Blindsided, her uncle promised Shiloh to the jilted Sauvage leader and made considerable overtures to compensate, resulting in Saba’s current reality.
Three sisters, so much anguish, for all of them and the man before her.
However, this time, the blame was not on the Don of the Lisade clan.
‘It was Shiloh and I who thought of this.’
Mak studied her for a long moment, eyes still hard, yet understanding dawned in his eyes. ‘You mean to tell me you brokered a deal with her, sacrificing all your happiness for your sister?’
He was halfway to the truth.
‘I’ve always relinquished my desires,’ she quipped with an offhand shrug laced with bitterness. ‘This is no different.’
For many years, she endured being overlooked as her uncle and aunt spent more money on their children and her more beautiful sisters, ensuring they would be well-married.
As the plainest of them all, she was relegated to the sidelines.
Tewa and Sylvana lavished the small fortune Saba’s father had left behind for the three sisters on a series of arranged marriage introductions.
Her uncle had often stressed to the trio how their sacrifice would mean uplifting their family’s troubles.
Tewa hid their genteel poverty well from the rest of the flotilla.
Few grasped how destitute the Lisades’ ark ship,TheLightNautilus, in particular, had become.
Food, resources, and fuel were becoming a hardship. Their engines were struggling without regular maintenance, and their energy cells were depleting fast.
This meant that less sustenance was available from the failing hydroponic farms due to a lack of efficient energy to run them.
Schools and facilities were shut down as the Lisades’ vessel experienced a significant brain drain when their residents jumped ship to find better living standards.
Thank the heavens for the flotilla’s online education portals, courtesy of Signet, and accessible for free to all travelers on the journey.
Saba had taken the opportunity and love for knowledge to gain a degree, refusing to let the circumstances of her life sap the life from her.
She’d decided to focus on other aspects of her life that brought her joy, such as her intellectual pursuits.
Enjoying a good book helped her shift her mindset away from the tediousness of her existence.
Until Shiloh came running to her in frightful panic and begged her to save her life and honor.
‘Still, you lied and participated in a veiled cover-up, to put it mildly.’
Mak’s resonant rumble thrust her back to the present.
She stumbled over her words. ‘My uncle was adamant during the bridal negotiations about the punishment that would befall our family if we reneged on the deal, given the scandal that Suri wrought so many years ago. All you had was a photo of Shiloh, and you hadn’t even met her. So we chanced on going ahead with the wedding without my uncle’s knowledge as he too would have been livid, as you witnessed he was.’
‘You still haven’t answered me. Where the hell is Shiloh?’ he demanded.
She faced the icy, angry eyes of theŠarand lifted her chin high in defiance. ‘I can’t tell you.’
‘Can’t or won’t?’
She bit her lip before responding. ‘Can’t. She refused to tell me where she was going.’
However, she had a good idea where she had been headed.
‘Do you understand howfokkedup this is?’ he rumbled.
