Jessica's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Jessica stood in her red wedding dress outside the black-and-gold hall, and in two weeks she would marry a man she did not love. Her fiancé owned this place. The gold sun-and-moon emblem above the doors proved his wealth. She had come to find Mahdi instead, to learn if his heart matched hers before she risked everything. She found him near the tree heavy with roses. He wore his black suit and gold crown. When Mahdi saw her dress, his smile fell. "You look like a bride," he said. "Not mine." "The wedding moved up," Jessica said. "Two weeks now." Mahdi went quiet. He plucked a single rose from a low branch. He turned it in his fingers and did not offer it. Jessica's chest tightened. She had built her whole plan on one guess. If she confessed and he only pitied her, she would lose her fiancé, her security, and her pride in one night. She would have nothing. "I need to know something," she said. "And I need the truth." "Ask." "That night we talked, did it mean the same to you as it did to me?" Her voice shook. "Or was I just a woman who was lonely and easy to talk to?" Mahdi looked at the rose. For a long moment he said nothing, and each second cut deeper. "Come here," he said. He walked her to a golden tiger statue that guarded a red carpet path. Above it hung a framed picture. A black man and woman watched the sun rise together, hands joined. "I bought that the day after we met," Mahdi said. "I hung it where I would see it every morning. I told myself it was just a picture I liked." He finally held out the rose. "It wasn't. It was you and me. I've thought about you every day since." Jessica took the rose. Her hands trembled. The fear she had carried for two weeks broke apart. "Then I'm calling off the wedding," she said. "I don't love him. I love you." "Say it again." "I love you, Mahdi." He pulled her close and held her against the crimson carpet path. For one breath, everything felt solved. Then footsteps sounded behind them. Fast, hard steps on the stone. Jessica turned. A woman in a purple and white dress stood at the edge of the light. Alejandra. She looked at Jessica in the red gown, then at Mahdi, then at the rose in Jessica's hand. "So it's true," Alejandra said. Her voice was calm and cold. "He's my brother, Jessica. And your fiancé sent me to bring you home." Jessica's grip crushed the rose stem. She had her answer. But now the man she was leaving knew, and his messenger stood between her and the door.