by Holly Rayner
“Steph, where are you going?”
“To talk to Sadiq. I’d say it’s long overdue, wouldn’t you?”
“It’s nearly ten o’clock at night. Do you really think he’ll be at work?”
Steph shrugged, grabbing her purse and checking that her phone was charged and her hotel key was in place so she could get back into the room—if her mother would allow it.
“I have to try,” she said, heading toward the door.
“Steph, there’s something I need to tell you about the wedding…”
“It’s okay, Dad. We can talk it all out later. Right now I’ve got to do this.”
Steph closed the door before her father could get another word in edgewise and then pressed the elevator button, waiting impatiently as the car rose to the highest floor. When she finally reached the lobby, she shot out into the main room, heading toward the doors.
Pulling out Sadiq’s card, she looked at the address before getting out her phone and keying it into her maps app. He worked only a few blocks away from the hotel!
Steph tried to wrap her mind around the fact that her fiancé had been mere blocks away from her the whole time she had been in the country as she followed the directions toward his building. She passed by a food cart not unlike the one she had stopped at with Mehdi, and her heart sank a little deeper.
***
After a few more blocks, Steph found Sadiq’s building. The structure was one of the taller skyscrapers, and it stood out. It looked as though she had walked into a financial district, all the buildings towering cleanly over the rest of the city. The lobby to the building was lit up, even at that time of night, and Steph tested the front glass door, finding it unlocked.
Business never sleeps, as they say, she thought.
A lone security guard sat at a desk watching some monitors, and he looked up when Steph entered.
He asked her something in El Farahn, and Steph hesitated. Seeing her hesitation, the man switched to English.
“Can I help you, miss?”
Steph released a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “Yes. I’m looking for Sadiq Al Jabal. Do you know if he’s left the office yet?”
The man’s expression was blank as he stared at her. “That depends on what you need to see him for,” he answered.
Steph’s heart fluttered with nerves. The guard’s answer indicated that Sadiq was indeed still in his office. There was a small chance she could get their meeting over with tonight, and then who knew what the next day would bring?
“I’m his fiancée.”
The man’s eyebrows shot up at this. “Fiancés don’t tend to see one another in El Farah, last I checked.”
“This is a special occasion.”
“If by special occasion, you mean you left him at the altar and everyone knows about it, then you are correct.”
Steph winced at his words. They were said without heat, however, which led her to hope that all was not lost.
“Please. I need a chance to explain myself. He deserves to know why I did what I did. I know it’s not conventional, but I’m asking you to make an exception.”
The guard stared at her with imposing brown eyes, his round face softening ever so slightly. He picked up a phone and paused, then a voice spoke on the other end of the line. The guard began speaking in El Farahn again, likely to keep her in the dark about the conversation. After a moment, he put the phone down and stared at Steph once more.
“Mr. Al Jabal will see you. I don’t think it is wise, but what do I know? I’m just an old man full of wisdom that everyone ignores.” He pressed a button and a door behind him buzzed. “He’s on the fourth floor,” he grumbled.
Steph thanked him and sped to the door, opening it before the guard had a chance to close it and ruin her chance of talking with Sadiq. She was met by a long line of shiny gold elevators, and she pressed a button in the middle of them. A door on the end dinged immediately, and she rushed over, pressing the button for Sadiq’s floor before staring at her own scared reflection in the golden doors as they closed.
A short minute and yet an eternity later, the elevator doors opened to a series of sleek offices. There were no cubicles, just a large open space in the middle with a big conference table set up and private offices all around the perimeter.
Steph gazed around, not sure where to go next. Then a man stepped out of an office at the end.
He walked over to her, his expression cautious.
“Steph?” he asked.
Steph stared at him. He was handsome, it was true. He was tall, his hair dark, though his eyes were blue, like hers. If one didn’t know better, they could have been taken for siblings, their coloring was so alike. He was dressed in a sharp suit that perfectly fit his form.
Her parents had been right. He was rich, handsome, and had kind eyes. But he still wasn’t Mehdi.
“Hello, Sadiq,” she said.
She went to stick out her hand, realized that was probably an inappropriate gesture to give the man she had abandoned before her wedding, and dropped it.
Sadiq’s eyes darted down, seeing the movement. His expression was maddeningly calm.
“Why don’t you come into my office and we can talk?”
“I would like that,” she said.
He led the way back to his office, which was immaculate. There was a large bookcase with many old volumes on its shelves and a vast mahogany desk in the center of the room. Behind the desk was a large window that looked out at the city, which was glittering beneath the starlight. Steph thought about how many more stars she had seen at Mehdi’s palace, then shook her head.
