Page 90 of Earned Husband

Tarek was twenty-six, only five years younger than me, but the guy was like a big kid, hilarious and so easygoing to be around. He cracked open an eye as if he felt me watching him, grinned, and motioned to the open patch of grass beside him.

“You might as well,” he said lazily. “She’s not letting you back in until she sees you’re actually making an effort.”

“Who was that?” Ryan asked in my ear, interrupting himself halfway through giving me the latest report on the news. “Is itthat funny big guy who kept making jokes about Mr. Saad at the party?”

“They’re all big guys,” I said dryly, pumping my eyebrows at Tarek when I caught him actively eavesdropping, so obvious about it that he was staring at me. “He’s not that funny, though.”

Tarek grabbed his chest, feigning injury. I laughed again and finally started moving toward him. Before I’d even reached him, however, the doors burst open and Basel strode out, Nanna’s fists bunched on her hips as she watched him walk toward me.

While she didn’t look particularly happy about this development, she didn’t stop him either, which meant that he had her permission to interrupt my fresh-air-and-sunshine time. He smiled as he approached us, looking surprisingly relaxed in jeans and a designer T-shirt.

So far, our time together had been all business, but given his clothing, I had a feeling that wasn’t what it was about today. When I realized he was definitely coming over here instead of just going for a stroll in the gardens, I quickly interrupted my brother.

“Ryan? I’m going to have to call you back.”

I hung up before he’d said a single word, closing my laptop for good measure. Tarek climbed to his feet, brushing grass off his ass before glancing at me. “Were you supposed to be going to any meetings right now?”

“Not that I’m aware of.”

“No meetings,” Basel said cheerfully as he drew closer, that pleasant smile still on his lips even as he slipped his sunglasses into place. “Colin, I know it’s a busy day for you, but I was wondering if you might take a walk with me.”

“A walk, sir?”

“I want to show you the old village,” he said, ignoring the shock on Tarek’s face as he continued. “I would like to show you where my family comes from.”

My eyes widened, but I nodded without hesitation. Basel hadn’t gotten very personal with me so far, so I was taking it as a good sign that he wanted to do this. Nanna clucked her tongue at me when we passed her, holding out her hands after motioning toward my devices.

“There’s no need for those on a walk,” she insisted, smoothly stepping into our path when Basel paused. “Go get some exercise. Basel will show you our history, the streets, the places, and the people. No phones for that.”

I handed them over, not even too reluctant about doing it. While it was important that I knew what was happening back home today, nothing would change if I didn’t know about it as it happened. Jane and our PR team were on the ground there. Khaled and GlobalStar’s PR team were covering things on this side.

It wasn’t my usual style to let other people handle business on a day like today, and I really would’ve preferred to be back at the desk in my bedroom, but ultimately, I also wanted to see where Basel came from.

I had a feeling it would be important to understand him better, and I was also just curious. The man was about to be my father-in-law, so from a personal perspective, I knew it meant something that he’d chosen today to do this.

Once I’d handed over my phone and laptop, I followed Basel out of the compound, surprised that we were going to this old village by foot, but it turned out to be just a few streets away. A different world, certainly, but not far from his current mansion.

Basel kept an easy pace, guiding me to a neighborhood that was visibly old and not particularly affluent. Sandstone buildings lined narrowed streets. Laundry fluttered over balcony railings while children played soccer in the street.

People greeted him constantly, everyone in the area seemingly knowing exactly who he was. That part wasn’t muchof a surprise, but the fact that he knew them all by name in return was unexpected.

Eventually, when we’d wandered down another side alley, it opened up to what appeared to be the main entrance for a residential housing development. Weirdly, that was where Basel stopped. He let me look around for a minute before he turned to motion at the rows of squat houses.

“You wouldn’t know it now, but this was once my grandfather’s quartz mine,” he said. “When I was young, it was a treasure trove, but as it became exhausted, everyone thought the land was worthless.”

“Everyone except you?” I guessed out loud.

He chuckled but inclined his chin in a slight nod. “I bought every parcel I could and sold it to developers. It became my first truly successful deal as a youngster.”

I looked at it again, trying to see it for what it had once been. “I can’t believe this used to be a mine. It looks like the houses have been here forever.”

“That was the idea,” he said, not sounding boastful or nostalgic, but more like he was simply sharing this because he’d wanted me to see it firsthand.

We strolled a couple more blocks before he pointed at the storefront across the road. It bore a simple white sign with a red cross on it above the door, the name scribbled in Arabic lettering I couldn’t read just yet.

“Do you see that pharmacy?” he asked, drawing to a stop directly across from it. “It used to belong to my uncle, but this is where GlobalStar truly began.”

My eyebrows shot all the way up as I spun to take a closer look, but what he was saying didn’t make much sense. I’d been to the GlobalStar headquarters a bunch of times. I’d seen their factories, some of their smaller branches, and the offices at theirpharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, and this place was not on par.