Chapter 10 - The Horizon
Ten months later.
The morning sun over the Persian Gulf was a brilliant, shimmering sheet of liquid gold.
I stood on the expansive wrap-around terrace of my penthouse at the Burj Crown Residences, holding a cup of fresh cardamon-spiced coffee. Below me, the city of Dubai hummed with boundless energy—sleek architectural marvels rising from the desert sands, yachts slicing white wakes across the turquoise marina, a world moving relentlessly forward into the future.
My phone rang on the glass outdoor table.
It was Sarah.
“Tell me you’re looking at the Q3 financial returns,” Sarah said, her voice crackling with excitement across the seven-hour time difference.
I smiled, leaning against the marble balustrade, letting the warm morning breeze lift my hair. “Tariq and I closed the sovereign green-energy fund yesterday afternoon. We were oversubscribed by four hundred million dollars.”
“You absolute queen,” Sarah cheered. “Your picture is on the cover of *Forbes Middle East* this month. I bought twenty copies and sent one to Julian Vance’s office just to be petty.”
I laughed—a real, effortless laugh that rose from deep inside my chest. “You didn't.”
“I absolutely did. Julian called me, by the way. He wanted me to pass along his congratulations. He said letting Marcus Miller anywhere near your career was the single greatest mistake he ever made as an agency head.”
“Julian was just protecting his firm,” I said peacefully. “I don't hold any grudges, Sarah. Grudges require you to carry someone in your mind, and I don't have the room.”
“And Marcus?” Sarah asked gently, her tone shifting into something softer, more protective.
“Who?” I replied smoothly.
Sarah paused for a half-second, and then burst into delighted laughter. “Exactly. That is the correct answer.”
We chatted for twenty minutes about her upcoming visit to Dubai for New Year’s Eve, finalized the details of her stay in my guest suite, and hung up.
I set the phone down and closed my eyes, breathing in the scent of sea salt, jasmine, and morning heat.
Fourteen months ago, I was sitting in an apartment in Manhattan, crying silently in the dark, believing that love meant making yourself small enough to fit inside someone else’s insecurity. I had nearly convinced myself that ambition was a flaw, that boundaries were unreasonable, and that I was lucky to be tolerated by a man who couldn't even see me.
How terrifyingly close I had come to surrendering my life to his smallness.
A soft knock sounded against the terrace glass door.
I turned.
Tariq was standing there, dressed in an impeccably cut cream linen suit, holding two leather presentation portfolios. Behind him, on the outdoor dining table, his assistant had set out a fresh breakfast of figs, warm flatbread, and fresh pomegranate juice.
“Am I interrupting your morning quiet, Emma?” Tariq asked, his dark eyes warm, respectful, and filled with the kind of admiration that never asked me to apologize for being brilliant.
Over the last ten months, Tariq had been a mentor, a business partner, and, slowly, steadily, something much deeper. There were no games with him. No backhanded compliments. No fragile male vanity that required me to walk on eggshells. He was a man who possessed his own power, and because of that, he celebrated mine.
“You’re never an interruption, Tariq,” I said, stepping back inside the sun-drenched penthouse.
“The Prime Minister’s economic council approved our proposal for the new technology hub in Abu Dhabi,” Tariq said, handing me one of the leather folders. His hand brushed against mine, lingering for a sweet, deliberate second. “They specifically requested that you lead the steering committee.”
I looked at the folder, then looked up into his eyes.
“It will require extensive international travel,” Tariq added, a faint, teasing smile touching the corner of his lips. “London, Tokyo, Singapore. But this time… you’ll be the one charting the course.”
I smiled—a smile that was whole, unbroken, and entirely mine.
May you like
“I’ve never been afraid of the journey, Tariq,” I said, opening the portfolio to the first page. “I just needed to make sure I was traveling with the right person.”
We sat down together in the morning sun, high above the world, building an empire that no one could ever take away.
