Your dad doesn’t look happy,” I told Daniel.
Mr. Thompson made a beeline for us, cutting through conversations, to ask Daniel, “Have you seen Alisha?”
Daniel followed my gaze and jerked his chin to the left, toward where Alisha conversed in a small group at the opposite side of the room. The air around us turned thick with tension and restrained energy.
Mr. Thompson finally looked to me. “How did you get in here? This isn’t the place for someone of your status.”
“Dad,” Daniel growled.
“Well, have a drink and eat while you’re here. Best money can buy. You should meet Alisha on your way out. Very highly regarded and impressive young woman. Alisha is the woman Daniel is getting engaged to.”
My chest went numb.
Daniel clenched his jaw, moving between me and his father. “What are you doing?”
Mr. Thompson kept his composure. “What are you doing with her?”
Daniel looked to me. “I’m so sorry for this. Give me a moment?”
My lips twitched, the most I could manage as they walked away with heated words.
I found myself engulfed in a staggering room full of rich strangers who seemed to glance my way, their heads full of questions and assumptions about what had just transpired. This was like college parties all over again. But elite. And way more awkward. I didn’t belong here with them, and their pretentious glances made sure I knew it. But I wasn’t going to cower or sit in a corner.
In the near distance, Brandy drank a chilled glass of champagne. Before she had a chance to see me, Jackson said something in her ear and off they went. I followed.
They left the main ballroom and disappeared into a smaller banquet room at the end of a long, deserted hallway. I stopped myself from entering as soon as I spotted Mr. Thompson. He and his wife were in the middle of a heated argument while Brandy tried to console Daniel on the other side of the room.
The thought of them fighting because of me tore at my insides.
“That boy has lost his senses!” Mr. Thompson bellowed.
“Shh…” Mrs. Thompson hushed him. “You need to take a moment to yourself. Do not go at our boy the way you did years ago. I’m not losing my son again, not over this.”
“Then over what? Am I the only one who has any sense left? Huh? Ruining his future for what? Some girl who has no clue. You should be more upset, Helen. Who’s going to continue on with the tradition of your organization? Alisha is already a member. Her mother is a board member. She’s perfect to carry it on.”
“And she will. Maybe not married to Daniel, but she will.”
“That girl was supposed to leave him alone after I had a talk with her. She was supposed to go her separate way so he could live his best life.”
“What?” Daniel barked, storming across the room. “What did you say?”
“Whoa!” Brandy said, jumping toward Daniel to keep him from advancing on their father, but Daniel moved her to the side. She bit her nail and clamped down on her words.
“What did you say?” Daniel repeated. “Did you tell Preeti to stay away from me?”
Oh, no. Daniel was never supposed to find out about this. Tentacles of dread sprouted around my brain.
Mr. Thompson replied, “I sure did.”
“What did you do?”
“I did what any concerned father would do. You wouldn’t listen to me, so I went to Preeti and told her to stay away from you. I explained what you two being together would really mean, because, as I had suspected, she had absolutely no clue. And you need a wife who has a clue, not just about life but about our way of life, our business, our organizations, our families. To her, you’re just a relationship. She wasn’t looking past you. She wasn’t looking at the future, or at your family or her family. You two were living in a moment and it was ready to shake the foundation of everything I’d set out to do for you.”
“Wow.” Daniel seethed. “That’s low, Dad. I mean, hit-a-man-while-he’s-down low.”
“You had no idea? You never wondered why she broke up with you?”
“Of course Preeti wouldn’t tell me that my own father was a reason for her leaving.”
I swallowed hard, my hand clenching at my side. The last thing I wanted was to be the reason why Daniel stopped talking to his father. Family peace was important. He had too much riding on them hashing things out.
“She kept that to herself all these years to protect you, to keep from dividing us. And that’s not the type of woman you want me to be with?” Daniel snapped.
“Listen here—”
“No. You listen. For once. Stop talking. Stop pushing your narrative and your selfish wants and just listen to me, your only son, the person you claim you built a life for, the child you claim you want to take over your empire. You drove away the love of my life. And no, it wasn’t a fleeting relationship. It was real and pure and wonderful because Preeti is real and pure and wonderful. All these years I’ve been mad at her for leaving without a word, when the truth is that she couldn’t tell me because she wouldn’t have wanted to come between us.
