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wasn’t happy. But why should she be happy? she thought again. This was just a paycheck baby.
    “This is a very special moment,” Doctor Swati continued. “And I’m sure you have a hundred questions . . . both of you.” She looked first to Priya, then Asha.
    Priya gathered her wits and leaned over to touch the surrogate’s hand. “Thank you so much,” she said in English. Priya understood Telugu fairly well and had agreed to have the proceedings in the clinic conducted in Madhu’s mother tongue, but she felt lost, unable to find the words that conveyed her joy and gratitude in her adopted language.
    “You are welcome,” the woman responded shyly in heavily accented English, and Priya thought then, happily, that the woman wasn’t really that thin. She could see a nice strip of firm belly exposed through her sari.
    “What happens next?” Madhu asked.
    “Well, in two weeks we do an ultrasound. When we see a heartbeat we know it’s going to be OK,” Doctor Swati said. “I don’t foresee a miscarriage, but you never know.”
    Priya knew all about not foreseeing miscarriages. She had not foreseen three of hers.
    “We understand,” Madhu said, and smiled at the woman carrying his child.
    Priya wondered how he felt about the situation. What did he feel for this woman? Was he attracted to her on some primal level because she was going to give birth to his baby? No. Priya shook her head. These were crazy thoughts. She had no reason to be jealous of this woman. Asha was a surrogate baby maker, not a surrogate wife.
    “Can we be in the room when you do the ultrasound?” Priya asked.
    Doctor Swati nodded. “I have already discussed this with Asha, and she will be happy to have you with her.”
    “Thank you,” Priya said again to Asha. “Thank you.” She knew she sounded silly repeating herself, but a mere thank-you and some money didn’t quite show how grateful she was, not when what they were getting from Asha was so enormous, so life changing.
    Asha just nodded and then stared at her hands that lay on her lap.
    “Thank you,” Priya repeated, this time to Asha’s husband, and he flushed visibly and nodded hurriedly.
    What was his name? Priya tried to recollect, but she kept drawing a blank.
    “Asha, Pratap, do you have any questions for Madhu and Priya?” Doctor Swati asked, and when they shook their heads, she continued. “Then if you could please wait outside. I’ll speak with them and then call you in.”
    Priya thanked the couple one more time before they stepped out of Doctor Swati’s office, and Madhu held her hand a smidge tighter. What the hell were they doing? They were handing over a baby, a person, to this woman’s womb, a woman whose husband’s name she hadn’t been able to remember this morning. They would leave for California in two weeks and leave their baby here with someone they didn’t know at all. This was insanity.
    “Priya, are you OK?” Madhu asked, seeing her pallor. He put his arm around her. “You should be happy; we’re pregnant.”
    “I am happy,” Priya said. “But this baby will grow far away from me, and it’s just . . . it’s scary.”
    “Yes,” Doctor Swati said sympathetically. “But Asha and Pratap are part of a warm and loving family. They will take very good care of your baby.”
    “He doesn’t beat her, does he?” The words sprang out of Priya.
    Madhu gave her a quizzical look.
    “No,” Doctor Swati said, looking amused.
    “Sorry, I feel so stupid,” Priya said.
    “Don’t. You’re not the first mother to have these questions and this reaction. It’s a lot of stress to have someone else, someone you don’t see every day, carry your child,” Doctor Swati said. “But I promise you, this baby will be monitored and so will Asha. And you have nothing to worry about with Pratap. He’s a kind and gentle man.”
    When they had first met them, spoken to them, Priya had felt that this was a good couple even though she had no reason to think