March was marked by Hana's intensifying efforts to have Ravi home. Sora was the unlucky recipient of her labor one sunny afternoon at her house. Cristina had stepped out to give them privacy and Sora had a conference call in ten minutes. Nevertheless, Sora stood by and listened.

"Ravi listens to you. Can't you talk to him for me? I know I'm asking a lot—"

Sora's knees felt like water and she couldn't stand. She flopped into to her couch with none of her sister's preternatural grace. Sora felt like the intruder when it was her sister that was invading her home on an errand.

"You are, Hana. You're asking a lot. Ravi is my friend and he's had a difficult year. We both have. He doesn't come to me for relationship advice and I don't give it to him unsolicited. If he wants to talk about what's going on between the two of you, I'm more than happy to listen. I'm just not going to advocate for you to him if that's not what he wants to hear."

"But you will talk to him for me?"

Why did I bother wasting my breath? It's not like she ever listens to me.

"If he wants to talk, I will talk to him."

Hana clapped her hands in glee, then pulled Sora into a tight hug. Sora wanted to pack a bag and run as far away from Hana and her sisterly hugs as she could get. Nothing is ever worse for me than when Hana thinks she's getting her way, because she's usually right.

After Hana had gone, Sora retreated to Tommy's nursery with a pile of poetry books from college. Tommy had his nursery rhymes and Sora had her poems. It only seemed fair that for a change the tragedies she had in mind not be hers.

...

...

Sora had fretted her way through an otherwise pleasant lunch date with Ravi by the time she got an opportunity to plead her sister's case.

"You should think about talking to Hana."

Ravi tapped at his phone for a long minute before setting it aside. Dhiren must be texting in class again.

"I talk to Hana every other day, almost daily. I don't think I could talk to Hana more if we were living together."

"There's an idea to consider." Don't do it, not even for a trial run. She won't let you go. Sora was trying to be a good sister, she was.

Ravi glanced away from his next bite of lobster risotto to raise an eyebrow at her. "Where's this coming from?" Sora couldn't hold his eyes for long, choosing instead to stare at the tablecloth.

"I've just been thinking. I don't want you two to miss out on any more time together on my account." She could still feel Ravi watching her.

"You don't think you're worth a little discomfort?"

"No comment. I just don't want you holding back from reuniting your family due to some misplaced loyalty to me." I don't want you to resent me.

"I wouldn't call it misplaced. My loyalty lies just where it should. I think I'd be the best judge of that."

Sora's face started to burn. Here she was making an idiot of herself for Hana of all ungrateful people.

"What I mean is, don't be angry at Hana just because of me. Be angry at her because she's disappointed you. Be angry because she's demonstrated astonishingly poor judgment. Don't do it because it's what you think I'd want you to do."

Ravi set down his fork and swiped his napkin across his mouth. He did this all very deliberately; it was obvious to her he was putting his thoughts in order.

"Okay, Sora, I'm going to say something and I want you to take it in the most affectionate way possible."

Sora guffawed. "You don't have to say anything, I can pretty much guess what it is. You're going to tell me to butt out."

"I wasn't going to, but now that you mention it..."

Sora threw down her napkin. "She asked me to talk to you. She insisted I talk to you on her behalf."

"Hana doesn't get to insist. You are the only person in this horror story who gets to make demands."

"And you, evidently."

Ravi clicked his tongue, noncommittal. "All I'm asking for is the opportunity to think for myself. I haven't asked Hana to wait for me. I haven't made any promises, I've only asked for more time. If my timing bothers Hana, she's free to stop waiting."

"Anthony would love that."

"Of course he would, he's a horrible person."

Sora fixed him with a look. He was unapologetic.

"I know you love him—loved him very much, but he's not a good person and he's not good enough for you. He proved that."

"Sure did." Sora speared her chicken cacciatore with her fork and was instantly queasy. She scoffed at her lost appetite. "You know, it's strange to me that you can forgive Hana when I can't forgive Anthony for doing the same thing. Not that it matters anyway, Anthony is all Hana's now. She has him eating out of her hand and she doesn't even care." Sora didn't want to care. But this is Tommy's father...

