Page 5 of Seventeen Years Ago

“I’m not in manufacturing. I’m in luxury hotels, if you’ve forgotten,” I reminded him.

“I know exactly what you do, but there is nothing wrong with trying something new. And before you say no, hear me out,” he said.

“I’ve been waiting for you to tell me why I’m here. It’s you who has been avoiding the topic.”

“That’s because there are so many moving pieces to it. I thought it best if I waited till we met with President O’Connor,” he stated

“President? Like of a country?” I asked, shocked.

“Yes. She is going to meet with you and me tomorrow so we can discuss the details of what she is looking for.”

A female?

That eliminated several countries I had guessed we were heading to. “Still not telling me where we are going.”

“You probably never heard of it. Most people haven’t. It’s a small country. Tabiq,” he stated.

It was like a punch in my gut and I almost hurled.Tabiq.I knew about it. It had given me nightmares for the past seventeen years. I’d tried to forget that place, push it out of my mind, but I couldn’t.

“Are you okay?” Allyson asked softly.

“Tabiq? We’re going to Tabiq?” I asked hoping I had heard incorrectly.

“Yes. It’s a small country that has been struggling to regain its independence.”

“You mean they were under someone else's control?”Like your father and mine?

“Their government was corrupt. The people suffered greatly. My siblings have been helping them rebuild. But there is more to do, and I am hoping you will be willing to help.”

“Why me?” Does he know what I’ve done? Does he know that I was here seventeen years ago?I’d never told another living soul, but I couldn’t imagine why he thought I’d be the one who would want to be here now.

“I thought after all the things your father had done to others that you might be able to relate. Have some empathy for the people of Tabiq. They were poor and people of wealth took advantage of that,” Cayden stated. “We might not have been part of the problem, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be part of the solution.”

I could feel the knife twisting in my gut. I knew more of what had gone on in Tabiq than Cayden. If he did, he would not be asking me to travel there with him now. I wanted to demand he turn this jet around and take me back to Boston. I wasn’t prepared to confront my past. But after all these years, who would even remember me being there? I had been an eighteen-year-old and had barely started to shave. I had been skinny and sure as hell didn’t look like that any longer. Maybe I could go back to Tabiq and see if I could make amends for what I had done, what my father had me do. Maybe this will be what finally stops the flashbacks of those scared eyes, pleading with me not to hurt her.

Turning away, I looked out the window. “I’ll go and meet with the president. I won’t commit to anything more than that.”

“Listening is all I am asking,” he said.

I leaned back in my chair and said, “Since we have several more hours, I’m going to get some sleep.”

Even though my eyes were closed, I knew sleep would not come. So much weighed on my heart and mind. Anger. Not only with my father, but with myself too.

Damn you, Dad.

I had no right to judge the Henderson family when mine was even more fucked up than theirs.

CHAPTER4

Aiza

I always loved spending my weekends sitting at home with my grandmother. She would tell me stories of when she was a little girl. They were filled with love and laughter. It brought me such joy, as though she was reading stories from a book. But never did it feel like the Tabiq I knew or grew up in. She had such freedom as a child. The families were happy, even though they had little.

And my generation grew up living in constant fear, distrust and of everyone, as we watched families being ripped apart by the greed of people in power.

Things were changing, but such trauma doesn’t fade easily. Even though things weren’t anywhere as bad as they had been when I was younger, I didn’t believe that no matter how hard Reesa tries, that Tabiq would ever go back to being the way my grandmother talked about it.

Our innocence was stolen, figuratively and literally.

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