by Farah Heron
“Holy crap,” Shayne said. “He was engaged to Jasmine Shah? I followed her Instagram. He’s the mystery fiancé she was always talking about?”
Reena nodded. “He says they actually split a while ago.”
“And you don’t believe him?” Shayne asked.
She shrugged.
“He was really into you, though,” Marley said. “You have to believe that.”
“I believe he was very good at faking it. A little too good.” Reena paused, looking at the setting sun bathing the asphalt lot in an orange glow. “You think I should believe that he’s not with her anymore?”
“Why automatically believe the Shahs?” Marley said. “You don’t even know them, and hasn’t your father always hated them?”
Reena shrugged again.
“I dunno,” Shayne said. “I’d be more likely to believe our friend than that influencer who claims her hair is real. I could see her weave in one of her pictures, for god’s sake. And her hazel eyes? Contacts.”
“Shayne, don’t be catty. Nadim has nothing to gain by lying now. You should talk to him,” Marley said.
“I just did talk to him.”
“You yelled at him. Talk, Reena,” Marley said. “There’s more to this, I can feel it.”
“You sound like Saira.”
Marley chuckled. “Your sister—she’s changed a lot, right? I shop at her store, and she somehow manages to say the wisest things while still being eighty percent inappropriate.”
“I know. She’s Bizarro Saira, now.”
“I adore your sister,” Shayne said. “She’s so delightfully extra.”
Reena smirked.
Marley sipped her wine, perfect eyebrows furrowed in thought. “I think you should trust him. You know your parents and his are a little manipulative. The Shahs might be, too. I have no reason to believe that the guy who’s become our friend in the last month would lie to us. Do you think maybe you’re looking for flaws that aren’t there?”
That was ridiculous. Absurd. But…Reena bit her lip. “Last week someone said to me, ‘You ever get scared when something fits a little too perfectly? You think it’s not possible so you look for problems that aren’t there?’”
Shayne recoiled. “Wow, I feel sorry for whoever that person dumped. Why run away from perfection? Who said it?”
Reena gave a small smile, thinking of Anderson. “It doesn’t matter,” Reena said.
“Why don’t you ask your dad what he knows?” Marley suggested.
“Why would I do a thing like that?”
“He’s been working with Nadim for over a month. Whether he likes the Shahs or not, he does know them better than anyone else here. Maybe it’s a good idea to get support from your parents when things are shitty?”
She snorted. Did Dad know how to give support?
It was so unlike her to go to her father of all people…but maybe that was part of the problem. Reena took a long sip of her tea, the mellow, chilled drink cooling her core. If anything, these last few days had taught her that her normal way of dealing with problems wasn’t the only way. And definitely not the best way.
“Maybe. Yeah, maybe I should talk to Dad.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Reena reluctantly agreed to talk to her father, but she wasn’t about to do it alone. She’d learned long ago that difficult conversations with parents were easier with the strength of numbers. So she called Saira and made plans to ambush Dad at the Diamond project together the next day.
They found Dad in the site office—a portable unit that the construction management team used for paperwork and meetings. He was at a desk, typing on a computer while Igor, the construction manager, was chatting with a hard hat-wearing woman while looking over huge sheets of paper on a table.
“Girls.” Dad looked up. “What are you doing here?”
“We need to talk,” Reena said. “Alone.”
Dad closed his eyes a moment, then stood. “Let’s go to the corner unit. There’s a table and chairs in there.” He guided them out.
He led them to a large L-shaped space, unfinished with concrete floors and walls, and an open ceiling. A folding table and grouping of chairs had been set up in the back. This was the store Nadim was struggling to find a lease for. It was strange to see it after he’d talked about it so much.
“Nice,” Saira said, eyeing the area. “Did you guys secure a tenant for this yet? You should think about doing a little shop along with a restaurant. Like a bodega-café.”
Dad waved his hand. “Everything is in limbo now. Losing a manager while in the middle of negotiations will set me back a long time.” He sat at the chair at the head of the table and waited for them to follow before speaking.
