Steph kept her eyes glued to their door until her father walked out and their gazes met. Jerry’s blue eyes, so much like her own, widened in surprise and shock, and he froze in place, staring at her.
“Steph?” he said.
Steph could hardly breathe as she waited for her mother to come out and berate her for what she had done. After several moments, it seemed clear that that wasn’t going to happen. Instead, her father walked a few steps closer until he was facing her directly.
“Where’s Mom?” she asked, her eyes darting behind his shoulder to see if Elora would arrive and break this frozen tableau of anticipation.
Jerry glanced behind him as though he would find his wife there before he turned back to Steph.
“She’s not here,” he said.
“Oh,” Steph said.
It was an awkward moment, where father and daughter stared at one another as though they were complete strangers, before finally Jerry’s face melted into a mask of relief and he wrapped his arms tightly around his daughter.
“Thank God you’re safe,” he breathed, holding her close.
It was hardly the welcome Steph had thought she would receive, though she knew her father’s relief would soon be replaced by anger. After a moment, she pulled back and looked earnestly into his eyes.
“Dad, we need to talk.”
TWELVE
Steph
Jerry stepped back and gestured toward the plush living room sofas. Steph walked over and took a seat, her father sitting across from her with his elbows on his knees, his expression anxious.
Steph took a breath and plunged in.
“So I guess I made my point about not wanting to go through with this,” she said.
Jerry sighed. He looked tired and worried, the lines on his face etched a little deeper. Steph felt a pang of guilt, knowing she was the probable cause of many of those lines.
“What happened, Steph? You were all ready to go, and then when you never came back, we didn’t know what to do. Then we get a text from a strange number saying you’re okay but giving us no other information? We’ve had nothing to do but sit here and wait. Your mother is visiting some relatives on the other side of town as we speak, trying to figure out how to determine where that call came from so we could find you.”
Steph stared resolutely at the coffee table, unable to meet her father’s gaze as he poured out days of worry and stress and frustration.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“I know,” he said, and she glanced up in surprise.
“I get it, Steph. It was unfair of us to try to push you in this direction. We just wanted you to be safe and happy. I know an arranged marriage isn’t conventional, but we’ve seen it work time and time again, with your mother and me and with many of her friends, too. It’s okay to have doubts. I just wish you would have come to me before running away.”
The disappointment in his tone was like a knife to Steph’s heart. A tear escaped her eye before she hastily wiped it away.
“I understand,” she said.
“Where have you been?” he asked, his gaze searching hers for answers.
Steph couldn’t think of what to tell him. Where had she been? Gallivanting with the Sheikh of El Farah, a man who had expressed an interest in marrying her. Perhaps if she told him the truth, he could tell her mother there was an even better suitor in sight than any man they could ever pick for her.
That still didn’t solve the problem of her jilted fiancé, though.
“I’ll tell you later. Right now, what I need to do is find my fiancé and apologize to him in person. I can’t do that without his information, though. Will you help me?”
Her father hesitated. Steph knew if he gave up that information he would be digging them into an even deeper hole of shame. Not only had Steph run away from the wedding, but to see the groom after the fact, before they became man and wife?
There was no help for it. Steph had to face him. He deserved to know why she had run.
After a moment’s consideration, Jerry heaved another heavy sigh and reached into his back pocket, pulling out his wallet and removing a crisp, white business card.