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Steph looked up to find Sadiq bearatitude, and she couldn’t help but s pair, aren’t we?”

“You could say that,” he chuckled

“But you put sous to first class, a luxury suite Why didn’t you try to sabotage it?”

Sadiq shrugged “Idifferent, but I wasn’t about to let my future wife’s family travel uncomfortably That’s not how I treat the people close to me, and, for all intents and purposes, that would have included you”

Steph’s slad that this could work out”

Sadiq held out a hand for her to shake, which she did, vigorously She was about to ask hi again and a loud voice coeneral direction

The voice belonged to none other than Steph’s mother

THIRTEEN

Steph

“Where is she? Where is hter?”

Steph winced at the anger in her mother’s voice, and Sadiq lifted an eyebrow

“I take it that’s my ex future mother-in-law?”

Steph nodded, her throat bone dry “You guessed it”

Without hesitating, Sadiq stood and stepped out of his office Steph waited in her seat a th from the fact that Sadiq was not only with her, but also on her side She stood and joined him outside the office

Elora was e open room Behind her, Steph saw her father, his cheeks ruddy, his shoulders slumped If he’d had a tail, it would have been firs

Finally, Steph braved a real look at herfro Sadiq, Elora calh her shoulders reressive