This was a bad idea. What was Reena expecting to learn by coming here? She didn’t know where to begin.
Saira apparently had no difficulty speaking, and slapped her hands on the table. “Nadim said the Shahs are lying, and that he’s not engaged. That true?”
“That is also what he told me, but I have no proof,” Dad said.
Saira shook her head. “And you fired him anyway? That’s harsh, Dad. You’re supposed to be this compassionate and supportive boss, but when push comes to shove, you won’t trust your own employee.”
Dad didn’t say anything. Reena decided to try Saira’s blunt strategy on for size. “Did you already know about Nadim’s involvement with the Shahs when you made this deal with his dad?”
“Of course not! I wouldn’t sully my reputation by bringing on the man who destroyed Salim’s hotel project.”
“So, you only learned about his involvement with the Shahs through Salim’s Facebook post.”
“How did you know that post? It is a private group on the Facebook.”
Lol, Dad thinking anything on “the Facebook” was private. She made a mental note to teach him the ins and outs of social media after all this was done.
Dad shifted in his seat, crossing one leg over the other. Reena looked at her father. Really looked at him. She’d never been particularly close to the man, and she’d never felt the daddy worship that some daughters felt for their father. Actually, just the opposite. She’d thought of him as shrewd, rigid, and unfailing. Were those dark circles under his eyes merely a sign of his advancing age, or a sign of stress?
“Dad, why do I feel like you’re hiding something?” Reena asked.
“Because I am.” Dad sighed. “You care about him, don’t you?”
“Yeah. A lot.” She wouldn’t cry again.
Dad watched her for a few more seconds before slumping forward in his seat. “I am truly sorry, Reena. None of this would have happened if I hadn’t made a terrible mistake.”
“What mistake? Hiring Nadim?” Saira asked.
“No. Before that. But…I can’t tell you. I cannot risk your mother discovering.”
Reena threw her arms up in frustration. “Don’t tell your mother! Don’t tell your father! Don’t you people get tired of all these secrets?”
Reena knew the answer to that. No. No one in this family grew tired of secrets. Secrets were the glue that held them together.
Except, not anymore. Reena was done with them. She took a deep breath. “How about I be honest first? I’ve been out of work for weeks because I was laid off again. I’ve been interviewing for several new finance positions, but it’s not going well. I didn’t tell you because I don’t want your help to find a job. And even though I told Nadim I wouldn’t marry him, we’ve been dating pretty seriously for a few weeks. Of course, that’s been over since you told me he’s engaged. Those are my secrets, now it’s your turn. Be honest for a change.”
“No,” Saira interrupted. “It’s my turn. Joran and I used to invite other people into our relationship from time to time. Sometimes men, sometimes women, and Mum found out because one of her…er, friends knew one of the men.”
Reena’s head snapped around to meet Saira’s face. What? She understood the symbolism of coming clean with deep dark sec
rets to urge Dad to be honest, but admitting to one’s father that they’d enjoyed the occasional ménage à trois seemed like taking it a little far. Plus…really? Saira had a threesome with a friend of one of Mum’s poker buddies?
What the hell was her family getting up to while she was busy baking bread?
“Your turn, Dad,” Saira said. “Tell us what you’re hiding.”
“I wish you had told me about your job, Reena. I would have helped you.” Good. He wasn’t going to mention Saira’s crowded bedroom. “I can ask around to my contacts. It’s high time you had a management role, anyway. I’ll put the word out—”
“No, Dad. I told you, I don’t want your help. I want your honesty.”
Dad sighed, standing. “I’m going to lock the door so we’re not disturbed.” He walked to the front of the empty unit.
Reena took the opportunity to ask Saira what planet she resided on. “I can’t believe you told Dad you had threesomes,” she whispered.
Saira grinned. “Oh, I’m pretty sure he knows. Just like he knows Ashraf and I smoke weed in the garage for anxiety. He’s pretending he doesn’t hear me.”
