Chapter One
July 15th, 1997
Sandhya gasped in excitement as she saw the two lines appear on her pregnancy test—she was pregnant! She and Arun had been trying for a third child for the past few months to no avail, but finally, it had happened.
She runs over to their bedroom, holding it up. “Arun, we’re pregnant!” she yells in Telugu, and her husband looks at her joyfully. They celebrate briefly and then fall asleep, but Sandhya can’t.
Something was keeping her up – something weird.
Oh, shit.
She and Arun had sex four nights ago. It takes longer than that for a woman to get pregnant. Sandhya’s eyes go wide as she remembers what happened two weeks ago.
Right . Arun was in Hyderabad, reconnecting with friends from his undergraduate days at IIT. He and Tony Stark – yes, that Tony Stark. The CEO of Stark Industries, Aniruddh Edward Stark – have been best friends since their MIT (graduate school) days, and naturally, Sandhya became close friends with him, as she was an MIT alum, too, and was dating Arun at the time. Their twins, Harsha and Sesha, loved him too, as ‘Tony Uncle.”
The day Arun left for India, Tony and Sandhya dropped him off at JFK airport, as the three had gone out for happy hour earlier. While the kids were at a friend’s house, Tony invited Sandhya to his tower, just ten minutes away from their home, to hang out.
It started innocently—catching up over drinks, reminiscing about old times, chatting about their families and work, and sharing memories of Arun. But as the night wore on, the drinks kept flowing. One thing led to another; things had gone too far before she knew it. They did it on the couch, an accidental lapse in judgment, and Sandhya woke up feeling sick and guilty the following day.
And now this.
Sandhya lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, overwhelmed by the weight of the situation. She knew precisely how pregnancies worked, and the timing wasn’t adding up in her favor. This baby wasn’t Arun’s.
Guilt flooded through her. Arun was so excited—he thought this child was theirs. And she wasn’t ready to shatter that belief, not now, maybe not ever. Tony didn’t even know she was pregnant yet; they had agreed never to speak of that night again. They had managed to move past the awkwardness, but what would Tony say when he found out? What would Arun say if he found out?
Taking a deep breath, Sandhya swallowed a sleeping pill left over from her pregnancy with the twins. She told herself she would keep this secret—at least for now. There was no reason to complicate things until the child was older. She would bury this secret deep, hoping it stayed hidden.
a while later
The weeks, and soon months, passed too fast for Sandhya. She kept her routine – getting the twins ready for school, working from her home computer as a business analyst for Stark Industries, and cooking food for her family when they got home – but she couldn’t stop thinking about her mistake. Sure, she wanted a third child, but with Tony Stark, the man she knew was a playboy? Each day, she felt like she was treading eggshells around her husband, balancing the immense guilt inside her as well as her pregnancy.
Sandhya was eating the most diabolical food combinations (ketchup and cookies, or chicken curry and laddu). She was vomiting every morning – the usual symptoms – and her husband was there to hold her hair back – did she even deserve that? Arun would calm her down after every barf, telling her she was glowing, and Sandhya would just laugh it off. She was a time bomb waiting to blow up at any moment in time, and every depressed glance in the mirror reminded her of that one teeny-tiny secret.
Conversations with Tony were a bit… awkward. They barely spoke now—when they did, it was just through voicemail or small calls about things like her kids’ birthday plans. He came over sometimes, but Sandhya would always make an excuse and leave the house or stay upstairs and ‘work’—he had no idea. But how was she going to tell him when it was time?
Arun nor the kids didn’t care – the former came back from his work trips in the city with rants about how incompetent some of his team members were, but he was happy that there would be a new addition to this family. The twins, especially Harsha, would love rubbing their mother’s stomach and talking to the baby about how much fun they would have. Sandhya was stressed – she couldn’t believe this was happening. Will he ever find out, or will she keep it a secret?
She was sitting on the little beanbag in the corner of Harsha and Sesha's room, staring at her new daughter’s (The Raavis figured out the sex early enough) ultrasound, when her Nokia buzzed. It was Tony.
“Hey Sandhya, just checking in. How are you and the kids doing?” he texts.
She stares at the message for a while, unsure how to respond. She wanted to tell him about the baby but didn’t know how to begin, so she typed a simple response.
“We’re fine, thanks.” And she left it at that.
a month later
Sandhya and Arun go to a family reunion with the kids, and there is no escaping. Relatives laugh and talk, kids run everywhere, and Sandhya stands at the kitchen counter in her saree, exposing her pregnant belly and causing some aunties to notice and smile. That didn’t help her case, as the guilt was slowly eating her alive – her life felt like a complete lie.
As Sandhya poured herself a glass of water, her aunt approached her with the signature Indian aunty smile.
“Sandhya, you’re glowing! Arun tells me the baby is due in the fall—congratulations to you both!”
Sandhya smiled, though the words tasted bitter on her tongue. “Yes, we’re very excited.”
Her mother-in-law patted her on the arm, oblivious to the turmoil beneath the surface. “You’ve always been such a good mother. I know this baby will be as special as Harsha and Sesha.” They look to the side to find her twins playing happily with their cousins.
Sandhya nodded, her throat tight with emotion. She hated everything .