“Shiroz, Nadim’s father. Seems the rumors I heard about Nadim were true.”
Oh, shit. Dad found out about the yacht people.
Reena bit her lip. She needed to minimize this. She decided to tell the truth, or what she knew to be true, at least. She wanted a future with Nadim, and a future should only start with honesty. “Yeah, I know, Dad. He hung out with a bad crowd in London. But it’s no big deal. I mean, who cares who his old friends were?”
“What!” Dad yelled. “You knew about his connection to Jasmine Shah and you didn’t tell me?”
“It’s not my place to tell someone else’s business.”
“This isourbusiness!” Dad said, still extremely agitated. “You know my feelings about that family, and I specifically asked you who he was connected with. I am disappointed that Shiroz kept this from me, but my own daughter?”
“Jesus, Dad.” She shook her head. “You need to let go of your obsession with the Shahs. Yeah, he was at a party with Jasmine Shah, but that doesn’t mean he can never work for you.”
Dad gritted his teeth. “If that’s all you think his relationship with the Shahs was, then he’s been lying to you, too. Nadim wasn’t just at apartywith the Shahs, heworkedfor Salim Shah. The new Shah project that failed spectacularly? It was because of Nadim. And Nadim Remtulla has been engaged tomarryJasmine Shah for a year, at least.”
Engaged?Marry?
The walls of her parents’ dining room closed in on her as all the air seemed to be sucked out of her lungs.
Her Nadim…engaged…
“Oh, shit,” Saira said.
“Saira! Language!” Mum snapped.
Engaged, engaged, engaged. Planning to wed. Betrothed. To the daughter of her father’s rival. The daughter of his previous boss, it seemed. Nadim was a fraud. The worst kind of player. She was nothing to him.
“Reena, you okay?” someone said.
Saira stood over her, hand heavy on Reena’s shoulder.
Was she okay?
“Why would Reena be upset?” Mum asked. “You should be worried about your father, not her.”
Saira stood up. “Of course Reena’s upset! You just told her that her boyfriend is engaged to someone else!”
“What?” Dad bellowed, standing. “Nadim is not your boyfriend! You said you wouldn’t marry him!”
“How can he marry Reena if he’s engaged to Jasmine Shah?” Mum asked.
She wasn’t going to marry him. But she was in love with him. Reena blinked, not sure if any of this was really happening.
“Why the hell are you two ragging on her?” Saira said. “You’ve been pushing them together since he moved here! You practically demanded she marry the man, and now he turns out to be a wannabe polygamist, and you’re blaming Reena?”
Dad looked furious, but Reena didn’t care.
Engaged…
“Enough!” Dad slammed his fist on the table, making Ashraf and Mum jump backward. “I can’t have a man with Nadim’s reputation working for me, which means I will lose Shiroz’s investment in the Diamond project. Nadim betrayed my trust, and I will not have him anywhere near my company, or my family.”
“We are very disappointed in you, Reena,” Mum added. “Why would you take up with the boy behind our back? Why so many secrets? Don’t you care about this family?”
What the hell did they want her to say? That she hadn’t asked him about his past and instead listened to apparently incomplete gossip? That she hadn’t been willing to be honest with him, so she let him keep secrets from her?
That she wasn’t surprised that the first time she thought a relationship wasreal, it turned out to be a giant illusion.
Reena was disgusted with herself. He actually gave her afakering, and he never pretended it was anything more. Only she did. This was all on her.
