Lib Novel Page 38
“And what are you hoping?”
“It’s just superstition. Let’s not worry about it.” She resettled on her seat of pillows. “Now, the earaafa is saying that you’ve recently experienced a significant change in your life. A shattering, almost. It was like leaving one world and entering another.”
A “shattering” was an interesting way to define being drugged, abducted, and flown across the globe to be left in captivity until his compliance was all but assured.
“But the shattering is not what it seems,” Sayeda continued. “At first, it was like the end. Now, you’re coming to realize that the things you left behind, you’ve wanted to leave behind for a long time. They were what you had to do, what was necessary, but they didn’t change the deepest part of you.”
The fortune teller gasped and grabbed her forehead.
“What was that?” he asked. “Death?”
“No, Adrían. Why are you so obsessed with that?” Sayeda angled her head and listened for a moment. “All right, so she’s saying that there are parts of you that are untouched.”
“Literally untouched or?—”
“And you’ll go from loneliness to a full life. In the end, you’ll find your family. You’ll have brothers, although they won’t enter your life in a conventional way. You’ll even butt heads with one of them in the beginning over matters of the heart. But, as of this moment, you’re facing a,” she paused, “unique problem. You’ll experience passion and desire, but it won’t be enough. In order to solve this unique problem, you’ll have to involve your heart.”
Which meant he would have to fall in love to break the trauma curse when it had already been established that he couldn’t.
“What’s the unique problem?” she asked.
He waved away the question. “I’ll tell you later. Now, can you ask her if I’ve already met this first love?”
What did his first love do for a living? Would knowing she was his first love mean he would finally find a way to open up? Did having a “first love” mean nothing was wrong with him and that he was capable of deeper feelings than the surface-level emotions he’d lived with for thirteen years?
Sayeda relayed the question, waited a beat, and faced him again. “She’s still saying the same thing. ‘It’s through your first love that you’ll find your true love.’”
“Okay, how will I know when I’ve met her?”
She shrugged. “You’ll know.”
“That doesn’t help.”
“I’m just the messenger, Adrían.”
The fortune teller bowed her head and squeezed his hand. Then, her demeanor shifted from pleasant to firm. She said something to Sayeda, and Sayeda handed over money that she counted in front of them—twice.
“Come on, peanut butter,” Sayeda said, unfolding her legs and standing. “We’re finished.”
On the way back to the car, he took her hand. She bumped his arm in playful protest, but she didn’t let go.
Their journey continued.
They passed more rock formations, and as the sky turned from pale blue to streaked with amber, she turned off the air conditioner and rolled down the windows.
“They pay me well to feed you,” she said, her first words since they left the market. “It’s why my car is so nice.”
He smiled. “A Mercedes could never compare.”
She bubbled with a laugh.
They pulled up in front of a charming one-story house whose exterior straddled the line between pink and orange. Tiled roof overhangs shaded two small covered openings, and wide stones led to an iron entry gate. Sayeda parked the car in a narrow carport, and he grabbed their groceries.
They entered the house after walking through a small, paved courtyard with a modest potted plant collection. Everywhere he looked, he saw evidence of simplicity rather than luxury, but the space had a certain understated elegance.
She turned in a full circle. “What do you think? Isn’t it as nice as the villa?”
Compared to the palace they’d come from, the house could boast no extravagance. But as he took in the pride in her eyes, he could see why she left him to return there every night.