“Oh, that sounds great. Thank you.” I didn’t have the drink often, but I always really enjoyed it. And healthy too—which was a huge bonus for me. Despite all the chaos and upheaval in my personal life, I always made time for healthy food.
Liliana poured two drinks into plastic cups and handed them to us.
Zahir let go of my hand.
I tried to quash my feeling of disappointment.
As we sipped our drinks, I acclimated myself to the hum of the engines. My nerves hadn’t settled yet, but I was hopeful.
“Do you think you might be able to look outside?” Zahir gestured to the window. “It’s all houses and industrial for now, but soon we’ll hit fields. Then lakes and eventually prairies.”
Slowly, I nodded. “Yeah, okay.” I glanced out the window. As he suggested, civilization was everywhere. So many houses and cars, and roads. I’d always known Toronto was big—largest city in Canada and all that—but I hadn’t had a sense of the urban sprawl of all. “It’s…so many people.”
“Millions and millions. Yeah, it’s a lot. I’m a small-town guy myself. I travel on business, but only when I really have to. Now, you were saying about your dad…? Only if you want—”
“He took me on the camping trip and then he took off.” I took another sip of the tomato juice as if that could somehow quell my nerves. “And we went on much as we always had. Just…he never came back. Then my mom got sick. That…sucked. When she died a few months ago, I thought I was all alone.”
“That’s rough.”
“Yeah. Maybe? Sort of? Dad took off when I was eight, so it’s been eighteen years since I last saw him.”
“Okay. So you’re twenty-six?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s still pretty young.”
I stared. I’d lived a freaking lifetime in the past twenty-six years. I felt like I was sixty-six. Or eighty-six. Ready to be at the end of my life—not at the beginning. “Whatever.”
“Sorry I interrupted you.”
“It’s okay. So I was going through my mom’s papers and I found out my dad had been married previously. It’s…complicated.”
The crow’s feet around Zahir’s eyes crinkled when he smiled. “I have all the time in the world, or we can just sit in silence.”
“Don’t you have work to do?”
“Nope. It’s Friday and I’m done for the week. I had my very successful meeting, and the chaos will come Monday morning. I might open my laptop before then, but I’m not planning on it. I’m in rest and relaxation mode.”
“I’m jealous.”
“Have you had a break since you lost your mother?”
Lost sounded like such an odd way to put it. I hadn’tlosther. I knew precisely where she was. Her ashes were in an urn in my suitcase. Leaving it in my checked baggage the hardest thing I’d ever done. “Break? I’ve been busy—work and all that. But—" I drew in a deep breath. “So, like, my father was married to a woman in Vancouver, and she had three children. He abandoned them. He then married another woman—apparently without even obtaining a divorce. They didn’t have any kids, but he met my mom in Toronto andmarriedher.” I used air quotes. “But then he left us, was still married to the second woman back in Vancouver, and he went down to Texas and married another woman. So, like, she was the fourth?”
“A polygamist.”
“Yep. A word I wasn’t even familiar with until I found the report from the private investigator my mom hired last year. The invoice was there—she paid him a small fortune. I don’t know why—she never told me. About any of it. Maybe she knew she was dying, and she wanted to know if I had family who might…support me? Take me in? I don’t know.”
“Is your father still alive?”
I shook my head. “He died two years ago of a massive heart attack. Left behind that fourth woman and three young children. I sort of worried for the kids, but that wife remarried immediately to some super-wealthy guy.”
“So you have six siblings?”
I scratched my nose. “Yeah. Only I don’t know what to do about it. Well, I suppose I’ve made a decision. I’m going to see my big brother who lives in Mission City with his two adopted kids and his husband.”
“So your brother’s gay?”
