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“She’s not a citizen, to begin with, and—” He didn’t want to go so far as to admit that they’d agreed to divorce after a year. “Approaching this as a couple will only invite chaos. Look at you and Hannah. Listen.” Inan was shrieking again, this time with laughter.
Kyril waved him off. “Chaos? This is nothing. This is life. And I wouldn’t give it up for anything. If you’re afraid of a little chaos, Rami, then you’re going to miss the best parts of what this world has to offer.”
“It’s loud and disruptive,” Rami argued.
“So what?” Kyril laughed. “Soon it will be even louder. Hannah’s pregnant again.”
Rami’s mouth fell open in shock. “I—congratulations.”
Hannah’s face appeared next to Kyril’s on the screen. “Hi, Rami,” she said, eyes sparkling. “I see Kyril told you the happy news.”
“Congratulations,” he repeated.
Hannah swatted Kyril’s shoulder. “You’re making us late for dinner,” she said affectionately.
“I’ll be right there,” he said, and as if they were alone, he turned his face to hers and kissed her—a slow, passionate kiss that made Rami want to look away. So he did. They were so happy that he couldn’t bear to face it.
“Will we see you soon, Rami?” Hannah’s voice brought his attention back to the screen.
“Sooner if Kyril lets me have the plane.”
Hannah laughed, the sound bright. “You can’t have the plane. We coordinated these dates months ago. Enjoy yourself in the States, okay?” She turned her head sharply, called, “Inan, no!” and darted away.
Kyril watched her leave, then faced Rami again. “Give me a good reason,” he said softly. “Tell me one good reason why she’s ruining your life.”
For the second time that day, Rami was speechless.
“That’s what I thought,” said Kyril. “Love isn’t always easy, little brother. It’s not always orderly. It’s not always as clean as a business arrangement. Sometimes it’s chaos. But it’s always worth it.” He nodded to himself. “I’m not sending the plane back early. I don’t need any more details, but I have the sense you owe someone an apology.”
Kyril was right.
He’d been a complete ass in more ways than one. Without Catelyn, he wouldn’t have had a chance at the contract—it would have been over the very first night they met. She was the only reason he had been invited back to Lydia’s estate at all.
“I have some calls to make,” Rami told Kyril.
“Good luck,” Kyril said, and he disconnected the call.
Rami had to make this right, and he had to start this very moment.
Rami flipped through the contacts on his phone, his thumb hovering over Catelyn’s name. He badly wanted to call her one more time to see if she’d answer, but first things first—he would have to do the hard thing. The thing he did not want to do. The thing he’d bene trying to avoid all this time.
He’d have to call Lydia and ask her, hat in hand, to hold off on giving the contract to someone else.
Rami needed another chance. He needed Catelyn’s good graces. And he didn’t know if he’d get either one.
But he dialed the phone anyway.
19
The bedroom hadn’t changed since Catelyn had left it behind at the age of eighteen to go to college.
It was so strange, pushing the door open into the stillness that had settled on the room. Her bedroom had once been her sanctuary, and it had held all the various pieces of her life. Now, it was more of a museum. The bed still had the same pink bedspread, and all the pictures she’d collected throughout her school years still hung on bulletin boards on the walls.
She took a deep breath and sat down on the bed, the old springs creaking beneath her. All around her, the house was quiet. Her parents were not home. They, of course, were still on their honeymoon cruise.
And Catelyn was at her childhood home without them, which was strange enough.
She’d needed a place to stay the night before her flight to New Jersey and couldn’t face the thought of a sterile hotel room on the outskirts of town. It seemed torturous to have to talk to a person at a reception desk and act like everything was fine when it wasn’t.
