Fatal Alliances [✓]

01

PRESENT DAY

CHAPTER ONE

MALIA

"I WANT CANNOLI, BUT GELATO TOO. I can't make my mind up. Such tough decisions, know what I mean?"

My best friend, Imaani Nurr rolled her eyes at me in response to my list of cravings. She wasn't fond of desserts, in fact she didn't even indulge in her own engagement sweets, including the Jalebi. I was sure she had a few screws loose in her head during that moment.

As I had stuffed my face at the venue with the variety of sweets, extra careful not to stain my georgette dress, all I could do was roll my eyes at her shy mannerisms, thinking of how when my day would come I would be dancing from a pole with the caterers, in my super glamorous Lehenga.

Traditional outfits had a special place in my heart and I wouldn't ever feel embarrassed by my desire to flaunt myself in it, when given the chance.

"Was the driver tipped generously?" Imaani questioned as she scanned her keycard and slid the door open to our temporary, yet rather luxurious apartment, courtesy of her. "You'd think these things would be programmed into me, being a pretentious important man's daughter."

"I may be almost broke from too much retail therapy, but I'm not a cheap person." I replied with a soft chuckle while typing away on my phone, grimacing at the scratch plaguing the screen, from running and dropping it out of my hands like a clumsy culprit.

"I find it absurd that this is the first time we're spending time together away from home, and only because I'll be getting married soon." Imaani plopped down onto her bed, and kicked off her trainers.

"Your parents let you, but only because your lovely fiancé, Mr Faris — gave you permission." I muttered, joining her with my carry on bag. "You can probably go ahead and call him daddy now."

"He didn't give me permission." She argued, "To do that, we'd have to communicate properly. He doesn't seem to be the sort of man to be so invested in what I do. We're nowhere out of reach either, just two hours away from London by plane."

"So you smartly convinced him why he should let you go, with the comforting thought that you'd be safe with moi, Malia Sofia," I mused, "Except poppet, I'm the single, crazy friend that the adults warn their children away from. I'm a bad influence, let's admit it."

Imaani narrowed her eyes, "Not on me you're not. I'll keep you in line, what would your father say if he heard from me that his daughter was off her rockers, all of a sudden?"

I really was the type to go off my rockers, do something crazy, waking up with absolutely no recollection of what happened the night before. But, somehow I was always okay. Luck was always on my side it seemed, I was sure that if my father knew of my escapades though, he would have had a heart attack by now.