“But here’s the thing: I wish to the lord that she had told me, because I would’ve been able to help her realize that it was you. You’re the one who drove us apart. You always have. Nothing is ever good enough for you. Nothing is ever worthy of your praise or a simple ‘good job.’ Nothing is ever right unless it’s done exactly your way. But I’m not your sheep. I’m a grown man who’s already proven myself out there on my own, and whether you want to acknowledge it or not is irrelevant. You can deny the truth, but you cannot erase the truth.
“My truth is this: I am a capable, successful man who’s made a name for myself. And yes, that’s partly due to you and this family, but it’s also due to my own intelligence and skill and hard work that I’ve poured out for years. My other truth is that my love for Preeti is undying. Even when I was mad at her all these years for leaving the way she did, I never hated her. One second in her presence and there is no one else. Least of all Alisha.”
Mr. Thompson’s nostrils flared out as he said, “If you choose her again, if you leave now, then don’t expect a third chance at becoming a partner in this company. Don’t even think about returning to be any part of it!”
“Daddy,” Brandy tried to intervene.
“Stay out of this, Brandy!” he snapped back.
“Oh!” She shook her head, ignited but silenced.
Daniel paced the room, his head down, muttering before he said, “Do you value love and loyalty so little? Would you easily give up Mom to get a higher footing in the world? I’d rather be poor and living with Preeti in some one-bedroom apartment and working at my own one-man firm than sell her out.”
“I built this all for you!”
“I appreciate everything you’ve done, and I’ll always love and respect you, but I have my say in who I marry. If you can’t accept that, then that’s too bad. And I’m heartbroken that this is what tears us apart. But I’ll never regret going after Preeti.”
“You need to decide, right here, right now. You want that girl, or do you want this family and this business?”
Daniel rubbed his chin, nodding. “All right. All right then.”
He took Brandy to the windows and talked with her in muted tones. He handed her the black card and she hugged him. She hugged him so tight, she might’ve never let go, and I knew right there he’d made a devastating decision.
“Where are they?” someone said from behind me. A woman pressed a hand against her earpiece. “I’m down the back hallway. Let me know if you find Mr. Thompson first. The presentations are about to start and he has the keynote speech.”
I stepped backward, away from the room as the woman walked past me and spotted them. She exclaimed, “There you are, sir! We’re all ready to begin.”
Tears blurred my vision as I got turned around in these stupid halls. By the time I made it back into the main ballroom, everyone had taken their seats. Their glares bored into me, as if they could tell something was wrong. I was the anomaly barely holding herself together, the spectacle of the night.
I walked toward the staircase, to the edge of the crowd, the exit in sight. I desperately needed fresh air, even as my cell phone vibrated in my clutch.
The brightly lit ballroom was lined in an iridescent sort of haze, the kind that I often saw before the onset of an anxiety attack. My body thrummed with both heat and cold as goose bumps prickled my skin. My bones ached. My ribs felt like sharp knives threatening to rupture my heart. But the worst part was yet to come. The part where my head pulsed with gnawing trepidation, pushing my tenuous control to the edge.
As I gathered the skirt of my gown to avoid tripping, I spotted Mr. Thompson taking the stage with Alisha at his side. And then there was Daniel to the left of the stage, glaring at his father, who beckoned him with an inviting wave of his hand.
Daniel’s mother rubbed his back, his grandmother held his hand, and Brandy was speaking urgently with Jackson.
Now wasn’t the time or the place to ask Daniel to chat. He had pressing matters at hand and he needed to finish work. But as I climbed the last of the steps, he looked up and saw me. I forced a smile and waved, holding my phone in my hand. If nothing else, maybe he would think I had a work call so he could go on with business as he needed to without worrying about me.
Outside, chilly, refreshing air cooled the perspiration on my forehead as I gulped much-needed deep breaths in the quiet.
Daniel was an adult who could make sound decisions. He’d never been impetuous. He thought things through with a level head. With his ambition and expertise and network, he would do just fine without the family business. Yet it tore me apart to know that his family ties would be severed if he chose me.
Part of me wondered if Daniel would choose his family. After all, we’d been together again for only a short while. I was a proven flight risk, and we hadn’t discussed our futures. But Daniel had said it himself, that love never fails. So I had to trust in our love, too.
I checked my phone. I couldn’t ignore the slew of messages, not when they came at me from everyone. Yuvan, my parents, Reema, Sana, Liya…
Reema: Everyone is looking for you. Your mom is in the hospital. She knows about Daniel. Everyone does. You need to get there now.
Horrendous thoughts formed in the recesses of my mind. I couldn’t scrape them out of my skull. I couldn’t crawl out of my skin. I couldn’t stop the onslaught of dread as it fought against my medication.
The Alien facehugger.
It was back.
