Summary

In Chapter 18, Smita and Mohan visit Rupal to interview him for the newspaper article. He is unabashed in telling the visitors that he encouraged Gavind and Arvind to start the fire. Rupal touts his omniscience and warns Smita that no one in the town will speak to her because he forbade it. In Chapter 19, Smita and Mohan return to the motel and Smita struggles not to correlate her trauma with Abru and Meena’s trauma.

Meena continues to tell the reader about her romance with Abdul in Chapter 20. She describes the day she and Abdul worked side by side at the factory and walked home together. She was conflicted by her desire to spend time with Abdul and the fear of the punishment her brothers would inflict if they found out she spoke with a Muslim man. Abdul insisted that he...