Chapter 32
DEJA
Iwoke before the rest of the house, knowing that Nanna never slept past sunrise and wanting to help her with breakfast. As soon as my eyes opened to the soft, early light touching the sky, I got up, already catching the scent of fresh bread wafting through the air.
I smiled and tied my hair in a loose braid before I headed to the kitchen. Unsurprisingly, she was already there. The windows were open to let in the sea breeze while she tended three pans on the stove. Two loaves of bread were already cooling while the dough for another rose under a cloth.
As I walked in, she glanced at me over her shoulder. “You’re late.”
I took a pointed glance at the windows, then arched an eyebrow as I reached for an apron hanging on a hook beside the pantry. “Even the sun is still asleep. I’m sure I can be forgiven.”
She chuckled. “We’ll see how helpful you are before we decide about that.”
While Nanna’s English was actually pretty good, she rarely ever spoke it, choosing to stick to our mother tongue of Masri instead.
That was no different on this trip, even with Colin in the house.
I was still wondering if I should ask her to consider him a bit when she motioned toward a basket of tomatoes.
“Start on those,” she said gently, sliding fresh herbs toward me as well. “Remember not to cut them so thick.”
“I haven’t even started yet.”
She shrugged. “That doesn’t mean you weren’t about to cut them too thick.”
I laughed. “How do you always know?”
“I’m old,” she said, winking before she turned back to the stove. “I’ve known you since the day you were born. That means I know things about you few others do.”
“True.”
As she lifted a lid on one of the pans, I started on the tomatoes, careful to chop them the way she liked, and for a few minutes, we worked quietly together side by side, passing bowls and ingredients back and forth without needing to say a word.
This kitchen was one of my favorite places in the world. Falling into a rhythm with Nanna was as natural as breathing. While she was one of the most opinionated people on the planet, she also wasn’t as loud as the rest of the family.
Not anymore, anyway. If my father was to be believed, she used to be, but these days, she seemed to appreciate silence. I’d often wondered if it was because she lived here alone now, refusing to move to Cairo despite how many times Dad had asked her to.
Eventually, once the next bread was in the oven and most of the herbs had been added to the pans, she turned to look at me again. “The American is tired, Deja. He looks so lost, like he feels completely out of place.”
I smiled. “That’s because he is tired and he probably does feel out of place, but you should give him some grace.
Your son has been working him to the bone learning about GlobalStar’s business.
Of course, he’s exhausted. The way Dad has been carrying on, it’s like he’s preparing Colin to take over someday. ”
“As he should,” Nanna said. “A man needs to be prepared. Colin might not be in line to take over GlobalStar, but it sounds like his own company is no small fry either, and if your father’s plans for it come to fruition, he won’t keep up if he’s simply left to coast.”
“I don’t think Colin knows the meaning of that word,” I said firmly. “He’s a hard worker, Nanna.”
“I believe you,” she said, sprinkling some parsley into a pan before returning the lid. “Your father has told me about his work ethic, but it’s only right that they’re putting him through his paces.”
“You might think that, but it’s not fair to me.”
She cocked a hip against the counter and turned to tilt her head at me, genuine confusion clouding her dark eyes. “What’s not fair?”
“He’s here, but he’s also not really here, you know? Every morning, he’s out at daybreak with Dad or Khaled, getting dragged to one meeting after another, or another dinner, or another tour. I haven’t really been able to spend time with him at all.”
“You spent time with him yesterday.”
“Sure. Three minutes or so,” I said, sighing as I looked up at her again and raked my fingers through my hair. “I guess I’m just frustrated. At least in Chicago, I actually got to spend some quality time getting to know him, but it’s like Dad is on a mission to keep that from happening here.”
Nanna sighed, taking a step forward to give my forearm a gentle squeeze. “You should feel lucky, sweetheart. You are lucky.”
I frowned. “How’s that?”
“You’re getting to know him a little bit before your wedding.
” She reached up and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear the same way she’d been doing my entire life when she was trying to make sure I was really listening to her.
“I didn’t have that. I didn’t meet your grandfather at all until our wedding day. ”
My eyebrows slowly inched up. “What do you mean?”
“I mean our wedding was arranged and I got ready for it without knowing who he was. I’d seen pictures, of course, and heard stories, but we only met on the day we promised each other forever.”
“That’s insane,” I said immediately. “I didn’t realize you hadn’t known each other at all before the wedding.”
“It’s not insane.” She sniffed, rolling her eyes before swatting my arm. “That’s a real arranged marriage. It’s how it could’ve been for you.”
“Sure, maybe, but an entire century has passed since marriages were arranged like that.”
She gave my arm another swat, her head shaking as she turned back to the stove. “Kids these days. You’re so ungrateful. It hasn’t been a whole century.”
“Fine.” I pumped my eyebrows at her. “Almost a century.”
She chuckled. “In some families, arranged marriages still work like that, yet here you are, complaining about not having enough time with your intended. Just be happy you’re getting some time with him at all.”
I laughed, but she wasn’t wrong. As I turned back to dicing carrots, I wondered what it had really been like for her. “I can’t believe you married a complete stranger.”
“Watch your mouth, young lady.” She shot me a narrow-eyed glare and pointed a spatula at me. “He was not a stranger.”
“You literally just said you’d never met him before your wedding day.”
“Yes, but I knew of him. I told you. I had pictures and I was told about him.”
“I’m not sure that counts.”
A strangely soft smile spread on her lips. She exhaled and a faraway look crept into her eyes as she lifted her gaze to the window and stared out at the sea. “It counted. It still does, because it’s our story.”
I sat down at the counter, abandoning the carrots for a moment to give her my full attention.
