PROLOGUE

MAY 2018, Two Years Ago

"You are insane. It will never work, Mukti."

"It has to, Nandani," her best friend Mukti, set her beer down with a thump on the table between their beach chairs.

"My mom would flip," Nandani said.

Mukti shrugged a slim shoulder. "Well, that is just a bonus."

Their tradition of lying out at night on the deck of Mukti's parent's pool and talking about anything and everything was alive and well. Looking out over the expanse of water, tinted electric blue by the liner and the lighting, was oddly soothing.

"You think we can sell our own clothes and make money at it. We are just nineteen," Nandani said.

"Come on. With my designs and your brain? We cannot fail," Mukti replied.

The prospect did seem more intriguing than the lifestyle promised by the investment banking internship pamphlets, that Nandani's mom kept sending her. Though the two beers she had downed might have made the idea of starting a fashion label extra rosy.

The slamming of a car door cut the night. Nandani jerked upright, glancing over the hedge that provided some privacy between the pool deck and the driveway beside the house.

"You were lucky not to get arrested." Mukti's father's voice thundered. Mukti and Nandani both exchanged startled looks. While Nandani didn't know the 'what' she was pretty sure she knew the 'who.'

Manik Malhotra, Mukti's nineteen-year-old twin brother, marched ahead of his father up the back walkway towards the porch.

There was a striking resemblance between them, though Manik was taller. Sunglasses stuck out of the neck of his button-down shirt, though it was past midnight. His dark hair fell carelessly over his forehead, brows that were drawn together.

With those looks, he could have been an actor in the latest Netflix teen drama.

"It is not what you think. You are taking it out of context." Manik's low voice carried.

"I get a call to come and pick you up from a party where there were drugs. What part of that is out of context?" Manik's father asked him.

Manik glanced back as he reached for the handle of the porch door. Nandani cursed her delayed realization that they were visible over the tops of their lawn chairs as Manik's gaze locked with hers.

Manik's assessing eyes stared her down.

Shivers ran down Nandani's spine, completely unwarranted. She felt like she was the one who had been caught. Which was crazy.

Nandani forced herself not to turn away, her breath sticking in her chest until Manik's gaze finally released hers.

He turned the handle and stepped inside. The rest of their conversation was muffled as they closed the door.

"Wow," Nandani said while sinking into her chair.

"Manik's been crazy lately. Did you hear that two cheerleaders got suspended for fighting over him in the hallway at High School? Ms. Jenny had to physically tear them apart," Mukti said.

Nandani had never fought over a guy, but she kind of got it. She pictured the gym teacher, Ms. Jenny, trying desperately to separate the girls. Manik had a reputation for igniting female imaginations and hormones.

Nandani took another sip of beer, "Did we ever get into trouble like that in high school?" she asked Mukti.

"Trouble? Yes. Trouble like that? No," Mukti replied.

"Here's to college, and being grown up." Nandani raised her beer glass and clinked it against Mukti's. "No more bad decisions or drama. It is all smooth sailing from here," she added.