Read Online City of Veils by Zoë Ferraris - Free Book Online Page B

was not the right one, but now he would put it right, even if it meant going to her father, making a fool of himself by telling the truth, and proving his unworthiness to her entire family. Did it matter? Wasn’t it only his own ego that needed crushing, his own pride that had kept him from declaring his intentions eight months ago, back when she had been so willing to hear them?
    His thoughts had a hysterical edge to them now. He realized he was sweating profusely and that his hands were wet.
    “I’ve got a busy night,” she said, her head down.
    Strangely, her persistent rejection brought his confidence back. “So who’s the very fortunate husband-to-be?”
    She looked up. “Oh! I’m not married,” she said, her voice confused. “This is Othman’s ring…” She trailed off.
    The relief came so quickly that it hurt. So she was still wearing Othman’s ring even though their engagement had ended months ago. “Ah,” he managed. “My mistake.” He gave her a pointed look. “It was my mistake.” He saw a softening in her eyes. It amazed him that what began pouring urgently through his heart was an even more expansive desire than he’d realized, the urge to be with her no matter what. “The case I came here to ask you about may not be a case at all.” A flicker of her eyes showed that he’d caught her attention. He explained about Qadhi’s death. “I was hoping you could tell me about the cause of death and put my uncle’s mind to rest.”
    She thought for a minute.
    “I’ll see what I can do.” It was spoken with the kind of brusqueness that indicated an inner turmoil of her own. He found it easy not to take it personally. She glanced nervously up and down the street again, and he realized that she probably didn’t want her escort Ahmad to see them together.
    “Can I call you?” he asked, nearly laughing at the irony of the question.
    “No,” she said. “I’ll call you.”
    He felt the first stab of fear. She wasn’t going to call him. She was going to do to him just what he’d done to her. And he would deserve it.
    She read the concern in his eyes. “I promise,” she said sternly. “So you’d better have your cell phone
on
.”

8

    O nce Nayir was out of sight, Katya let out her breath and scanned the street for Ayman’s car. There was no sign of it, just a lone woman hurrying a young child down the sidewalk.
Perfect
, she thought. Her cousin was always late, and right now she needed time to think.
    She could hardly believe that Nayir had just appeared on the sidewalk like some wayward djinn come to beg a wish. His face was so drawn! He had lost a lot of weight. She had never thought of him as fat, but seeing him now made her realize just how big he’d been. Guiltily, she remembered the pleasure of being around him back then. She used to feel so tiny in his presence, so encompassed, somehow. Now the wind from a passing truck might lift his scrawny body and blow him back to the mysterious, all-male desert, which is where he had existed in her dark imaginings for the past eight months.
    And yet, there had been a look of pleasure on his face when she’d said she would call him, and she was utterly certain that it wasn’t because he actually needed her assistance, but because it would mean that he could see her again, spend time with her like he used to —
    And that’s where her thoughts came to a screeching halt.
    He had left her. First, he had ignored her. Then he’d gone with her to the Funfair that day on what felt like their first real date and had spent the whole time looking as if someone had asked him to swallow a pig. She had invited him to dinner with her father thinking that this, at least, might lend the “legitimacy” to their liaison that he seemed so desperately to need, but he had gone out of his way to avoid it. She had tried to reach out to him—had left him several messages, but he never returned her phone calls. What, exactly, she used to wonder, was so horrible