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Warmth fills my chest at his heartfelt compliment. “Awe, thank you, Nazyr.” I’m really trying my hardest with these dishes, and I’m so glad he sees that.
“Are the girls already in bed?”
I nod. “Yeah, they went down about two hours ago. They played so hard today, so I knew as soon as they could, they were going to end up passing out for the night. I tried to keep them up, but I didn’t want them to be up too late past their bedtime.”
Nazyr reads the girls a bedtime story every night. It’s kind of become a habit, and the girls absolutely love it. Since he wasn’t able to tonight, I read them a story, and they both seemed happy with that.
“It’s okay. I should’ve called and let you know I was going to be later than normal. I guess it’s just the two of us eating dinner, then?”
“Yeah, it sure is,” I answer him and hand him his plate with a fork while I have my own in my hand.
We both go over and sit at the table across from each other, digging into the meal. Holy crap, this is delicious. I wasn’t too sure what to expect because it was my first time making this dish, but the lamb with the onion flavor and the garlic sauce is delicious. Goodness, this is a comfort meal at its finest.
“There is something I need to tell you, Mona, and I’ve been struggling with how to do it,” Nazyr says out of nowhere.
I pull my eyes from my food and look at him. His tone is serious, and he’s sort of making me nervous. “Okay… what’s going on?”
Is he about to tell me he doesn’t think that this is working out anymore? Is he going to tell me that the girls and I need to find another place to live? I’m trying not to think the worst, but when he talks to me in a tone like that, what am I supposed to believe?
“When I stayed that extra day in the UK, I went to see your uncle.”
I cannot believe what Nazyr’s telling me right now. I blankly blink at him a few times, anxiously waiting for him to say more, but he doesn’t speak up yet. What does he mean he saw my uncle? Why did he go see him? What happened when he saw him? So many questions are running through my mind.
“Y-you did what?” I finally manage to get out.
“I looked up your uncle’s information and found out where he lived, at which point I went over to his house and had a discussion with him.” I swallow hard at his words, processing everything he’s telling me.
Nazyr is speaking so factually right now that I don’t even know what to think. It’s like he’s speaking in straight statements, like he’s replaying his order of events to the police or someone of importance. Maybe he thinks that if he goes through it step by step, I won’t get so emotional about what he’s confessing.
“Okay, and what happened?”
Nazyr swallows his last bite of food and sits back against his chair. “He told me he had a hand in your disappearance, Mona. Sean had gambling debts, and someone told him a quick way to rid himself of that stress would be to sell someone in a trafficking situation. He saw you as an easy target, so he went with you. He even blamed you for not leaving the café. He said you could’ve gotten yourself out of the situation if you’d just left, but you didn’t. I… I feel like he had no remorse for what he did.”
I swallow hard and place my fork down in my dish. I cannot believe what Nazyr is telling me right now. My uncle Sean had a key part to play in that horrible chapter of my life. He knew what was happening to me, and he didn’t even try to get me out of it. In fact, he used me to save his own ass, which is despicable of him.
What in the actual fuck?! How could someone do that to their own blood? For fuck’s sake, I’d lost my father already to cancer, and my uncle was willingly putting his only blood in harm’s way? It’s disgusting.
“He knew. He… he was the reason for everything I went through.” My emotions are finally starting to course through me. I feel betrayed. I feel toyed with. I feel like I trusted the wrong person. Uncle Sean was practically my second father. After my dad died, Uncle Sean became the most important man in my life. How could he have done that to me? Was it really worth putting me in harm’s way to save his own ass?
I shut my eyes in a desperate attempt to keep the tears from coming out, but it’s no use. They slide down my cheeks in an effortless flow.
“I’m so sorry, Mona. I know you didn’t ask me to go, but from our previous discussions, I knew you had questions that you wanted answers to.” I’m not upset with Nazyr in the least bit. Deep down, I wanted answers to my questions, and I’m thankful he took the liberty to seek them out.
“So, he sold me to traffickers to pay his gambling debts and have a little more left over? Is there anything else you know?”
“Yes. He did file a police report in Portugal, and after some time, he was given an official death certificate for you. Before I killed him, he ended up confessing that he had taken out a life insurance policy on you a few months before. It was a million-dollar policy, and he had it sitting in a bank account. When he got the death certificate, the first thing he did was cash in the policy.”
Rage rolls through my blood like a fuel-filled inferno. I trusted him, and he betrayed me in the worst way possible. I shake my head, absorbing everything that I’m finding out right now. Still, I’m asking myself how he could do this. How could he live with himself after it? He obviously didn’t have a heart.
“I know what you’re telling me is the truth, but this is so hard for me to believe. Well, maybe not hard for me to believe. It’s more like a bloody hard pill to swallow. He… he was supposed to protect me after my father died, and instead, he practically delivered me to danger’s front door.”
“I know, and I know you wanted to have answers. I’m sorry they aren’t the ones you wanted, but I hope you can find some peace in knowing the truth.”
Nazyr is unbelievable. He took it upon himself to search for the answers I was seeking, knowing I was too afraid to do it myself. I was afraid my uncle had betrayed me. In the back of my mind, I thought I knew he was responsible, but I didn’t know what I would do if he was. With Nazyr backing me up, I never have to be afraid like that ever again. There’s a good chance that if I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, he’ll have the answer to that.
“Thank you for finding out for me.” I mean this from the bottom of my heart. Nazyr is proving to me more and more that he’s the man I want to be with until the end of my days. “I can’t imagine myself with anyone else, Nazyr. You’re the light of my life.”
“I don’t want anyone else, Mona. Ever since I first laid eyes on you, I knew I wanted you to be mine. I can’t really describe it, but I knew.” Nazyr reaches his hand across the table and grabs my own.
