"What are you talking about?" Madayanti said, her tone not challenging but direct.
"I know you don't even care about Raaya anymore? But don't expect me to pretend that my sister never existed or that she didn't matter. She mattered to me, and she mattered to him, whether you acknowledge it or not."
Jake stood between them and felt the weight of thirty years of separation and anger and the particular grief that came from losing someone to a choice they had made freely.
Behind him, Raani was struggling with the presence of Madayanti, who looked similar to Raaya.
The matriarch looked at Jake with eyes that were recalculating what she was seeing. She thought he was just a timid boy who found treasure and was now living a spoiled, rich life, but he was anything but that.
The other women of the Jiunsu Clan stepped forward with the momentum, like they owned this place.
