“Don’t worry about that. It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine. I hate all these rumors. People saying you’re a wedding crasher. But I gave them the fodder, didn’t I?”
“Who cares what they have to say?”
“Even if they weren’t gossiping, I shouldn’t have invited you last minute. Gossip or no gossip, it was wrong.”
“Lulu.” Hena drew closer to her sister. “Given everything…I don’t blame you.”
“The truth is, I was pretty pissed at you.”
That tracked.
“I can’t imagine what you dealt with,” Hena said, and then she pushed past the knot in her throat. Because it was time to say the words she’d needed to say for far too long. “And the trust—Ammi delayed your trust because of the mistakes I made. You have every right to be pissed. My mistakes cost you. I’m so sorry.”
Lulu’s eyes welled with tears.
“Is that why you think I’ve been upset? The trust? I mean, yes, I wish Ammi hadn’t delayed it. It’s millions of dollars, stuck. That sucks. But no. Hena, you just…you left.” She sniffled. “You didn’t even say goodbye. It’s like you couldn’t wait to be done with us. With me.”
“That was never true,” Hena began, then corrected herself. “I mean, I did want to get away from this place. Our community. There were too many painful memories, and the gossip was so hard to deal with. But done with you? Never. Leaving you was the hardest part. And it never got easier. Ever.”
“It’s like one minute you were my best friend. I told you everything. And the next…” Lulu trailed off.
A bird trilled outside the window. Hena took a seat across from her sister. “I tried to call you early on, but you never answered. I decided to give you space. I thought it’s what youwanted. I didn’t want to make things harder. Especially since you lived with Ammi. You were still part of the community.”
“When I got engaged, I knew I had to tell you, but I didn’t know how.” Lulu sniffled again. “So much time had passed. Then Ammi’s diagnosis…I shouldn’t have waited so long to reach out.”
“I’m here now, right?” Hena said, squeezing her hand.
“Youarehere.” She drew a steady breath. “Not sure how I’d have made it through this wedding week without you.”
“I’m glad I could help.”
Lulu dabbed her eyes with a tissue and adjusted her makeup.
“What do you think of Khaled? You haven’t said much about him.”
“I don’t know,” Hena said honestly. “I haven’t spent much time with him. He seems nice, though, and you both look happy together.”
“Maybe you can come back for a visit? That way you can actually spend time with us and get to know him.”
Hena’s heart lifted at the invitation. “I’d love that,” she told her.
Lulu smiled. “You know he’s all in with my dream of rebuilding the hotel empire?”
“Rebuilding theempire?” Hena repeated, hoping she had misunderstood her. “Beyond this resort, you mean?”
“This resort is only the start. I told you, I’m rebuilding a legacy,” she said. “It’s awful how Ammi sold every last building. They’d spent years, decades, creating this dynasty and then—poof—it was gone. Lucinda told me how it was so much more than hotels.”
“Like what?” Hena asked cautiously. “What did Lucinda share?”
“Well, I’d obviously heard about his charity work, but Ididn’t know the extent of it. Did you know he had a whole side business helping people struggling financially?”
Helping people.Hena almost laughed. She wasn’t sure if the people on the receiving end would describe a loan shark quite that way.
“What Ammi did was wrong. I was too young to get a say, and I’m working on forgiving her,” Lulu said. “But when I turn twenty-six and get access to my trust, I’m getting it all back. I’ve already got a wish list of properties to buy. You know the Miramar resort is coming on the market soon? Wouldn’t it be amazing to grab it? You could come in on this with me. Help with the redesign. Wouldn’t that be great? We could make it a proper family business again.”
Until that moment, their conversation had been so heartwarming and healing, but now a prickle of unease crawled through her. Her father’s legacy was best left where it was. In the past.