"And if she was off the market..."

"Don't." Sora got a shiver. "I can't be second choice. I can't be a consolation prize. I get nauseous just thinking about it. I'd worry everyday about coming home to them together in our bed—again. I'd think about her carrying his child, wanting his child and him wanting it, too. It makes me sick thinking about it, even now."

Ravi touched her fist where it clenched around her fork. "Why upset yourself with hypotheticals?"

Sora looked him strangely. "Hypothetical? I lived it, Ravi! I was there when she tried to pass her baby off as your father's to 'protect me'. I can't live through that again."

Ravi's expression went blank.

"You lost me. Take it back to the beginning. What's this about Hana being pregnant by Anthony Himura?"

Sora sat back. "I told you. They fooled around and denied it right to my face for months. Then, she got pregnant and to keep me from finding out, she tried to seduce your dad into claiming the child for his own in exchange for her hand in marriage."

Ravi's dumbfounded expression took on a darker tinge with every word. Sora got a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"But you knew all that, right? Hana told you all of that, didn't she? She must have."

Ravi's words came out in a jumble through his clenched jaw. "Yeah, Hana told me everything, or she said she did. Funny, she seems to have forgotten this part ever happened."

Sora read fury in his posture and flexing fists and tried to head it off. That's what sisters do, right?

"Maybe she forgot."

"What happened to the baby, Sora?"

Sora scraped her away from her flushed face. Just great.

"She miscarried. It was hard...for Hana." Not as hard as it had been for Sora to discover the closely-guarded secret. Everything from then on had been hard.

Ravi declined to comment, instead ticking his head sideways in acknowledgement.

"She didn't mention any of it?"

"None. Just the affair. She said they got caught in their feelings and got carried away." Ravi laced his fingers together. "What else did she leave out?"

"I'm not sure I should say."

"You didn't mention it either, not at first."

"These aren't my happiest memories. I thought you knew and understood that it hurt too much to think about."

"I understand now. I won't ask about any of it again, but, Sora, if I'm supposed to marry Hana, I need to know exactly the kind of woman I'm marrying."

"You know her, Ravi. She's Hana. She never means any harm and she's always so sorry for the hurt she's caused."

"Like a pet that isn't house-trained."

"You don't want me to comment on that; it's my carpet she peed all over."

Ravi grunted, swallowing his surprised snort.

"She tends to do that when left unsupervised."

"That would be funny if she was Tommy's age, but she isn't. When does Hana finally get held accountable for being Hana? When does 'being Hana' stop being a valid excuse for hurting everyone in her path?"

Ravi grabbed Sora's hand. "Today. It stops being enough today and I'll tell her that."

"You don't have to do that for me."

"I don't do anything I don't want to do on some level. I was hoping to try again with Hana because she promised not to lie to me anymore. She said between us would be the truth and nothing but, only to prove that she's incapable of being a woman of her word. I can't go on like that anymore. I'm not the man who'd pat her on the head and carry on like it was business as usual. That man is gone and good riddance."

"What are you planning to say to her?"

Ravi looked at the skyline for a beat, then he got up and took out his wallet. "Take my card. Pay for lunch. Go shopping. Go to a spa. Get a massage. I thought I was making it up to you, but I severely underestimated the extent of the damage she caused. I'll be making this right for years. Shouldn't be like that."

Sora pushed Ravi's black AmEx back toward him. "I can pay my own way and lunch is on me. You don't have to take care of me."

Ravi caught her wrist as she went to pull it back. "I want to. You deserve that." After a moment of hesitation, Ravi leaned down and kissed her cheek. "See you later."

Sora was still reeling from the tickle of his 5 o'clock shadow against her skin and didn't reply.

This wasn't the first time Ravi had referenced making amends. He was forever apologizing for Hana being Hana like he'd led her to Anthony and shoved them together any more than Sora at her worst off had been guilty of spurring on their affair.

Sora wasn't sure what had gone on in Rome, but she was beginning to think that she wasn't the only one left damaged after the past couple of years.