Page 93 of Heart of a Villain

“We should probably get back,” she said. “It is, after all, a party.”

“What would you think if Giorgio had met Ari first and fell for her?” Mo asked.

Sayeda spun around, leaning back against the balcony railing. “As far as?”

“Would I be stupid to be with him now?”

“Stupid, no. To be honest, I’ve been, in a roundabout way, asking Adrían that question. I can’t see it working in you and Ari’s situation because you’re the only woman who could have handled Giorgio. But me and Eesh are very much alike. I could see Adrían meeting her and falling for her.”

“And that doesn’t bother you to think?”

“Not at all, especially now that I know Mora made him believe that I was dead. If Adrían met Ayesha and felt something, even a deep something, it warms my heart to know that, in those moments, he was able to get some reprieve from the pain of losing me. I know what I say, what I try to tell myself, but I’m not stupid. He loves me. For him to still love me now means that he’s loved me all this time. If, in Ayesha, he found a conduit, then I only have her to thank for it.”

“In this hypothetical situation,” Mo prefaced, “does Joel still get the girl?”

“Yes. This is Joel we’re talking about. His spirit would go full exorcist on Adrían to be close to Ayesha.”

Mo burst out laughing.

Soon after, she joined in.

“But,” Sayeda shrugged a single shoulder, “he was supposed to. Fate, it’s funny that way. If I had truly died, I don’t think Joel would have entered the picture. I think it would have been Adrían and Ayesha.”

“But it was never meant to be that way.”

“Never meant to be that way,” she echoed. “Do you know anything about their past? Is Eesh the woman Adrían said he fell for? The only other woman he ever fell for?”

“I’ll let him explain,” Mo said. “We’re all still getting to know one another. But,” Mo pushed up off the railing, “let’s head back and celebrate your birthday. It’s not every day that you find out you’re younger than you are.”

“Clerical error?”

“We’ll go with that.”

They headed back, their heels clinking on the checkered floor, barely audible over the music.

“Before we start,” Mo said, walking faster, “let’s stop at a bathroom. My body’s still trying to work through the gallon of water I had today. Giorgio’s been training me again, and I sweat my body weight in liquid.”

The restroom was as upscale as the rest of the club, though nowhere near as ornate as their Palace of Versailles hotel. It boasted gold-trimmed mirrors and soft, diffuse lighting from recessed bulbs. The bass from the nightclub floor hummed in the background, and a uniformed attendant was tucked in one corner, scrolling through her phone. Women moved throughout the restroom in pairs and small groups, dressed in everything from tight jeans to skirts with the bottom portion of their asses hanging out.

Mo slipped inside an empty stall.

Sayeda went to the mirror to check her makeup and hair, but they were as immaculate as when she’d left. For a moment, she stared at her face, and her mind took her to Ayesha. Whenever they weren’t together, she found herself contemplating what Ayesha was doing, and now that the results were out, it all made much more sense than she ever believed it could.

She lowered her voice and looked up at the ceiling. “Dad, why did you do that? Why did you cheat on her?”

All of Mora’s cautionary tales about men’s uncontrollable desires and the ensuing pitfalls of those desires now made complete sense. While she didn’t know what her mother was like beforehand, scorn had shaped those sentiments.

Mo emerged from the bathroom stall and stopped at the sink beside her to wash her hands. The attendant skittered over and handed Mo a towelette just as a figure appeared in the mirror. Sayeda spun on her heels, but there was no one there.

“You saw them too?” Mo asked.

“So someone was there.”

“A woman. Dark hair, sunglasses, light brown skin. We’re inside, though. Why is she wearing sunglasses?” Mo returned the used towelette. “Let’s go.”

They rounded the bathroom exit’s corner, which dropped them right back onto that checkered floor. Despite numerous groups of women coming and going while they were inside the bathroom, the crowd outside had thinned significantly.

“What kind of club doesn’t have a long line outside the women’s bathroom?” Sayeda asked.

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