There was nothing for it. She would have to face her parents’ wrath and be done with it. Would they disown her for such an offense? Who could tell? She had, in traditional El Farahn culture, effectively shamed her mother for all eternity. No one would want her after this.
Was that such a bad thing, though? Steph thought about Mehdi’s comment about opening a boutique, about charting her own course. Then again, it was easy to say that when one didn’t have to worry about finances.
Steph sat in the car until the driver came around and opened the door, forcing her into action. She stepped out and thanked him, swallowing as she looked up at the beautiful dome of the hotel. The place had nothing on Mehdi’s palace, but, she supposed, that was the point.
Stepping into the lobby, no one seemed to notice her. She walked up to the concierge and told them she had lost her room key, which was true, and the woman happily supplied her with a new one.
She stepped into the elevator, pressing the button for the top floor with a trembling finger. She wondered if acting out had really been worth it in the end. She had never been more scared than she was in that moment, preparing to face her parents.
There was no way she could find her fiancé so she could talk to him first, which was a shame, really. Perhaps if she could have gotten him to see things her way, she would have had a stronger argument with her parents.
The elevator door dinged, and the doors opened. Steph took several tremulous steps out into the hallway and stopped several feet from the closed door, working up her courage.
She could do this. She could face the consequences of her actions. Each step she took felt like she was walking through molasses. Finally, she reached the door and slid her key into the lock, unlocking the door with a click.
Pushing it open, Steph breathed in deeply, expecting to see her mother’s scowling face as she walked in the door. Instead, she was met with silence, as the suite was completely empty, and clean. She wondered if her parents had checked out, but then she heard footsteps coming from the direction of her parents’ room.
Steph kept her eyes glued to their door until her father walked out and their gazes met. Jerry’s blue eyes, so much like her own, widened in surprise and shock, and he froze in place, staring at her.
“Steph?” he said.
Steph could hardly breathe as she waited for her mother to come out and berate her for what she had done. After several moments, it seemed clear that that wasn’t going to happen. Instead, her father walked a few steps closer until he was facing her directly.
“Where’s Mom?” she asked, her eyes darting behind his shoulder to see if Elora would arrive and break this frozen tableau of anticipation.
Jerry glanced behind him as though he would find his wife there before he turned back to Steph.
“She’s not here,” he said.
“Oh,” Steph said.
It was an awkward moment, where father and daughter stared at one another as though they were complete strangers, before finally Jerry’s face melted into a mask of relief and he wrapped his arms tightly around his daughter.
“Thank God you’re safe,” he breathed, holding her close.
It was hardly the welcome Steph had thought she would receive, though she knew her father’s relief would soon be replaced by anger. After a moment, she pulled back and looked earnestly into his eyes.
“Dad, we need to talk.”
Chapter 12
Steph
Jerry stepped back and gestured toward the plush living room sofas. Steph walked over and took a seat, her father sitting across from her with his elbows on his knees, his expression anxious.
Steph took a breath and plunged in.
“So I guess I made my point about not wanting to go through with this,” she said.
Jerry sighed. He looked tired and worried, the lines on his face etched a little deeper. Steph felt a pang of guilt, knowing she was the probable cause of many of those lines.
“What happened, Steph? You were all ready to go, and then when you never came back, we didn’t know what to do. Then we get a text from a strange number saying you’re okay but giving us no other information?
“We’ve had nothing to do but sit here and wait. Your mother is visiting some relatives on the other side of town as we speak, trying to figure out how to determine where that call came from so we could find you.”
Steph stared resolutely at the coffee table, unable to meet her father’s gaze as he poured out days of worry and stress and frustration.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“I know,” he said, and she glanced up in surprise.
“I get it, Steph. It was unfair of us to try to push you in this direction. We just wanted you to be safe and happy. I know an arranged marriage isn’t conventional, but we’ve seen it work time and time again, with your mother and me and with many of her friends, too. It’s okay to have doubts. I just wish you would have come to me before running away.”
The disappointment in his tone was like a knife to Steph’s heart. A tear escaped her eye before she hastily wiped it away.
“I understand,” she said.
“Where have you been?” he asked, his gaze searching hers for answers.
Steph couldn’t think of what to tell him. Where had she been? Gallivanting with the Sheikh of El Farah, a man who had expressed an interest in marrying her. Perhaps if she told him the truth, he could tell her mother there was an even better suitor in sight than any man they could ever pick for her.
That still didn’t solve the problem of her jilted fiancé, though.
“I’ll tell you later. Right now, what I need to do is find my fiancé and apologize to him in person. I can’t do that without his information, though. Will you help me?”
Her father hesitated. Steph knew if he gave up that information he would be digging them into an even deeper hole of shame. Not only had Steph run away from the wedding, but to see the groom after the fact, before they became man and wife?
There was no help for it. Steph had to face him. He deserved to know why she had run.
After a moment’s consideration, Jerry heaved another heavy sigh and reached into his back pocket, pulling out his wallet and removing a crisp, white business card.
“This is him,” he said, hesitating before holding the card out to her.
Steph took it, staring at the name. Sadiq Al Jabal. Looking at it, she felt nothing. Should she have felt excitement or nerves, or something? Instead all she could think about was Mehdi, standing on a beach, waiting for her. Two men, waiting for her at the same time.
It had been an interesting week.
Steph stood, leaning over her father and kissing him on the head. “Thank you, Dad,” she said before running to her room and throwing open her suitcase.
She quickly changed out of her beachwear and into a comfortable pair of jeans and a T-shirt with a sweatshirt to stave off the cool night air. She was back in the living room before her father had even had a chance to stand. When he saw her dressed, he looked at her, his expression confused.
“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 loo
ked 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. Marri
age 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.
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