“I understand my brother had Kalil fired?”
Olivia placed her own coffee cup down on the table and met Selena’s gaze without flinching. “He didn’t have him fired. He fired him himself.”
“Because he caught you desecrating one of our sacred sights?”
Olivia sighed, then lifted her coffee and sipped it. “I did not desecrate a sacred sight. You make it sound as though I took a bottle of paint to the skrina monument.” She smiled to soften her derisive comment. “I wasn’t aware the fountain had special significance. Once Kalil made me aware of my error, I never went near it again.”
“Yet you let my brother fire him, for simply doing his job.”
> Olivia glared at the other woman. Her first instinct, to correct Selena’s assertion, was not worthy of her. She didn’t need to explain herself, or Tamir, to Selena. Instead, she lifted her slender shoulders. “You know as well as I do that Tamir is not a man whose mind can be easily changed. Once he decides on a course of action, that’s it.”
“Yes, I know that all too well.” Selena’s eyes, so like Tamir’s narrowed. “Such as marrying you.”
Olivia’s happiness was fast disappearing. “Marrying me was his choice, yes. And it has nothing to do with you.” She replaced her cup once more and clasped her hands in her lap, to hide the way they were shaking from the other woman.
“That is excessively naïve.”
“I beg your pardon?” Olivia coughed, her surprise apparent.
Selena seemed to drop any veil of normality, and plunged headlong into hostility. “You’re naïve. Your entire perspective is wrong. My son is in line for the throne of Talidar. It is his birthright.”
Olivia frowned. Tamir’s nephew was only four years old. “Isn’t he a little young to start planning his future to such a degree?”
Selena’s laugh was high-pitched. “His future was planned from the moment he was conceived. He was born to be a King. Tamir has no interest in children, you know. Until he met you, he had no interest in an actual relationship with a woman. If Marni was still with us, she could vouch for that.”
A shiver ran down Olivia’s spine, as the name that had hovered on the edges of her mind for a month came to the front of her consciousness. “Who is Marni?” She heard herself ask, though she knew Tamir would feel betrayed. That he would not approve of this conversation, nor the content.
“My best friend,” Selena said quietly, her anger apparent.
“I’m sorry. Tamir doesn’t speak about her.”
“Because he broke her heart. He slept with her, and made her believe their relationship was heading towards marriage. But when she said that to him, he laughed! He actually laughed! And told her that, when he married, it would be to someone with a better opinion of themselves and their family than she had.”
Olivia closed her eyes. “When was this?”
“Five years ago.”
“You and I weren’t there, though, Selena. What she wanted and what he said – they’re the only two people who will ever know. And it has little bearing on my relationship with Tamir.”
“Don’t you get it? He loved her. He loved her, but he didn’t realise it. He went to her, to apologise, the next night.” Selena sucked in a deep breath. “He’s the one who found her.”
“Found her?” Olivia whispered, her fingers shaking wildly in her lap.
“An overdose of cocaine.”
Olivia shuddered. “That’s terrible. I’m so sorry, Selena. To lose your friend like that…”
“It was Tamir’s fault.”
Olivia looked at her hands. “I’m not going to get involved. It has nothing to do with me.”
Selena’s smile was deranged by cruelty. She pulled her phone out of her handbag and loaded up a photograph. “Doesn’t it?”
Olivia hesitated for a moment, then took the phone and looked down at it. She could have been staring at her own reflection, except she’d never worn quite as much make up, and never worn a dress such as this.
“Who is this?”
“Marni.” Selena’s tone was victorious. “Tamir doesn’t love you, Olivia. He doesn’t look at you and see you. He sees Marni, and redemption.”