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I shake my head in response and continue to squirm.

“Great, now you lack the usage of vocabulary,” he scoffs.

“Have you ever found out something you are not supposed to find out and now being in the know is like you signed a death wish?”

“Ken, you are not making any sense, you either tell me or I kick you out. I have lots to do and you making parables is not helping.”

“Fine,” I snap. “You might want to brace yourself for this because there’s no going back once you know too.” She did say curiosity kills the cat. My curious cat size isn’t big enough for this.

I hit play on my phone and her slurry voice comes too. “His dad happened, is what happened.” I pause the recording.

“We’ve had several conversations, but when she said she will tell me just this once what happened because she needed to get it off her chest, I decided it was best to record. It just might be what saves me from broken bones or being locked up for life in a dungeon.”

I hit play again, ignoring Josh’s questioning look.

“Did you say Mr Darabi happened, how?”

“After he left for his princely training thingy.” She laughs. “Princely training thingy.” One can tell she’s drunk.

“His dad showed up in my tiny boring dorm room, just before my graduation, you had to see his face.” She burps out loud and laughs.

“He’s the original dominant and Naseer is the 2.0 version anyway he said I was blocking his son’s vision.” She laughs again and slurps her drink.

“He said I needed to move or be removed but he’s willing to pay me half a million dollars to move willingly but silly me asked for a million why not right.” She laughs.

“Yeah! Why not?” I state in encouragement.

“You know, the money wasn’t the issue but the fact that he looked like he was going to kill me or have me kidnapped and no one would ever find me. So, I took the money and disappeared. Life is a bitch sometimes you know, because I found out that I was pregnant weeks later.” She drinks more.

“Pregnant?”

“Oh yeah and believe me I thought about abortion. My life was falling apart. I started thinking maybe he sent his dad because it would be more effective. Maybe the marriage wasn’t real, after all, he hid his ring and told me to hide mine until I graduated. My mom convinced me to keep the baby. Secretly, you are the first person I’m telling. I went to a clinic. I just couldn’t go through with it. Promise not to tell. Shh,” she slurs her shush.

“I promise”

“Here is my pinky,” she says, slurring.

“It was very nice of your mom to support you.”

“Yeah well, history has a way of repeating itself. I planned to give the baby up for adoption and move on completely from him, never look back.”

“What changed your mind.”

“Twins, freaking twins. Waiter!” she yells out. Listening to the recording, no doubt she’s drunk but I couldn’t let her stop now.

“Please refill her drink,” I say to the waiter on the recording as Josh’s eyes widen telling me. I was crazy to have done that.

I eyed him with a shrug. “Twins?” The recording continues.

“Yep, boy and girl. So beautiful when they came out. Micah is a splitting image of Naseer, he even has the bent-colored pinky finger so typical “she laughs “and Mira is a replica of Taimani just my luck right that the children have nothing of me? They are full-blown Naseer or Mr Darabi reincarnation.” I laugh.

“Just your damn luck,” I say as she drinks more.

“So, Naseer doesn’t know he has children.”

“Oh no! But he wants to adopt them very funny, right.” She laughs uncontrollably. “You wanna know the part that hurts the most.”

“Tell me.”