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“Never,” Lucky said fervently. “Dina is all I’ve ever wanted.”

Aliyah sighed. “I need to find that in a man. Do you have a brother?”

“He’s married,” Lucky said.

She sighed again. “She’s going back to Canada in a few days anyway. What do you have to lose?”

Aliyah’s words echoed in Lucky’s mind long after he dropped her back at Yahya Uncle’s mansion. Part of him wanted to barge inside Crescent House and demand to speak with Arshad, or Dina. Another part of him was terrified of what he would hear. If Aliyah was right and Arshad had lied to him about Dina’s feelings for him six years ago, then—what? She lived in Toronto and worked with her father at Haq Law. He lived in Chicago and had spent a lot of time and effort establishing himself in a new industry, and his family was finally comfortable here. The timing for both of them was off. If there had once been a window to a happy future with Dina, it had since closed.

Even if his former friend had screwed him, it was too late to do anything more than punch Arshad in the face. What was done was done. He would have to make peace with reality.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

“Dina, how could you?” Lisa said, her voice tinny through the cell phone speaker, her disbelief apparent. Back in her room at Yahya Uncle’s mansion, Dina hung her head.

“I know,” she said.

“This was your moment to tell Lucky about your divorce! Seriously, you should not be allowed out in public without a chaperone,” Lisa said.

Her friend was seated on a couch in her living room, her two-year-old crawling across her hugely pregnant lap. Lisa struggled to her feet, toddler Mika rising with her, and started to pace. Mika gripped Lisa’s face in her chubby palms. “Mama mad!” she declared.

“Hell yeah, I’m mad!” Lisa said.

“What was I supposed to do?” Dina asked. She truly wanted to know.

“Tell Lucky you’re a single lady and then make out with him!” Lisa said.

“My situation is too complicated. Lucky deserves better. He should be with someone easy and fun, like Aliyah,” Dina countered.

“Oh God. I truly can’t with you.” Lisa took a seat on the couch again and brought the phone close to her perfect, pore-less face.

“Your skin looks amazing,” Dina offered weakly, trying to forestall the lecture she knew was coming.

“I know it does, I’m eight months pregnant. Stop trying to change the subject. Do you hate yourself?” Lisa demanded. Her cheeks were flushed now, and Dina felt bad for making her friend this upset.

“Um. No?” she said, cringing at the questioning lilt at the end of her sentence.

“Then why are you sabotaging your life?” Lisa asked. “Seriously. I want to know. First of all, you marry Arshad. Even as you were walking down the aisle, I bet you knew you were making a mistake.”

“Muslims don’t walk down an aisle,” Dina said.

“The metaphorical aisle of matrimony, then!” Lisa said, exasperation clear in her voice. “After literal years of trying to make it work with a toxic narcissist, you finally see the light and kick him out, divorce him, and move on with your life. But instead of throwing an epic party and celebrating this momentous event, you double down and hide it from everyone. Dina, what is wrong with you?”

The two women stared at each other, eight hundred kilometers and a lifetime of different expectations separating them. Suddenly Dina was angry. Furious at her friend and the world and most of all at herself, a dam finally reaching critical levels.

“None of this has been easy,” she said.

“Because you made it harder,” Lisa shot back.

“I married Arshad because I wanted to,” Dina said.

“That’s what you told yourself, but you forget I’ve been there since the beginning. He wasn’t good for you, not ever. You married him because it was easy, because he asked and your parents approved,” Lisa said.

“You don’t know the inner workings of my life, Lisa,” Dina said.

“I know the only time in the past few years I’ve seen a genuine smile on your face was when I saw you talking with Lucky at your sister’s nikah,” Lisa said quietly.

What could she say to that? Nothing. The silence stretched between them. Dina broke it, awkwardly. “Any luck snooping around Arshad’s office?” she asked.