An Echoing Race.

Chapter Thirty Six.

#Chapter Thirty Six#

{Unedited}

"I'M BACK BABY!"

Ahmad barely had time to open our front door before Mira came tumbling through with an excited grin plastered across her face. A half joyful, half exasperated Salem emerged behind her and with a heavy sigh, he hoisted her handbag further up his shoulder and used his free hand to greet Ahmad and some of the other guards who were milling around.

When our eyes zeroed in on each other, we squealed at the same time and within seconds, Mira and I were in a tight embrace.

"I missed you!"

"Well, I only missed you a little bit, I was too busy having fun in Spain!"

"Don't listen to her Sameena. Every time we saw anything even remotely interesting, she'd snap a picture and say 'I wish Sameena was here to see this!' and exhale sadly as if she was missing something from her life," Salem said as he came to stand next to us.

At his comment, I threw my head back and laughed, knowing Mira all too well. "I sense a hint of jealousy..." I trailed off with a knowing smile and Salem grinned boyishly, making him look a few years younger. In fact, both of them looked like they were glowing; either from the nice tan they had both accumulated over their holiday or the effect of their visible and very obvious happiness with one another.

"Well it does get annoying when I don't have her full attention," Salem joked and Mira just rolled her eyes in response. "At one point I thought of calling you up and telling you to come," he continued, much to Mira's chagrin.

"OK, now you're just exaggerating! I love Sameena, but not to the extent that I'd want her with me on my honeymoon!"

Mira gave me apologetic smile.

I simply chuckled. "Well had you called me, I probably wouldn't have come anyway. It's been two of the busiest weeks of my life." I sighed and shook my head. "I have a lot to tell you!" Before they could respond, I ushered them into the living room knowing the last thing anyone wanted to do after travelling was to stand on their feet.

Mira squirmed in her seat once we had sat down. "Ehem...so about that. We kind of know," Mira admitted.

I frowned in confusion. "What exactly do you know?"

"Well, we know about Isaac and how he's still on the loose. We also know about what happened after..." I felt them both analysing my face. "You know, the secret and the fight..."

I was surprised yet pleasantly relieved I didn't have to fill them in on everything myself. "Baba told me that he personally made sure you guys were kept out of the loop so that your honeymoon wasn't spoiled." I glanced at Salem.

"I knew your father would do exactly that so I um, had someone else keep me updated whilst I was gone." He didn't look the least bit guilty at that.

"I'm shocked you didn't come back when you found out."

"We were very close to when we did...that day was ruined for both of us because we were too worried about everyone and we ended up just staying in our apartment contemplating whether we should return or not..." He leaned back against the couch and disheveled his hair. "But then two things stopped me. Firstly, my team back here were working exceptionally well and were managing the situation exactly how I would have. Even if I came back earlier there would be nothing particular for me to do except stand around and wait for our intelligence team to pinpoint his exact location." I nodded my head in agreement. There really would have been no point for them to leave a few days early but not only that, it was Salem's first proper holiday in a long time. I would have hated for this special time in his life to be ruined because of an imbecile like Isaac.