you want the Goels to inherit Gulab Mahal?”
“Let them,” she cried. “Maybe then you’ll forget this stupid idea of abandoning your family.”
“Ohmigod! I can’t do this again. I can’t have the same argument over and over again, Ma. I’m just moving to another house. That does not mean I’m abandoning you.”
“Don’t you care about us, Isha?” she asked tearfully.
“Of course, I do! But I also care about my dreams. I want to set up my vintage store in Gulab Mahal, Ma.”
“You don’t have to move out of the palace to set up your store,” she argued.
“I don’t have to, but I want to,” I insisted.
“Fine, then go ahead and do what you like,” she snapped, walking away angrily.
It hurt me to fight with my mother, and I even understood why she was so upset with me. She had suffered a lot of abuse from Baba and Dadi Sa, and she’d never allowed us to know. Bhai Sa had been away at school anyway, but Ma had hidden her pain even from me until I grew up and began to understand what was happening. She did it to protect me, and now when we were finally free, she was hurt that I was leaving her all alone. But she wouldn’t be alone. She had Bhai Sa and Diya.
I, on the other hand, had no one. Not in the way they had each other. I was always the outsider. The anomaly. And until I earned my independence, I’d always feel like a burden to my family.
“Talk to Dheer,” said Diya softly. “He’s in the study.”