Mehdi could wait. Now she had to give time to Sadiq.
“You took quite the risk coming here this late at night. How did you know I would be here?”
“I didn’t,” Steph answered, taking a seat as Sadiq sat behind his own desk. “But while we’re on the topic, what are you doing here?”
He gestured to an orderly pile of paperwork on his desk. “The finance district never sleeps.”
“So you work in finance,” Steph said.
Sadiq nodded. “It was a family business, and it’s something I enjoy.”
Steph swallowed. She was making small talk with the man she was meant to marry.
Seeming to pick up on her trepidation, Sadiq leaned in. “You’ve come to tell me that you’re sorry, I take it?”
Steph nodded. “I have, though I imagine it will ring a bit hollow.”
Sadiq stared at her for a moment. His blue eyes really were piercing. Steph imagined had she not been whisked away by Mehdi, she would have approved of her parents’ choice. As it was, her heart seemed to have been totally captured by another man.
“You really are very pretty,” Sadiq said, apparently appraising her as well. “Perhaps we could have had a good life together—though I suppose now that we’ve seen each other, marriage would be impossible.”
“Would you want to get married though, even after all this?”
As Steph listened to Sadiq talk, she realized he could have made a very good friend. Given their circumstances, it seemed that would be impossible now. Still, he deserved the full truth, and she would give it to him.
“No. I only came here because I wanted to see if I could do better with a different life.”
“Your family said that you worked in finance as well,” he said.
“I did, and I hated it.”
Sadiq’s eyebrows shot up at that. “But what’s to hate? The pace is fast, and the money is abundant.”
It was clear to Steph that Sadiq was very passionate about his job. She tried to imagine being home alone at night while he worked day in and day out, doing what he loved. It sounded very lonely.
“Never mind all that,” Steph said, changing the subject. “I came here to apologize. The truth is, an arranged marriage isn’t really what I wanted, and I tried to be strong until the end, but…” She hesitated, not wanting to give Mehdi away. “I just couldn’t do it.”
Sadiq was quiet for a moment as he stared at her with a curious expression. Then, without warning, he burst into laughter. Steph watched him in bewilderment as he worked to contain his mirth.
After a moment, he looked back at her, his expression apologetic. “I’m sorry, Steph. I know how this must come off, but the truth is, I didn’t want to get married either.”
Steph blinked. “I’m sorry?”
Sadiq’s eyes sparkled with mischief, and Steph realized then that she might have just made a new friend after all.
“There is a revolution going on in this country, Steph.”
At her surprised expression, he held up his hands.
“Not like that. A cultural revolution. As the world gets smaller, many of us have traveled and seen how other cultures do things. We like the way the world is different outside here. We don’t think there’s anything wrong with adopting some of those practices ourselves. Marriage for love is one of them.”
“You want to marry for love?” Steph asked.
“I do,” Sadiq agreed. “In fact, there is a woman I have very much been in love with for quite some time.”
“Then why did you agree to this?” Steph said.
“You know exactly why. My parents wanted a girl they could approve of, and you fit the bill better than she did. Her parents have another man in mind for her, anyway.”
“What are you going to do? Run away together?”
Sadiq stared out into space for a moment, considering that option. “No. I don’t think we’ll run away. Now that I’ve been left at the altar my status as desirable has been diminished. Not many other girls will be brave enough to accept an offer from my parents.”
Steph glanced down, feeling deep embarrassment for the harm she had caused.
“Oh, no. You shouldn’t feel bad! You’ve given me the greatest gift of all, Steph. Now there will only be one woman in the world willing to accept me—the exact woman I want.”
Steph looked up to find Sadiq beaming with gratitude, and she couldn’t help but smile back. “We’re certainly an interesting pair, aren’t we?”
“You could say that,” he chuckled.
“But you put so much effort into making us want you in our family—upgrading us to first class, a luxury suite. Why didn’t you try to sabotage it?”
Sadiq shrugged. “I may have wanted something different, but I wasn’t about to let my future wife’s family travel uncomfortably. That’s not how I treat the people close to me, and, for all intents and purposes, that would have included you.”
Steph’s smile was warm as she stared at him with fresh eyes. “I’m glad that this could work out.”
Sadiq held out a hand for her to shake, which she did, vigorously. She was about to ask him about the woman he loved when they heard the elevator ding again and a loud voice coming from that general direction.
The voice belonged to none other than Steph’s mother.
