The Wrong Woman

66. Mouna

Two Months Later

My grandma reached down to pet a dog on our way to the apartment building. We had just come back from a movie screening and it was like being a child again. There were people screaming and hooting at the actors that came on screen and grandma and I couldn't stop giggling.

"You like dogs?" the little boy who was holding the leash next to his parent asked.

"I love them," she responded. I rolled my bottom lip in, trying not to say anything. That was partly because I didn't want her knee to become worse by putting unnecessary pressure and because the dog's dark brown fur reminded me so much of Cookie.

I wonder how he is doing with Rani, I thought. She didn't seem to like dogs or animals very much.

"Mouna," she said with a grunt as she got up. I reached forward and held her upper arm, peering into her face. The twist of her thin, pink lips told me she was in pain.

"Why did you bend down like that if you knew you were going to get hurt?"

"I thought you were going to do better."

"By that I didn't mean I was going to neglect you!"

She chuckled and patted my cheek. "You did buy me cake after all."

"Exactly, you're probably diabetic right now." She gave me a look that made me laugh, and we headed up the stairs. It wasn't until I opened the door to our apartment that I smacked my hand against my forehead. "Speaking of, I forgot to buy your medication!"

"The prescription ones? I still have them."

"I gave you the last ones this morning. I'll go get them." I grabbed the prescription paper from the little treasure box I kept on the small table near the front door and hurried out. I re-read the name and the medication, reassuring myself that I had grabbed the right thing when my foot missed the step going down.

My world blurred as my body plummeted toward the ground. My arms flailed outward, only to come in contact with something solid. Not just my arms, but my body, too. Breathing heavily, I looked up at who had saved me.

And I could not believe my eyes.

Dhruv looked down at me—me, not me as Rani—his dark chocolate brown eyes flashing. "I'm starting to think you don't have a good relationship with stairs."

I hadn't seen him in two months. After that day I'd changed, he'd never come back.

But two months...and now he was here. Why?

I pushed at his chest, moving away from him and carefully pressing myself against the banister as I headed down the stairs so I didn't fall again. "I don't know what you're talking about," I said over my shoulder, "but thank you, sir, for helping me."

"I'm pretty sure you fell down my stairs when I first met you."

I recalled what he brought up, but that only made me question what that meant. Did he believe me when I said we'd swapped bodies? Is that why he was here? But that made no sense. Why did it take him two months?

Regardless, I didn't want him to think I was crazy so I offered him a smile and continued my way down the stairs. My heart jumped around, the cords in my belly tying themselves into knots; he was wearing blue jeans and a tight long-sleeved black v-neck that made him stand out in this building with peeled grey walls and creaky, wooden stairs.

Rushing out the front door, I looked left and right for a rickshaw I could flag down. I needed to get away from him quickly. My heart screamed at me to stop thinking so much and to stay but my head told me to leave because I didn't know what he wanted—

"Rani told me everything."

Rani told him everything?! I whipped around. A group of people pushed past me and I stumbled a little. He surged forward to help me, but I dodged his touch. That was when I found my voice. "I don't know a Rani. Please, you should go back to her."

"That tells me you do know her." He stepped forward and seeing that I wasn't moving away, took another step. "From the brief time we shared, I know that you care about other people more than yourself."

"That's not true. I only care about my grandma and myself." I stiffly turned. "Goodbye."

I successfully flagged down a rickshaw and climbed in, urging myself to not look back. I didn't want to see if he had left. I didn't know why Rani told him everything when they were working things out. Did she want to torture me? Had she somehow found out about my feelings that I kept at bay for their sake?

The answer was something I didn't want to find out.