Embraced (#2 Natives series) #ProjectNigeria

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

           HE WOULD HAVE PREFERRED TO be in his room, lying out his work sheet and sketching up a design or two for the sample Olumide had asked him to email him regarding the eco-friendly hotel he had scored an interview for. But instead, here he was; at the wedding of some unknown persons.

They aren't completely unknown. Your mother was invited, you just don't know the uniting parties. A voice explained in Munir's head. He shushed it.

Why his sister had asked him to drive her to the reception party was beyond him. Blowing out a sigh, Munir scratched his bearded jaw as he stepped out of his mother's car. He stretched out the kinks in his tall and moderately muscled body before looking up at the sky. It was beginning to darken up there and the setting sun was leaving trails of crimson and purple tints behind.

Munir closed his eyes as he sniffed in the light wind filtering about. A ear grating static pierced the air and the sereneness of the evening was suddenly vandalized by the sudden sound of bawdy and boisterous music coming from inside the event hall.

The voice of the MC boomed out through the speakers as he brought the party to a swing. 

A scowl presented itself on Munir's face. He was wasting precious time out here, he fumed. Pulling his phone out from his pocket, Munir sent a message to his sister: When do you plan on leaving?

A reply came instantly. Right after Fatiha's done.

Fatiha? He thought it at the same time he sent it. Fatiha's here?

Yes. She has something to do.

Munir's brows furrowed. That was news to him. He had asked his sister a number of times what her reason for attending the party was, but she had simply said "Because it's a wedding and I love weddings". He hadn't believed that of course and his skepticism had only grown further when he'd seen her choice of dress for the occasion.

At least now he knew why she hadn't bothered with her appearance. But what was Fatiha doing here? he wondered if she knew the bride or groom. As he began to type out another message, Munir heard a voice that was all too familiar to him.

"Nothing happened between the both of us, Faisal. Munir is just Noor's brother, he's nothing to me. Do you honestly think I'd have anything to do with the boy who bullied me for years? Please, don't do this."

Munir winced as a piercing pain sliced through his chest. He knew that voice. It was Fatiha. He glared down at his upper half in annoyance then dropped the hand that had clutched his chest area unknowingly. What the heck was that?

"Are you sure?" A man's voice asked.

The authority and narcissistic superiority laced in his tone irritated and grated on Munir's ears. 

"I promise, Faisal. He's nothing to me." Fatiha placated.

Faisal. Faisal? Munir's mind searched for where he'd heard that name before and then, in a rush it came to him. He snapped his head in the direction of where the voices were coming from. Faisal and Fatiha, he thought with displeasure, his hand clenching around his phone. The absentee fiancé. She was talking about him with her absentee fiancé?

He shouldn't be feeling this way but Munir couldn't help the flame of envy that tore through him. He grounded his teeth as the strange emotion began to give way under the weight of jealousy.