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The orphanage garden was filled with black flowers that were struggling to survive in the heat, just like her.
“Do you want water?” Felix asked. He reached forward to grab the pitcher of cool water. Amara’s eyes fell on his exposed arm. His shirtsleeves were pulled up, revealing the veins that popped on his sculpted arms. He was on the skinnier side, but his body showed definition. However, it was his fingers that caught her attention. Long and graceful, they curved around the teapot’s handle. Amara felt her legs weaken at the sight of those fingers. She had a thing for beautiful fingers.
Felix handed her a glass of water and as he did, their hands brushed. She almost dropped the glass, but his hands steadied her. His calloused, padded thumb stroked her hand, and she felt her toes curl. Oh, she wanted that delicious friction on other parts of her body— brushing her lower lip roughly before kissing her tenderly; cupping and kneading her breasts, circling her nipple with that coarse thumb. She moaned.
“Are you all right? You look flushed.” He edged forward, taking in her unfocused eyes.
“Y-yes.” Her skin burned where their hands met. Where had all that come from?
Focus, Amara.
The appearance of a carriage outside the gates put her focus back on her mission. They both stood up immediately, cautious. It was time to get to work.
Sazan and his wife approached them a few seconds later. Accompanied by two burly men with sharp gazes, Sazan was nothing like Amara imagined a drug lord would be. He was short with a clean-shaven head and an expanding waistline. His narrow brown eyes looked straight ahead, his shoulders thrown back in confidence. His wife, a tall black-haired woman with brown eyes, walked next to him in a grey gown. She’d been wearing mourning colors since the disappearance of her daughter years ago.
Felix stood when they neared.
“Were you the one who wrote to me about my daughter?” Sazan asked. His wife’s eyes were fixed on Amara, perusing every detail of her face. She had made sure to rehearse Ruby’s mannerisms over the weekend. However, she disappeared when she was ten, which didn’t really help. Amara met her gaze. However, before she could say hello, the woman burst out into tears. She threw her arms around Amara and sobbed.
“Oh…my dear…Ruby…I can’t believe you’re alive…” Her tears formed a patch on Amara’s bosom. “Darling…” She turned to her husband who also seemed to be on the verge of tears.
“This is her….” He said, unable to believe she was standing in front of him. “This is Ruby. I’d recognize her anywhere….that hair…those eyes….she has her mother’s eyes.”
At that, his wife’s sobs intensified. This was going well. Amara had been prepared to toss out a long story about her life since her disappearance, but the couple had saved her the trouble.
“Mother…” She whispered. There weren’t many accounts of Ruby’s voice, but she tried her best to sound like a twenty-eight-year-old girl.
“Did you hear that, darling? She called me mother. Oh, she sounds just like Ruby…it is our Ruby.” She squeezed Amara harder and Amara felt something tug at her heart. Her hugs reminded her of her dead mother. Would she have been so happy to see Amara too? Uninvited tears sprang in her eyes. Through the blur, she saw Felix watching her.
“Why don’t we all sit down?” Felix motioned to the empty chairs. “You’ve had a long journey.”
The couple shuffled around and sat. The wife sat next to her, holding her hand possessively. Amara turned her face away, trying to remain unaffected. But all she could think about was her own mother and how she felt warm and fuzzy every time she hugged her. She closed her eyes, trying to fight the memories that claimed her. Her mother had been plump with a friendly face and twinkling brown eyes. She had curly hair like Amara and was known to have an opinion on every subject. Still, when her mother ran her palm soothingly over her hair after a difficult day, Amara’s worries melted away. How long had it been since she’d felt so carefree?
A large hand clamped over her shoulder. Felix’s gray eyes surveyed her, worried. He knew.
Amara cleared her throat. The feel of his heavy hand on her shoulder made her feel things. “Ruby is overwrought at the sight of her parents,” he said. “I’m sure you understand.”
“I’m so happy she’s with us again,” the woman squeezed her hand tighter, and Amara felt another wave of longing rise in her heart. “I want to speak to her alone.”
Sazan raised his hand. One of the men at his side deposited a bag of coins on the table.
“This a little token of our gratitude.” Felix reached for the bag, but Sazan put in, “My wife would like to talk to Ruby in private if you don’t mind. We want to make sure she’s ready to go with us.”
They wanted to make sure it was her.
“Of course.” Felix watched her disappear inside with Sazan’s wife. Once they were alone, she asked all the expected questions about her childhood.
At the end of the interrogation, she said, “I’d like to see your arms. Do you mind taking off the blouse?”
“Excuse me?” Amara pretended to be offended.
“Ruby had a birthmark inside her upper arm,” she explained. “I wanted to make sure it’s still there.”
Apprehensively, Amara took her blouse off, exposing her arms. When the woman turned it over, there it was—a tiny black mark. Her jaw dropped. Amara secretly smirked with satisfaction.
“It is you. It is really you.” She threw her hands around her. “Thank you…praise the lord for returning you to us.”
When they appeared outside, dressed, the deed was done. Within the hour, she was on her way to Sazan’s house.
