A Family Affair Read Online Free PDF Page A

buns.”
    Trish laughed as she slipped into her jacket. “Nathan would skin you alive if he saw you eating all those buns.”
    “I’ll do an extra half hour on the treadmill. Go! ”
     
    Trish walked down the portable stairs of the private Gulfstream belonging to Sheik Malik bin Al Mohammed. It was hot and dry, not to mention breezy. She could see a Mercedes stretch limo with the flag of Dubai whipping from the front of the vehicle. The door was opened by a man in a long white robe. Out stepped one of the most beautiful women Trish had ever seen, dressed in Western clothes. She smiled at Trish and held out her hand. “Welcome to Dubai, Miss Holiday. I’m Soraya, Malik’s sister. He wishes me to apologize to you for not being here personally to welcome you to Dubai, but he had to go to Abu Dhabi early this morning. However, he will return in time to dine with us this evening.”
    Soraya had the same warm, caring eyes as her brother. The same welcoming smile and, Trish suspected, the same sense of humor. “Thank you. Please, call me Trish.”
    “Then you must call me Soraya. Did you have a good trip? Was everything satisfactory?”
    Trish found it hard not to stare at the beautiful young woman welcoming her to Dubai. The outfit she wore had to have cost more than Trish earned in a year. Chanel, if she wasn’t mistaken. Her jewelry looked to be priceless and probably was. She was as beautiful as her brother Malik was handsome. They had the same warm dark eyes, the same tawny skin, the same wonderful smile. She felt dowdy in comparison.
    “Absolutely. It was marvelous. The food was wonderful. I enjoyed the special tea and the rice cakes. I need to learn how to make both. I slept a lot, so the trip went faster than I thought it would. I also read up on your country. I can’t wait to see it all, so I can tell my friends all about it.”
    Soraya stepped aside so that Trish could slide into the limo. It was as plush as the Gulfstream. Glasses of sparkling water filled with ice cubes waited for her on a little shelf. Soraya motioned to her to drink it.
    “One must drink a lot of water here.”
    When both women were settled, Soraya started to talk. “Malik has appointed me as your tour guide. I love showing off Dubai. In return, I would ask that you tell me everything there is to tell me about America. Malik shared the experiences of his school years with me, but I want a woman’s perspective. My dream has always been to travel to America, but my father would not allow it. I cried for days when Malik left. My father paid no attention. I was to study here, and that was the end of it. Malik has promised me that I can make the trip soon. I am not sure whether he is placating me or not, but I can be relentless when it comes to things like that.” She laughed, the same musical sound as her brother’s laughter.
    “Can’t your mother intercede?”
    “I have no mother. She died giving birth to me. Malik and I grew up motherless. Having a mother was something we both missed sorely. That is not to say my father ignored us, but it is not the same as having a mother. My mother was very beautiful. It has been said that we both look like her. My father was neither handsome nor beautiful. He had swarthy looks, and his face was heavily pockmarked. He used to say that he could not believe my mother chose him to marry when she came of age when he was so ugly. He referred to himself as ugly at all times. When he would tell us those stories when we were little children, we thought of them as fairy tales. He said he could never marry again, because he could not replace such perfection as my mother. Do you have parents, Trish?”
    “I did, of course, but they died from carbon-monoxide poisoning. I was away for a weekend sleepover at a friend’s when it happened. I have a divorced sister who lives with her fourteen-year-old daughter, my only niece, in Princeton, New Jersey. I miss my parents and think of them every day. My sister took