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She looked back at his personal assistant who radiated wholesome goodness. They made quite a pair. “How long have you been with him?”
Sarai looked up at the ceiling as she calculated. “We’re going on three years now.”
“How did you end up working for him?”
If she wasn’t paying attention, she would have missed it. The sparkle left Sarai’s dark brown eyes and her smile powered down, even though it remained plastered on her face.
“He was doing business with my father in Israel,” Sarai said.
Her brows shot up when Sarai didn’t continue. “What did you do in Israel?”
Sarai’s hand crept up to her dangly earring. “I worked in the same capacity with my father as I do for Roth.”
“You were your father’s personal assistant?”
Sarai nodded.
She cocked her head to the side, examining the other woman who had paled. “Are you okay?”
Sara brushed imaginary crumbs off the table and said in a stifled voice, “I guess if anyone would understand, it’s you.”
“Understand what?”
“My dad’s a powerful man,” Sarai said in a low monotone. “Traditional, strict, unyielding, proud. He mapped out my life. It didn’t occur to me that I had a choice until Roth gave me one.”
The bottom dropped out of her stomach. Sarai’s story sounded eerily like her own. Had they…?
“My dad’s not a nice man.”
Sarai seemed oblivious to her sudden stillness as she played with her jewelry and tried to hold on to her smile before she finally let it go and averted her face.
“He has a terrible temper.”
Sarai’s subdued voice dragged her out of her dark reverie as her intuition pinged a warning. “Sarai, you don’t have to…”
“He had an appointment with my father,” Sarai said, the tendons in her neck standing out starkly as she tried to contain her emotions. “Roth walked in twenty minutes early and found me on the ground.”
Jasmine set her fork down, appetite gone. She never imagined that behind Sarai’s sunny countenance lay such pain.
“Roth walked me out of there. He offered me another path, so I took it.” Sarai’s hands fluttered before she clasped them on the table. “He never complains, never gets upset. He works all day, every day. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Sarai gave her a shaky smile as her eyes glistened with tears. “He deserves to be happy. You two give me hope that true love really does conquer all.”
How would Sarai view her savior if she revealed that he attacked an elderly woman? That her father blackmailed him, and she hadn’t entered into this marriage willingly? Sarai’s faith in them made her feel like a fucking fraud. Her heart twisted uncomfortably in her chest, but she swallowed her misgivings and grasped Sarai’s arm. “I’m glad you got out of there. No one deserves that.”
Sarai placed her hand over Jasmine’s and squeezed. “I didn’t have anywhere to stay so Roth got me a hotel room. He helped me get a visa and gave me a job. I can’t repay him for what he’s done for me.”
“And your father?”
She saw the answer on Sarai’s face before she spoke.
“I haven’t talked to him or anyone in my family since.” Sarai’s gaze shifted away as she whispered, “Roth refused to do business with him.”
Her voice was tinged with wonder. She glanced at Roth, unable to meld Sarai’s accounting of him with the man she knew. The first time she married him, he hadn’t been a monster, but he hadn’t been the most compassionate man in the world either. To say she was shocked by the story was an understatement. He didn’t hesitate to crush corporations, which resulted in thousands of jobs lost, yet he rescued a personal assistant and casually added another enemy to his list. Sarai said her father was a powerful man. She knew the biggest players in almost every country. She took in Sarai’s coloring, her features, and what she knew of the reclusive wives of those men and narrowed it down to three. None of them should be taken lightly, yet Roth uncovered a shameful family secret and rubbed salt in the wound by hiring Sarai and refusing to do business with her father. She was dying to know who Sarai’s father was, but she wasn’t going to ask when Sarai had studiously avoided his name.
“Roth is a good man,” Sarai said quietly. “He doesn’t want anyone to know, but you and I know different.”
She ignored that and asked, “Are you happy?”
Sarai’s expression cleared, and the sunshine came back, brighter than ever. “Happier than I believed possible.”
