“You’re too deep in, you can’t get out
You’re just a poor girl in a rich man’s house…”
~ The Rolling Stones.
May & June 1995.
Rajani suffers a seizure in the kitchen. With Samina home, she rushes her mother to the hospital. To their horror, Rajani is diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor requiring immediate surgery with a recommendation to take her to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. With no time to lose, they fly to NYC and admit Rajani into the hospital while Samina stays in a nearby hotel. Ronit flies in the next day and checks into the same hotel as Samina, though in a different room. He accompanies her to the hospital and meets Rajani before her surgery, who begs them both to make sure doctors operate in the right place.
Michael finishes his first semester at Saint Louis University and works at the church’s after school program, often riding with “KK” afterwards to drop off the children. Life inside the rectory of St. Teresa of Avila, however, is tense and challenging since Father Jim and Father Tom openly make life difficult for Michael.
After surgery, Samina and Ronit are horrified to learn that the doctor operated on the wrong side of her brain, removing a lot of healthy tissue while searching for her tumor which remains in place. Once Rajani’s condition stabilizes, they transfer her to Cornell Medical Center to have the tumor successfully removed. Prior to her surgery, Ronit consoles a distraught Samina in her hotel room leading to a night of passion.