In my almost thirty years on the planet, I’d never actually asked her about this and the look on her face right now said that it was time.
I also suddenly really wanted to know, and not only because I was about to enter into an arranged marriage myself, but rather because I didn’t only want fragments of her and my grandfather’s story.
I wanted to know the whole thing and to hear it from her. Honestly, I had no idea why it’d never occurred to me before. This was my own family history. “What was it like, Nanna?”
Sea gulls called outside as she lifted the cloth that’d been covering the dough, toying with it for so long that I wondered if she’d even heard me. Before I could repeat the question, however, she finally looked up again.
“As soon as I saw him in person, I knew that I had never really lived until that very moment,” she said quietly, a sad, small smile tugging at her lips. “People are always carrying on about whether love at first sight is real and whatnot, but as soon as I saw him, I knew he was my future.”
My heart melted, but it also ached for her. “Is that why you never got married again after he died?”
She nodded, quiet for another beat before she lowered herself onto the stool across from mine while breakfast simmered on the stove, the most beautifully spiced scents starting to fill the air.
“For those few precious months after we got married, I had everything I ever dreamed of. That was enough.”
Tears pressed behind the backs of my eyes, stinging them as I tried to imagine losing the person you thought you’d have your whole life to spend with after only a few months. I reached for her hand across the table, giving her fingers a soft squeeze.
“I don’t think I’ve ever said this before, but I’m sorry, Nanna. Truly.”
She gave me a watery smile, inhaling a deep breath and nodding before she stood up again. “Thank you, baby. But I was fortunate to have those months. Not everyone is that lucky, and you are even luckier.”
I stared at her for a long moment as her words sank in.
She strode back to the stove, picking up the spatula and stirring the contents of every pan before she spoke again.
“Your grandfather had to work for my dad for months before the wedding. My father was a very difficult man and he insisted that your grandfather earn my hand in marriage.”
I laughed. “What is it with the men in our family being difficult, huh?”
“Ah, Basel is difficult, but your great-grandfather was impossible. A good man, but a very stubborn one.” She smiled, striding over to the fridge and extracting a jug of water. “He insisted that your grandfather work for him in order to prove that he deserved me.”
“And he did it?”
She nodded as she poured us each a glass. “Your grandfather saw me just once, but that was all it took. He did everything my father asked and it was the same for me. I might only have seen him for the first time months later, but I knew as soon as I did that my life had arrived.”
“Really?”
“Really.” She slid a glass of water across the counter toward me. “Your father had to do the same thing, you know. He had to earn Layla’s hand in marriage. He worked damn hard for it, too.”
“I didn’t know that.”
Nanna chuckled at whatever expression crossed my face.
“Basel worked his fingers to the bone for Layla, darling. Never let him fool you. White Water Lily itself was a side project he began while he was courting her, for her to design her own signature scent simply because she rejected an expensive bottle of perfume he bought her. To this day, she’s very picky about fragrances, as I’m sure you know.
He wanted to prove that he could and would give her anything her heart desired. ”
As she spoke, my thoughts started drifting to Colin and how he was enduring the endless meetings, factory tours, and familial obligations without so much as a word of complaint.
For the last two weeks, I’d been feeling sorry for myself because Dad had been monopolizing his attention, appearing like he’d been summoned by magic every time I thought Colin might have a few minutes to relax.
He’d looked so exhausted yesterday and I was sure he was, but I’d been wondering why he was going along with whatever my father asked him without putting up a fight.
He was certainly capable of pushing back, both as the CFO of the company Dad was trying to merge with and as a person, and yet, he’d been letting them drag him from pillar to post since the minute he’d arrived.
It occurred to me then that Colin knew about my father earning my grandfather’s blessing, and likely even about my grandfather earning my great-grandfather’s blessing, and that was what he was doing right now. He was earning my father’s blessing.
Earning me.
Nanna’s mouth twitched into a smile. “You understand now, don’t you?”
“Why didn’t Colin say anything?” I asked in a shocked, breathless murmur. “He didn’t say a word.”
“Well, of course, he didn’t. That would defeat the purpose.” She chuckled and finally switched off the stove. “You should stay out of it, Deja. It’s a tradition. I didn’t tell you because I think Colin needs your help. So far, he seems to be doing well, actually. Let them do what needs to be done.”
I covered my face with one hand. “I’ve been so angry at Dad this whole time.”
“You should still be angry.” Nanna shrugged. “It builds character.”
I laughed. “Mine and Dad’s?”
“Exactly.” She winked and filled a tea kettle, leaving me to my thoughts as she fixed us each a cup.
Meanwhile, I sipped my water and stared at the sun rising over the horizon outside, realizing that this changed things for me.
While I genuinely liked Colin and truly was excited for our union, a lot of my feelings so far had been fixated on the fact that I was being coupled up with someone who wasn’t flashy or domineering.
Someone who didn’t wear thick gold watches and who didn’t seem to have much use for showing off.
Colin was the quiet I longed for and the first man who’d ever really made me laugh. He also saw the world the same way I did, for all its quiet beauty that I could only capture through the lens of my camera, but he sought it out. Like that night on Alex’s yacht or in the Garden District.
Yet that quiet man had let himself get thrust into absolute chaos, and not because of the promise of a merger or because being in business with GlobalStar would make him a billionaire someday. Instead, he was doing it for me.
He’d chosen to do this. My father must’ve told him at some point that he would have to earn his blessing if he wanted to marry me, and Colin had agreed.
I looked across the kitchen at Nanna and smiled. “So, uh, am I still your favorite oldest granddaughter?”
She barked out a laugh and arched an eyebrow at me as she handed over my tea. “You’re my only oldest granddaughter, but technicalities aside, what is it that you want, exactly?”