Chapter 3 - Shadows on Reforma
By evening, the city outside the hotel was drowning in a torrential downpour. Water cascaded down the glass facade of the skyscraper, blurring the neon lights of Paseo de la Reforma into long streaks of red and yellow.
Lucía had tried to slip out through the employee exit at the back shift change, but two men in charcoal suits were already waiting by the time clock. They didn't use force; their politeness was far more terrifying.
"The sheikh requests a private audience, señora," the taller one said, flashing a diplomatic badge. "Your son, Daniel, is already being looked after at a secure location nearby."
Panic spiked through her veins. "If you touch my son—"
"No one is going to harm the boy," the guard interrupted smoothly. "His Excellency only wants the truth. And perhaps, to finish a conversation that started twenty years too soon."
Cornered by fate, Lucía climbed into the back of a black Mercedes SUV. The leather seats smelled of rain and expensive cologne. Through the tinted windows, the rainy streets of Mexico blur into a melancholy montage. She thought of her late husband, a Mexican engineer who had met her in a hospital in Beirut during the darkest days of conflict, smuggling her out across borders with forged papers before he vanished in an accident that left her stranded in a foreign land with a newborn baby and no name.
When the car pulled up to a private residence nestled in the exclusive hills of Lomas de Chapultepec, Lucía’s hands were shaking uncontrollably.
She was led through a courtyard filled with trickling fountains into a dimly lit study lined with leather-bound books. Standing by the window, looking out over the rain-slicked city, was Sheikh Tariq.
He turned around slowly. He had removed his coat, revealing a tailored vest over his white tunic.
May you like
"You haven't aged a day, Yasmin," Tariq said softly.
Lucía closed her eyes, a single tear breaking free and cutting a clean path down her cheek. "That name died twenty years ago, Tariq. I am Lucía here. Just Lucía."
