she shouldn’t have repeated what was clearly a private conversation,’
‘It remains just between us. I shall not be taking what was said to the elders.’
Oh, Ilyas was so controlled and formal, Hazin thought, and shot him a look as he spoke on.
‘I understand too that you don’t want to speak at Petra’s anniversary...’
‘Maggie’s been busy!’ Hazin sneered.
‘I had to drag the conversation from her.’
Hazin felt as if his most private thoughts were being raked over by a stranger.
‘I know this must be difficult for you,’ Ilyas attempted. ‘You must miss Petra—’
He knew nothing.
Ilyas, who had always been so distant, suddenly reaching out did not sit right with Hazin.
‘We don’t talk, Ilyas. We never have, unless it was you telling me to raise my game. You know nothing of my life yet ten years after Petra’s death you sit here and tell me you know how I feel?’ Hazin shook his head. ‘Too late.’
‘No.’ Ilyas said. ‘I want—’
‘You can keep wanting, then,’ Hazin said. ‘But I have no desire to come back home, and certainly not for a wedding.’
The last one he had been to had been his own.
They had all assumed he had been blinded with grief since Petra’s death and that was why he had gone off the rails.
They didn’t know him at all and it was too late now to try.
‘Why didn’t you show up last night?’ Hazin asked.
He saw Ilyas’s slight eyebrow rise at the odd question, given the rather vital news, but Hazin was starting to realise what might have occurred.
‘I went to see Maggie,’ he said. ‘She was actually on her way to try and meet you, so you could have me contact her.’
Hazin pressed his fingers into his forehead and closed his eyes. He could see now what had happened. Worse, he could see himself tossing Flo her clothes and shouting at her to get out.
He had to get back and try to explain somehow, and now had no desire to play catch-up with his brother.
‘Good luck with the wedding,’ Hazin said, and stood.
Ilyas did not try to dissuade him from leaving. They may not have been close, but he knew his younger brother would take time later to think it through.
And Hazin would.
Right now there was somewhere else he needed to be.
He walked briskly back to the hotel and took the elevator up to his floor. He pulled out his card and swiped the door open.
Too late.
Flo was gone.
He had known that she would be.
Hazin really hadn’t imagined he’d find her sitting there, tucking into breakfast. Instead it had been set up on the table and remained untouched.
He walked through to the bedroom and the unmade bed.
There was the towel he had dropped on the floor and there was another so he guessed she must have showered and left.
Hazin walked back to the untouched breakfast and felt a curl of guilt when he saw a box of tissues by the window and a little pile of knotted ones.
She’d been crying.
Hazin was very used to being a deliberate bastard.
This morning he’d been an inadvertent one.
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