Her infant son had not been planned, but Tina never thought of it as an inconvenience. “I wanted the baby more than I wanted to be a Bollywood actress.” Her voice shook with emotion.
“And what happened? You lost both.” Reema tossed her hands up in the air in surrender.
Dev cupped his hand on Tina’s shoulder. This time her instinct wasn’t to shake him off. Her tense muscles began to relax under the comforting weight.
“You should have gone straight back to work. Dev did.” Reema gestured at him with reluctant admiration. “He didn’t miss a step. You, however, took a prolonged vacation.”
“I insisted that she take some time off,” Dev said.
Tina went very still. She wasn’t prepared for Dev to take the blame. She didn’t need his help. Not anymore.
Reema stopped in the middle of the busy corridor and her eyes widened with horror. “Why would you suggest that? Tina’s acting roles were getting smaller and her responsibilities to our family were getting bigger.”
“You remember what she was like after the miscarriage.” Dev’s voice grew colder. “She was grieving.”
“She would have snapped out of it sooner if she hadn’t taken an extended break from work. The gap between movies isn’t going to be easy to overcome,” Reema decided. “I knew she shouldn’t have married.”
Dev’s eyebrow rose from that statement. “What do you mean?”
“The moment an actress marries, her career is over. It wasn’t too long ago when an actress had to hide the fact that she was married.”
“Amma, please,” she whispered. She was used to these sweeping statements but she couldn’t withstand another fresh wave of guilt. She knew all about how her mother had had to give up her Bollywood dreams because she had gotten pregnant and had to marry.
“You can’t just take off work.” She turned to Dev and explained. “I have a family to clothe and feed. We need to pay for her sister Rani to complete her education. And her sister Meera is getting married to an engineer with a good family. I don’t need to tell you how important her dowry is.”
“And you expect Tina to pay for all of this?”
Tina felt Dev’s gaze on her and gave a nod. She was the oldest child and the duty to provide had been placed on her at a young age. Once she’d wished she could have gone to school with her sisters, but that had been a luxury she couldn’t afford.
“Of course,” Reema said. “I always knew Tina was our way of getting out of the slums. Considering all of the beauty pageants, talent shows and modeling assignments we went through, I had expected Tina to earn more by now. I admit she’s not a great actress, but plenty of Bollywood stars get by on their looks.”
“I will pay for her sister’s wedding,” Dev announced. “And her dowry.”
Dev’s words gave Tina a jolt and she stared at him. “What are you doing?” she whispered fiercely. “That’s not necessary.”
He ignored her as he spoke to her mother. “And if you need anything, anything at all, contact my assistant.”
“Why would you do that?” Reema asked as she gave him an assessing look. “This is between Tina and me.”
“I don’t want Tina under any stress,” he explained. “She’s recuperating.”
“Still?” Reema said in a squawk. She turned and looked at her daughter with disappointment. “Tina, I did not raise you to be so weak.”
Tina didn’t respond. She knew the hopelessness she had slipped into was not her fault, and yet, she wondered why she broke so easily. She knew how to fight and push through to get what she wanted. Nothing came easy for her. After the miscarriage, she had fought so hard to feel normal but it hadn’t worked.
“Tina is not weak,” Dev said in a growl. “She won’t let me take care of her, but I will take care of this.”
Reema pursed her lips as if she was weighing her options. “Thank you, Dev. It’s the least you could do since you kept Tina from working. I hope you won’t interfere with her career in the future.”
“Amma, you and my sisters are a priority,” she vowed. Her mother still wanted total control over her career and had been furious when Dev had taken over. But that was going to change. Tina needed to start the process of removing her mother as her manager and taking more responsibility in her career. “I can still take care of everyone.”
“From the looks of it, you can’t even take care of yourself.” Reema sighed. “And you need to do something about your appearance—”