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“Please, Dad, don’t encourage them.” He waves me off.

“Bye, Mommy, we love you.” They each attempt to kiss the screen as I do the same to them. The call ends and I turn to Naseer. Whose brow is furrowed. I know our moment is broken.

“Those children should be the ones we made, not another man’s children. Do you know how much it hurts to watch you show so much love to them?” My heart breaks, I wish I could say more but I can’t.

“I’m sorry, Naseer, it just happened. I didn’t plan it.” Fidgeting with my T-Shirt and hair. I need him to leave, now that I’m back to my senses, though my body is still humming and freakishly needs to get busy. Distance Jade

“I want to meet them,” he states another red-alert moment.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, you and I are not together. Right now, they are happy that Knox and I are getting married. I can’t pull that rug from under their feet. Their happiness is the most important thing to me.”

“Fine, I’ll give you time, but I won’t wait forever to meet them. They need to start seeing me as their stepfather.” I nod. I need this topic to die.

“Will my driver be here tomorrow, or will I need to get a cab,” I ask instead.

“Your driver will be here, but I’ve warned him, next time you leave without him he’ll be held liable if something happens to you.”

“You do know he’s not my bodyguard, and I can leave whenever I want,” I state matter-of-factly. “Besides, Rhanaz is a safe country. I know my way around here.”

“I didn’t like you leaving the building today and no one could tell your whereabouts. I sent someone to Keiko Beach to look for you, but you were not there.”

I laugh. “I stopped going to Keiko Beach before I left Rhanaz for college. After those boys at Keiko beach harassed me. I stopped going there. Didn’t take long to figure out what time my mean classmates wouldn’t be at Rema Beach. I returned to Rema Beach. James and I used to meet at Rema Beach, and I love Rema Beach more than Keiko anyways.” I shrugged.

“Now you tell me after I got those boys locked up for nothing.” I’m taken aback.

“Locked up?” I gestured to him to provide more information.

“After you told me what happened to you, since I couldn’t get out of bed, and you didn’t plan to stop going there, I got involved and told the authorities to arrest the boys.”

“How did you identify them?”

“It was easy, turns out you were not the only one they harassed, the authorities threw them in jail for a night.”

“Well thank you for that, but I don’t think they needed to be jailed.”

“It worked; they didn’t return there again. So, you started going to Rema Beach. How come you didn’t tell me that?”

“How could I tell you when you acted like Grumpy’s evil twin every time I mentioned James’s name? Plus, my last year of high school wasn’t pleasant, so once I could go without running into my classmate, I went there and enjoyed the breeze.”

He laughs. “As I said then, I’ll always be an evil twin to any man who puts his hands on you and dares to kiss you. It was easy to set James straight.”

“I genuinely liked him, he was sweet.” Then the realization hits. “Did you say or do something to him, is that why he broke up with me? I ran into him at Toronto Pearson International Airport, and he barely spoke to me. We both had over two hours of layover, and I asked him to have a drink with me, but he turned me down. Naseer, what did you do?”

“I told him, he didn’t stand a chance against me, and he should stop seeing you before I made him disappear for good. I told him you are mine. I didn’t lie. I just told him the truth” he succinctly stated. Like it was nothing, for him to tell someone that I belonged to him. His words just triggered my annoyance at his arrogance.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now. How dare you? I don’t belong to you. You manipulated me, I don’t want you to speak to me again. I told you before that your possessiveness is not cute. What’s the matter with you? James was a teenager and you the prince of Rhanaz, I can’t imagine how scared he must have been.” I grunt in anger, my chest rising as I start to pace to control my anger.

I’m beyond upset how could he have done that? James was just seventeen, Naseer must have scared him so much that almost ten years later, he still wouldn’t have a drink with me. I owe the guy an apology. Then I remembered James’s sudden break up with me.

“Mariam, I can’t hang out and speak with you again,” he’d said after I finally cornered him, he’d been avoiding me for days. Even as he said it, he looked sad.

“Why? I thought we had a good time,” I’d asked.

“We did, but I need to concentrate on my studies, and I’m with Lydia now.” That stabbed my heart because Lydia was my archenemy. Now that I think about it, he needed to drive the hatchet home by dating Lydia.

I cried a lot that night because I realized my first breakup was painful. Of course, I told Naseer all about it and he told me my teenage boys are flaky after putting me in misery.

“How could you have done that, Naseer? He was nice to me. I need to find him and apologize to him.”