Previously on PHOENIX… Regina finds herself potentially kidnapped in the Banks and meets Ahmed Karib, a powerful man who reveals that he has information about Regina’s mom…
Regina followed Ahmed to one of the already-running cars, trying to match his pace. His purposeful evasiveness was beginning to irk her. Having been dragged all this way, surely she was entitled to at least a little bit of information? What truly troubled her was the breadth of knowledge he seemed to be disguising.
More than the kidnapping, this made Regina quite anxious. Her family was famous; she had always known that, and their usual policy was to maintain a distance from the public. They shared carefully curated pieces of life, just enough to be relatable, but certain topics were never mentioned. Her mother was one of them. Such a monumental secret, and yet no one dared to guess as to her whereabouts. For Ahmed to speak of her so openly, to seem like he knew more about her than Regina did herself, was very unnerving.
She opened the passenger door to Ahmed’s car, which stuttered open. She tried not to get the dirt from outside onto her clothes, dismayed to find the interior just as in need of a wash. Glancing at the back, she saw loads of boxes and a lady, one of the people who had stood behind Ahmed.
“Hi,” she said, “just ignore me. I’m Maryam. Don’t worry, we’re not going to hurt you in any way. We actually need your help. Ahmed forgot to mention the first part earlier, but it’s true.” She patted Regina’s seat.
Ahmed gave her a glare. “What?” she said, “She’s going to assume the worst. You think she gets kidnapped every day?”
“Yes,” he said, putting the car into drive. “You are right.”
Maryam smiled. “Sisters are always right.”
He cleared his throat, turning instead to Regina. “Tell me what you know of your mother and why she left.”
What did he care what she knew, when it seemed like he had all the answers? “My mother left when I was ten,” she said, “when she and my father got divorced.”
Ahmed laughed. “That’s the publicity line, I already know. Is that the truth?”
“Yes.” Regina looked at him, trying to understand what he was fishing for. He drove away from the demolished houses they’d started at, and back to the narrow streets from earlier.
“She disappeared,” Regina said at last. “No one knows where she went.” That was the truth, or at least part of it. Although she had physically been able to determine where her mom was, the question of why remained hauntingly unanswered.
“That’s what your father told you?” Ahmed asked.
“Yes.”
“That’s not what really happened, I’m sure you know that.”
Regina felt her heart thudding against her chest. So many years thinking she was the only one with this insane desire to find her mom, to discover the truth of the disappearance. Because who just left their husband and daughter? Regina didn’t know much about mothers, but she knew they didn’t abandon their families without reason.
“Why are you telling me this?” Regina asked.
“I understand you have no reason to trust me, but just hear me out.” He slowed down as they entered the heart of the Banks again. Now, fewer people swarmed the streets. A glance at the sky told Regina it was probably dinner time. She wondered if her dad was wondering where she was. Unlikely.
He arrived home later and later each night, and Regina could always tell when the bright lights of his car shone through her window. Sam, too, was always preoccupied with his own work, so that he seemed to be on a different plane of consciousness than she was. Despite being raised as siblings, the label felt off. So, too, did the label of friend, since Regina could barely list any of his interests off the top of her head—except for the fact that he was addicted to his job. But they didn’t spend time together, not in the way that she imagined friends would do.
Her life was pristine, and yet wrinkled in an irreparable way. She had the vestiges of a proper family, and yet the reality was mangled beyond belief. Whoever Ahmed was, however he’d stumbled upon his information, Regina needed to know. Maybe he held the key to unlocking her real life, instead of the plastic, derivative one she was living.
Regina turned away from the window, looking back at Ahmed.
“Okay,” she said, “Tell me what you know.”
Ahmed gripped the steering wheel tightly in both hands, while Regina shifted in the passenger seat. He gave a long sigh before he spoke, like he needed to ready himself for what he was about to say.
“I don’t remember exactly when I met your mother, but I was still a kid. She was the daughter of my parents’ friends, though they weren’t like any of our other family friends. I had never met Mr. and Mrs. Paul, only heard about them. So I don’t remember how old I was, but I won’t forget the day I met her.”
Regina racked her brain, trying to recall her maternal grandparents, but she could only recall the fact that they were now dead. She had never given them much thought; she didn’t even know if she had ever met them.
Ahmed continued, “That day was the best day in a month of suffering. My father had broken his leg and couldn’t work, so my mother was working night and day to be able to afford food for us. And then the Pauls arrived, and they saved us. I didn’t know all that at the time; all I knew was that your mother and I played outside for hours while the adults talked in hushed tones inside. I don’t know if your mother remembers that day, but I always will. Your grandparents were a uniquely generous couple. I have never met anyone like them.”
Did her father know about this, her grandfather? She couldn’t imagine Royce Richards allowing his heir to marry the daughter of a rebel-sympathizing family.
“I didn’t see her for years, and my parents didn’t know what became of the family who had saved us when we needed it most. Sometimes I wondered about her, wanted to reach out, but we had no way to contact each other. It was many years later before she reached out to me. I didn’t know that she’d remembered who I was or our parents’ connection, but around ten years ago, a letter arrived at my door.”
It took Regina a moment to register why he emphasized the letter before she remembered that there was no paper in the Banks. It was common in the Settlement, and she hadn’t understood the difference until she caught one of the housemaids marveling at the endless books and stacks of paper in their library.
“So what did my mom’s letter say?” Regina prompted when Ahmed went silent. He seemed to want to continue, but the words were getting stuck in his throat. Regina tried to resist urging him, begging him to continue. She needed him to keep talking, more than she’d ever needed anything. No one had ever talked about her mom for this long. For her whole life, her mother had seemed like just a figment of her imagination, a regular occurrence in her dreams. It was enough to make her feel like she was going crazy.
“You have to understand, Regina,” Ahmed said at last, “nothing I tell you can be repeated. Not to anyone. Not your friends or your father or Sam Thowley or your aunt. No one can know that we’ve met, and no one can know what I’m about to tell you—what I’ve already told you.”
Regina nodded quickly; she wanted to reassure him that she didn’t have any friends, nor would this ever be a topic of conversation with her father. He would shut down any conversation before she could even reveal she knew anything.
“Then why are you telling me all this?” Regina asked. If he was so worried about her snitching, why was she in this car in the first place?
“I need your help, Regina,” he said, his voice more emphatic than before. “I need your help, so I need to make sure that you trust me.”
“This sounds so creepy, but I promise this is a normal request,” Maryam piped up from the backseat.
Her help? What could Regina possibly bring to the table? She could tell already that Ahmed was a man who knew many secrets about many people; in fact, he knew more about her own family than she did. The thought crossed her mind that he was lying. Maybe all of this was an elaborate scheme to kidnap her and get her father to pay the ransom. She doubted he would even pay. More likely, he would bide his time until they decided to give her back or kill her, and then he wouldn’t have to deal with it. But if they were kidnapping her, Regina concluded, they were not doing a very good job at it.
Thank you for reading and supporting this story!! Let me know your thoughts in the comments :)
This chapter really got to me because Regina is not only trying to find out what happened to her mother. She is realizing how carefully everyone around her has managed what she was allowed to know.
The part that hit hardest was how hungry she is just to hear someone talk about her mom. That felt so painfully real. When a person becomes a silence in your life, even small pieces of information can feel like oxygen.
I also love Maryam already. Anyone who says, “This sounds so creepy, but I promise this is a normal request,” has my full attention and possibly several follow-up questions.