A Change of Heart by Sonali Dev

ruthless blasts had taken to bubbling up inside her at the most unpredictable times. Ever since she’d left him last night, an odd fear had gripped her.
    It was nothing like her fear when she thought about Joy in a car with those men, his little heart imagining her in trouble. That fear gave her purpose, made her so angry she would do anything. This fear she felt when she saw flashes of Jen’s Nikhil emerging from behind his grief was different from any she’d known before, and every time it bloomed in her belly it took her by surprise. It reminded her of that first time she’d felt her baby kicking and not known what it was.
    Tiffany held out a board of color swatches. “What looks good?”
    â€œJust a basic dark brown.” She just wanted her natural color back.
    She wanted her life back.
    One step at a time. That’s what her mother had taught her. The only way to get through life was to look at the ground beneath your feet and take one step, then another. Looking too far down the path was what made you stumble.

9
    I glimpsed madness today. Evil so complete has to be insanity.
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    â€”Dr. Jen Joshi
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    A sif Khan had never been inside a beauty parlor. But true leaders did what needed to be done. If saving his empire—Mumbai’s most feared gang—meant walking into this flowery-smelling hole where women had hair ripped off their soft parts, he’d do it.
    He had to hand it to the bitches. The things they went through to be attractive to men, whom they didn’t even seem to like that much. It was hilarious. Then again, life was about doing things you hated for chutiyas you hated even more.
    He thought he had the fucker by the balls, but the last time he had spoken to him he seemed to be up to something, and Asif hadn’t become the biggest bhai in the Mumbai underworld by not staying ten steps ahead of smug chutiyas .
    This beauty parlor was where that nosy doctor bitch had last been seen before her stubborn neck had been snapped in half so her brain would die but her heart would keep beating. All the ceramic tile–covered walls were lined with pictures of foreign bitches with glossy pouty lips and fluffy hair. Some of them were even showing cleavage. Totally fuckable.
    Asif liked foreign maal, so spotless and so shameless. He stroked the boobs on the poster and felt his dick thicken in his pants. Not that it took the bastard much to come to life.
    He turned to the fat old cow who was cowering behind her counter. Naturally, his dick shriveled.
    â€œAre you the madam of this place?” he asked around the tobacco juicing up his cheek.
    She nodded.
    â€œDo you have someone less hideous I can talk to?”
    His men guffawed.
    â€œBhai, look at this!” One of his men had grabbed two pretty young sluts by their arms and dragged them out of a room in the back.
    The girls were shaking and sobbing in their tight dresses.
    Ah, there was that thickening in his pants again. He licked his lips.
    â€œHow can I help you, Bhai?” The fat bitch interrupted his study.
    He snapped his fingers in her direction without looking at her and his men moved at her. She squeaked.
    â€œCan’t you see Bhai is busy?” He had the best-trained men in the business. Not to mention the most loyal. They would all die for him in a heartbeat. A man didn’t rule Dharavi without an army like that.
    Which reminded him why he was here. When you sat at the top, ten people waited to topple you over. He turned to the sniveling madam.
    â€œYou knew that foreign doctor?”
    She looked blank.
    â€œThe chinky one.” He pulled his eyes into slits and his men guffawed again.
    She didn’t answer. Asif raised an eyebrow, and Laloo, his right-hand man, grabbed her hair and gave it a hard yank, squeezing another satisfying squeak out of her.
    â€œJen madam,” one of the girls said behind him.
    He turned around and waited for his man to drag her closer, then