Reena had been pretty sure before, but this confirmed it: her family was totally bonkers.
Dad returned and sat heavily on his chair.
“So…” Reena said.
“I made a bad business decision and lost money. A lot of money.” He took a breath. “I hired an architect for some late modifications. He cheated me and stole from us.”
Reena blinked. This? This was Dad’s big secret? This wasn’t a secret at all. “I know that. Mum told us.”
Reena had never seen her Dad’s eyes so wide. “What?! Your mother doesn’t know this!”
Saira snorted. “Of course she does. You didn’t know she knew?”
“How in heavens does your mother know about my loss?”
Reena shrugged. “I figured you told her. You are married, after all.”
Dad stared, eyes still wide, lips pinched. Clearly her parents had a lot of stuff to work through. She considered evening the score and telling Dad about Mum’s poker habit, but decided to get back to the matter at hand.
“What does this have to do with Nadim?”
“I needed the money from his father to finish the project. And Shiroz only offered to invest if his son came with the deal. He was concerned about Nadim’s reputation and wanted it…polished a bit. I would not have agreed to hire the man if I had known he bungled the Shah hotel project.”
Reena was learning nothing new here. Dad’s only intel was information Mum had already told her.
“So, you didn’t know about his connection to the Shahs?”
“No. Not until Salim Shah showed that picture on the Facebook.”
“Do you believe Nadim?”
Dad didn’t answer. He stood up and walked toward the front window of the unit. “You know,” he finally said, “so much of what you see here is Nadim’s doing. I would have rented to the first coffee shop who put an application in, but he has ideas about prestige. He believes a restaurant can be an anchor tenant and bring people to the development. The work he has done for this project, research, negotiating with suppliers, tenants, subcontractors…I see no sign of the irresponsible and incapable project manager that they claim him to be.”
“You don’t think the failure of the Shah project was really his fault?”
“Nadim is not the man his father told me he was. I was under the impression I would have to keep a very close eye on him and help him improve irresponsible work habits. Nadim is very sharp. No babysitting necessary.”
“But then, Dad,” Saira asked, “if you thought he’d be a deadbeat, why did you try to force Reena to marry him?”
“There was no forcing. The marriage was his father’s idea—to clean up his image. He thinks Jasmine is below his son—apparently she is an Instant model.”
“Instagram,” Reena corrected.
He waved his hand. “Yes, yes. Anyway. Your mother wasn’t happy that I made this deal with Nadim’s father, or that I agreed to encourage you to marry him. It happened while she was away at her card tournament in Nevada, or I am sure she would have stopped it all.”
Would Mum have stopped it? She’d been the lynchpin behind this matchmaking from the beginning, or so Reena thought. And shady past or not, Nadim looked pretty good on paper as son-in-law material.
Looked pretty good on high-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets, too.
Hold up…Card tournament in Nevada? Dad knew about Mum’s poker? “She told you why she went to Vegas?” Reena asked.
He chuckled. “I shouldn’t have said that. She doesn’t know I know about her card friends. She’s not hurting anyone and has raised so much money for charity. Let her have her secret fun.”
Reena turned to Saira. “This family is utterly ridiculous.”
Saira shrugged. “You’re just figuring that out now?”
Reena tried to keep it all straight in her head. While Mum was in Vegas with Leon Bergeron, Mrs. Pelozzi, and the rest of the gambling grannies, Dad and Nadim’s father were making a business deal with a bonus marriage tacked on as an appendix. Dad’s motivation was to make up the money he lost when he hired a bogus architect so his wife wouldn’t find out, even though his wife already knew. Nadim’s dad was trying to cover up Nadim’s apparent mismanagement of Salim Shah’s boutique hotel project and end his engagement to a leggy Instagram model.
All seemed perfectly normal things for parents to do.
Reena remembered Mum’s trip, actually. At the time, she had recently split with Jamil and had been experimenting with online dating apps. She had two regular hookups from Tinder then, if she recalled correctly.
