An Oath In Blood (Book #3)

Chapter 31: Breaking Of A Family

WARREN HALE

Lily, Corvina, and Trish pored over Lily's laptop, Ahvi standing right over them along with Jace, who watched them at work. I stayed standing in the place I had been for the past hour, not daring to move. My jaw still ached from the punch Tariq landed but I made no move to tend to it. I knew I should at least put an ice pack on the injury but I couldn't bring myself to walk into my friend's kitchen. So, I stayed put, looking around the room, my insides in upheaval.

Tariq was sitting in an armchair, his gaze fixed in a distance, expression vacant. I had never seen him so unhinged, at least not after Shariq, Eman's ex-fiance, tried to touch her in public. He had been enraged then but it was nothing compared to the way he looked now, as if he plotting the end of the world. I wanted to talk to him, wanted to make things better between us but when I tried to speak to him a few minutes ago, he had merely turned his face away from me.

Ren was pacing the length of the room a few feet away from me but he refused to look at me. I realized I had messed up. I had done the one thing I had promised I would never do. I had let down my friends. I had estranged myself.

The walls of the room pressed on me as the realization settled on my shoulders. A throbbing pain began in my chest, expanding as I replayed the happenings of this morning in my head. Paired with the worry I felt for Eman, I didn't know how I was standing up because my knees felt extremely weak, incapable of holding me upright.

I walked out of the room when I felt I would suffocate on the very air around me. I needed to get out of the house. Making my way to the back door that led out to the back porch, I rubbed a hand down my face, swallowing the bile that rose in my throat. In my haste, I didn't notice that I kicked something until a flash of gold, skidding across the floor, caught my eye.

I paused, frowning as I searched the hall for the color I had spotted moments ago. I found it a couple feet away from me, laying on the ground innocently as if waiting for its owner to find it. I reached down and picked up the pendant, the name engraved on it sending a fresh wave of dread crashing over me.

Noori.

The pendant belonged to Eman, given by her husband on her wedding night as a present. It was the nickname that Tariq referred to her as. And she never took off. I had witnessed quite a few back and forths between husband and wife over the pendant, where Eman would roll her eyes and reach for her pendant, threatening to take it off. Tariq would heed to whatever she asked of him then as if he couldn't bear the thought of the pendant separating from the woman he loved.

I glanced over my shoulder, contemplating if I should give Tariq the pendant. But then I chose against it. He was devastated enough as of right now. He didn't need to know that the pendant was no longer in Eman's possession. I swallowed as I pocketed it, hoping that I was making the right call. These days, I couldn't do anything right.

I emerged out into the back porch, closing the sliding doors behind me. The evening light was slowly fading. I sat on down on the porch, closing my eyes, hoping that when I opened them again, everything would go back to normal. Eman would be back. I wouldn't have fallen in my friends' eyes. And Corvina would be beside me.

Pressure built behind my eyes, the weight of the world crashing on my shoulders. What was I going to do? What if something happened to Eman? What if she met a horrible fate? I had put her in a criminal's hands after all. And I couldn't blame anyone for it but myself.

I felt shuffling behind me, the screen door opening and closing. The air shifted around me and I felt someone sitting down beside me. I opened my eyes slowly to find Corvina taking a seat beside me, struggling to pull her skirt down as her long legs folded in front of her. She gave up after a few tries, stretching her leg out instead before she glanced at me.