Khalida thought Bhumika overindulged her child. That was fine. That was a mother’s prerogative. Let her daughter be a terror, at least for a time. Some believed they could ready a child for the cruelties of the world with punishment and unkindness, callousing the heart before the world could set its knives upon it. But Bhumika was raised a temple child—taught to excise her softness and weakness, and to face the world with her teeth bared. And still, every loss she had experienced had hurt her. Still, she carried the scars of her own choices, and the choices made by others. She wanted a
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