How does he do that? How does he speak like that—like he's kissing my soul? How does a man I've fought with all my life suddenly know the exact words to hush every demon I've carried since I was a child? He didn't even touch me... but it feels like he reached into me, and placed something warm where all the cold used to be.

And me?
l am melting. Not just that. I touched Karthik.
Fuck. I touched a man. I felt him. I wanted him. What have I done?
What would Amma say if she comes to know I touched him and crossed my limits? The woman who held my world together with her bare hands... who taught me dignity and discipline. I have broken her trust by touching a man. She raised me to be a flame—steady, untouchable. Not this trembling wick in the dark.