Chapter 79 Roller Coaster of Emotions

Especially when she found her aunt sitting on a swing in the rose garden, watching Omar Farouq and Troy kick a soccer ball back and forth on the royal lawn.

Her heart squeezed so tight she had to stop walking and fight to breathe. Aaliyah had to remind herself—sternly—of the six hard years she’d struggled through.

Almost entirely alone.

She found she had to do that a little too much as the days wore on.

“Maybe it’s not all bad,” said Corrine on one of their walks through the extensive palace gardens.

Back home in Tahoe: They had often tried to put in a bit of a summer garden in what summer there was so high up in the mountains. Unkillable geraniums seemed to be the height of their gardening prowess.

It felt a bit like a metaphor that even the gardens here were unutterably lush.

“There are worse things, of course,” Aaliyah allowed, trying not to sound disgruntled.

When, in fact, she felt disgruntled. She’d woken from strange, dark dreams to find Omar Farouq in the shower. He had bid he