THIRTEEN
Steph
“Where is she? Where is my daughter?”
Steph winced at the anger in her mother’s voice, and Sadiq lifted an eyebrow.
“I take it that’s my ex future mother-in-law?”
Steph nodded, her throat bone dry. “You guessed it.”
Without hesitating, Sadiq stood and stepped out of his office. Steph waited in her seat a moment, working up her courage, taking strength from the fact that Sadiq was not only with her, but also on her side. She stood and joined him outside the office.
Elora was making her way across the large open room. Behind her, Steph saw her father, his cheeks ruddy, his shoulders slumped. If he’d had a tail, it would have been firmly between his legs.
Finally, Steph braved a real look at her mother, who practically had flames shooting from her eyes. It didn’t bode well for them. Seeing Sadiq, Elora calmed her expression, though her shoulders remained stiff, her posture aggressive.
“Sadiq. I can’t apologize enough for all of this. I had thought we could come to another agreement, that this might be salvageable, but now I see my daughter has ruined everything by coming here to meet you.”
“You are mistaken,” Sadiq said, his tone calm and collected. “Steph’s coming here has been quite the blessing.”
That took Elora by surprise, and she stepped back, glancing at her husband, whose eyes darted up to hers before quickly shooting back down to the floor. Sometimes it was hard to remember that this man had once been at the epicenter of global commerce. To his wife, he was a doting husband—most especially when she was mad.
“I… I’m not sure what you mean,” Elora said.
She was watching them both carefully, no doubt evaluating their positions in relation to one another, trying to find any kind of hint that all might not be lost. She was about to be very disappointed.
Sadiq grinned, and his warm smile and soothing presence was everything Steph’s family needed.
“The truth is, Mrs. O’Hanlon, I didn’t want an arranged marriage either. Steph and I are on the same page about that. I have feelings for another woman, as it happens, and now I have the chance to be with her.”
“But you agreed. You went through an arduous vetting process for us to match you. Why would you do that if you were in love with another woman?”
“Why do you think Steph went through with it, even though she was afraid? I take it you, too, entered into an arranged marriage. Why did you do it?”
Steph stepped forward then, finding her voice. “Because we love our families,” she said, her voice trembling ever so slightly. “And we would do anything to make them happy.”
Elora placed her fists on her hips, though her posture had softened a bit. “If you loved your families, we wouldn’t be standing here right now. Your parents must be devastated! Do they even know that you didn’t want this?”
“They knew from the beginning, but my parents tend to believe I am incapable of making my own decisions—in spite of my personal success. It is something I plan on proving them wrong about, once I marry the woman I am destined to be with.”
“And that woman isn’t me, Mom,” Steph chimed in.
Elora’s stare bounced between the two of them, her mind working furiously. After a tense moment, her shoulders finally relaxed all the way, her anger seeming to melt down into the floor.
“Fair enough,” she conceded.
Steph blinked. “What?”
Elora shrugged. “I should have known you would be too headstrong to go through with this. I should have listened to you all the times you told me you couldn’t go through with it. I’ve pushed you away because of a centuries-old sense of tradition and duty, but the truth is, we never seem to question why we do the things we do. Perhaps allowing for more than one way is the path toward the future.”
Sadiq beamed. “You’ll have to be careful, Mrs. O’Hanlon, or you might be joining the revolution with the rest of us.”
“Don’t be silly,” she scolded, though there was a small gleam in her eye. “Now if you’ll excuse us, Sadiq, I think it’s long past time we got my daughter back to the hotel.”
Steph wondered just how much trouble she would be in once they were alone. Sadiq seemed to have the same thought, as he took a gentle step forward.
“Please don’t be too hard on Steph about this, Mrs. O’Hanlon. She’s a wonderful person, and she deserves to marry a man who will love her entirely, with no strings attached. I think she may have already found that man,” he said, glancing back at Steph with a smile.
Steph’s grin was thankful as she reached out a hand for Sadiq to shake, which he did, heartily.
“It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Sadiq. I hope you get what you’re looking for.”
“I think I will, thanks to you. Thanks for having the courage. You’re a stronger person than I.”
Steph laughed. “I sincerely doubt that.”
Sadiq shook hands with Elora and Jerry before walking them to the elevator and bidding them all farewell. When they s
tepped inside and the doors closed, Steph held her breath, waiting to see if her mother would change her tune.
After a pause, Elora turned to Steph and wrapped her firmly in her arms, holding her tight.
“Oh, Steph,” she breathed.
Steph could feel her mother’s relief, and she held her back just as tightly.