I hate that Aaliya is no longer smiling. I tilt her chin up with my knuckle. “Did Celia say something to upset you?” I ask her.

“It’s nothing I can’t handle,” Aaliya says in her brave and fearless way. Any other woman I know would have cowered under the combined pressure of my mother first and then Celia. But not Aaliya! She truly is a lioness.

I make our excuses and with instructions to the manager to add the bill to my account we leave my mother and Celia and head home.

Aaliya is quiet as I zip the car down the roads. I reach for her hand and lift it to my lips.

“Talk to me, sweetheart. What did Celia tell you that has upset you so much?”

She takes her time to respond, but finally turns to me as I slow the car in front of a signal.

“She offered me...” Aaliya’s phone rings before she can finish her sentence. She frowns as she answers the phone.

The signal turns green. I move the car forward as I hear snippets of her side of the conversation.

“Jasmine, it’s two thirty in the morning there, is everything okay?” Worry layers her words.

“But Jasmine, you told me...”

“What? How is he now?”

“High fever! How high?” she yells.

“The hospital!” Aaliya yelps.

“I’m so afraid.”

Her voice breaks into a sob as she cries into the phone.

“I’m coming, Jasmine. Please look after him. I’m taking the next flight out.”

She disconnects the call and bursts into tears. She puts her hands on her eyes and cries into them.

I park the car on the side of the road and gather her into my arms. “What’s happened, baby? Tell me please. You’re worrying me.”

“I left him for so long, Damien. It’s my fault. I should’ve been there for him. His fever is through the roof. They can’t contain it. I have to go.”

She weeps into my shoulder. I hold her close to me and rub soothing circles down her back.

“I shouldn’t have left him. And now he’s unwell. They need to admit him to the hospital.”

“Who’s unwell, Aaliya? Is it your Dad? What happened to him?”

My question sort of wakes her up from her cry-induced stupor because she sits straight and rubs the tears from her eyes.

She sniffs. “I have to go, Damien. Right now! They need me. I have to collect my passport and book a ticket and I have to reach the airport.”

“Hey, sweetheart, calm down and let me help okay. Do you have a copy of your passport on your phone?”

She nods in affirmation.

“Send it to Mike,” I instruct her. “I’ll ask him to book a ticket right away. It’ll be emailed to you even before we reach home.”