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“I’m not allowed to look at your servants?”
“They’re not allowed to look at you,” he corrected gruffly.
“But why? I’ve looked at them before. They’ve looked at me. When we were in Vegas.”
“Nothing about this will be the same as then,” he muttered.
Her pulse was firing like a mosquito at a campfire. Her blood burned and her legs felt shaky.
The whole walk into the palace, a voice inside of her was shouting at her to stop. To demand to be taken back to the airport. But she didn’t, and she could have easily said why.
Despite everything that had happened, she trusted Zamir. She wasn’t sure she loved him now, or that she ever had. But she knew that deep down he was basically a good person.
If the exterior of the palace was awe-inspiring, then the inside was a whole new level of divine. The ceilings were vaulted and at least three stories high. The floors were marble and they shone like the surface of a beautiful lake. The walls were painted a rich blue, but there were swirls of gold that Olivia just knew to be real.
“This way,” he said, changing direction and moving down another corridor. This one was lined with plum coloured carpet, and here the walls were pure gold.
“The family’s wing,” he said unnecessarily. “I grew up here.”
There were paintings on the walls, and she slowed when she reached one of Zamir. It was a stunning likeness, though he had been younger when he sat for it. Beside it hung a full length painting of Ra’if.
She smiled to see them together like that. Two brothers, so much more alike than they realised.
Zamir saw her reaction and misinterpreted it. His frustration grew in leaps and bounds.
“Would you like me to have it moved into my room where you can study it full time?”
She whipped her head around and the pained shock was impossible to miss. “You’re behaving like a child,” she responded finally, her voice hoarse.
He turned away from her. She was right, and that only made him feel worse.
He walked quickly; she would have had to run to keep up. So she walked. Slowly, sedately and with as much dignity as she could mottle together, given the circumstances.
At the end of the corridor, he pressed a button on the wall, and two gold and glass doors swept inwards. The apartment beyond was clearly palatial in size and décor, but it also appeared to be private.
“My residence,” he confirmed with a curt nod. He stood back and waited for her to precede him.
Olivia moved inside with caution, and then finally, several metres in the door, she whipped around. “So?” Her breathing was ragged, her expression difficult to interpret.
Zamir stared at her as though she was something new and strange; a curio he could not quite piece together.
“So,” he repeated, evidently not experiencing any of the upheaval she was navigating.
Olivia compressed her lips. She was desperate for the bathroom, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to ask this man for anything.
“You and my brother.”
“Oh my God.” It was a garbled sound of disbelief. “You’re like a broken record.”
“Can you imagine for a moment what it felt like to see you there with him? So comfortable? And to see him so happy and at ease with you, a woman who had gone straight from my bed to …”
“Don’t.” She held up a hand to silence him, and her eyes flashed with intensity. “Don’t say it. You cheapen everything you and I were to imply that I could replace you with your brother. That I would want to after what we … after what I thought we shared.” She swallowed convulsively. “Do you have a bathroom in this place?”
“A bathroom?”
“Yes,” she hissed. And now she was powerless to stop the tears that were on her eyes from sparkling down her cheeks, like trails of diamond dust. “A bathroom. I was up late last night. Or whenever the hell it was. I’ve lost track. And I had a long drive out to see your brother. And I spent the day with him. And then you abducted me. And I don’t remember the last time I ate, or used a bathroom, and I want to wash my face, and drink some water. So can you stop accusing me of everything you want to believe me capable of, and just leave me alone for a while? I need a minute. I need a minute to get up to speed on what’s going on.” Her voice cracked as she spoke. She walked slowly away from him and sunk into a chair. She dipped her head into her hands. “I need a minute.” She rocked back and forth, shaking her head. “I need a minute. I don’t understand.” And she lifted her head then and fixed him with a sad, confused stare. “What did I do to you? What did I ever do to you?”
Zamir was the one on a tidal surge of confusion. He was being drowned on all sides by waves, and he had no strength left to stay afloat. He stared at the broken shell of this woman. She was a shadow of her former self. And he heard her words and had no answer left. What had she done to deserve this fate?