Reena frowned. “This isn’t the right family for Shiroz to search for a virgin daughter to make his son look good.”
Dad said nothing. Which was fine, because that only gave Reena more time to think. “Wait. Dad. Mum’s trip was in February.”
She remembered things. Nadim not seeing her picture until he moved to Toronto and being surprised she didn’t live at home with her parents.
She stilled, briefly looking at her sister. “It wasn’t me, was it? February was a month after Saira caught Joran in his love nest with his cousin. You sold Saira, not me.”
“Me?” Saira looked shocked.
Dad shook his head. “No. I sold nobody. But yes, I was thinking of Saira. She also needed to clean up her image. The gossip about your sister was disgusting—people were saying she had an open relationship. Incest. Cheating…I wanted to connect her with a good family to counteract that filth.”
Saira nodded, chuckling. “The gossip wasn’t completely wrong, but I appreciate the effort. Anyway, I have Ashraf now.”
“I know”—he smiled fondly at Saira—“but you didn’t then. I thought I was helping. Your mother didn’t agree. This is why she was angry about the deal—she said you were too hurt for a new relationship and needed to heal. She was right, of course. And when the visa came through and Nadim finally arrived, I realized two things. First, even though I agreed to bring him here reluctantly, I was the winner in this arrangement. Nadim has been an asset to the company. And second, it was not a problem that Saira had found Ashraf, because Nadim was much better suited to Reena. That is why I moved him to the building with you. There was a spark in him that your mother and I both saw. Reena and Nadim were a perfect match.” He smiled at Reena. “You two are the most food-obsessed people we have ever met. We have a good track record for matches, you know. Your mother was the one who encouraged Nafissa and your brother.”
Reena blinked. This was unreal. That wasn’t even true, and Dad knew it. Nafissa and Khizar hardly needed anyone’s encouragement to fall in love. Plus, her parents set her up with Nadim because they were both foodies? Really?
But it still didn’t add up. “If Nadim’s telling the truth, why are the Shahs lying about this engagement?” she asked.
Dad shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t tr
ust Salim, though. I believe Nadim. I didn’t fire him, Reena.”
The room was silent for several long seconds until a sound of relief escaped Reena’s lips. She had no idea how tense she’d been holding herself until that moment. Dad trusted him.
He shook his head. “But Nadim’s father doesn’t believe him. He is convinced that Nadim has been in secret contact with Jasmine. And he won’t listen to his son.” Dad looked straight at Reena. “You should have told us you had taken up with the boy. It’s not right, keeping secrets from family.”
Reena nearly snorted in outrage. Saira, on the other hand, found no reason to hold in her disbelief and laughed loudly.
“Saira! Be kind to your sister!”
They were all silent for a bit longer, each digesting the fragile honesty they’d shown in this weird space that somehow gave the Manjis an almost normal family dynamic.
Finally, Reena spoke. “If you didn’t fire him, maybe that means we can finish the contest?” She couldn’t make herself think about saving their relationship now, but maybe she could salvage something of her life?
Dad frowned. “What contest?”
“Nadim and I were pretending to be engaged for a national cooking contest on FoodTV. We find out tomorrow if we made the finals, and they’ll film it in two weeks.”
Saira raised a brow. “I thought you told us all your secrets?”
Reena shrugged. “I forgot one.”
Dad frowned, then shook his head. “I may not have fired him, but his father pulled his investment in the Diamond project and forced Nadim to resign. He has been summoned home to Tanzania.”
Reena swallowed a lump in her throat. “When does he leave?”
“His last day working for me will be Friday, and he’ll be on a plane next week.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
After the drive home, Saira pulled up in front of Reena’s building and grinned widely. “That was actually kind of fun. We should do Mum next.”
“Do what to Mum?”
“You know, ambush. Confront. Although let’s not do it when we see her tomorrow. I don’t want to risk her not paying for my wedding sari.”
