“She’s beautiful,” Zantar said, his voice husky as he watched.
“Please sit down,” Faye asked. “You’re too tall for me to see you when you’re standing like that.”
Zantar sat, but his eyes continued to watch.
There was a long silence and Shanta finished on one side. Faye turned her daughter around, feeling the heat in her cheeks when she had to expose her other breast. But Zantar seemed oblivious of her embarrassment and continued to watch, fascinated by the process.
“Does it hurt?” he asked.
Faye shrugged, trying to ignore the heat staining her cheeks. “It hurt like the devil initially. But we’ve figured things out,” she said, running a finger over Shanta’s soft fuzzy head. The dark tufts were sticking straight up on top of her daughter’s head, but the back of her head was bald where the bassinet’s mattress had worn away her precious hair.
“She’s beautiful,” he commented.
“I agree,” Faye said, brushing that fingertip over Shanta’s cheek. Finally, Faye looked up. “You didn’t sign the contracts with Green Mining, did you?’
Zantar pulled his eyes away from Faye. “No. After you…” he sighed, still trying to ease the anger at her departure. He rubbed the back of his neck and started over. “After your abrupt departure, I looked into the company a bit more. Turns out, Green Mining isn’t really a company at all. It’s only a shell corporation used for tax evasion and criminal activities.”
“So…?”
“Scott Roland, your step brother, was convicted of rape, human trafficking, kidnapping, abuse of humanity, tax evasion, burglary, assault, sexual assault, attempted robbery, and is awaiting trial on a slew of other crimes.” He leaned back in his chair. “He was the representative for Green Mining which had been digging tunnels underneath villages in order to mine efiasia, which is a mineral that can be used to build cheap microchips. Gold is the best mineral because it doesn’t rust and has fast conductive qualities. Efiasia is a newly discovered mineral that several of the lower quality computer manufacturers are using to build cheap laptops. The microchips in these computers aren’t nearly as good for long term use, but the mineral will last for about a year or two before breaking down, which renders the computer useless.”
“Why was Scott in Skyla?”
“Actually, he kept driving back and forth from the capital city in Skyla, to Citran where he was in charge of the mining activities here.” At her surprise, he nodded and continued. “There’s a massive efiasia deposit that straddles four countries. The first company that was created to cover the mining activities simply dug underneath one of the villages in Skyla. But that created a massive area of instability that caused a small village to fall into the mine. Initially, it looked like a sink hole.”
Faye’s eyes widened. “And then?”
“The mining company learned its lessons there, but the deposit was large enough that they could come at it from a different angle. The next time, they started operations far enough outside of a small town, and they kidnapped Sheik Goran el Istara of Skyla and his fiancée, now his wife, Princess Calista del Taran, in order to distract the government so that the mining company could do whatever it wanted.”
“That’s horrible! What happened to the Sheik and his…wife? And what about the first village?”
“Thankfully, no one was hurt, but almost every building in the town was damaged. The town is being rebuilt and the residents are stronger than ever.”
Faye looked down at Shanta, shuddering with the horror of what was going on. “That’s something, at least.”
“Sheik Goran and Princess Calista are married now. No harm done to them.”
Faye smiled, nodding as she looked down again. Shanta was slowing down, exhausted from the shock of her day as well as a full belly.
“The mining company didn’t stop there, although they moved their operations out of Silar and Skyla. But because of the large deposit of the mineral and the potential profits, the company merely moved their operations. “Thankfully, we were able to figure out what they were trying to do this time and stop them before life or property were damaged.”
“Oh my gosh!”
“Exactly,” Zantar replied, sighing with frustration over the entire situation. “It wasn’t until the leaders of Skyla and Silar brought me and Sheik Nasir, the leader of Minar, together that we figured out that all of the issues were related.” He shook his head. “But it wasn’t until you told me not to sign contracts with Green Mining that we were able to put everything together.”
“So…?”
Zantar took her free hand, holding it in his larger one. “It’s done, Faye,” he assured her. “We stopped them. With your help. It took several months to get all of the truck drivers and excavators rounded up, but because you told us about Green Mining, we had the clue that we needed.”
She smiled, snapping her nursing bra closed with one hand, then buttoning her shirt. When she was once again covered, she looked up at Zantar, gently patting Shanta’s diaper-clad bottom. “That’s good. And everyone is okay?”
“So far, we haven’t found any true victims, except for the mountain areas. They were severely damaged by the tunnels. But otherwise, we stopped them before anyone was hurt.”
She smiled, glancing down shyly with his praise. “That’s good.”
Zantar leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees as he looked intently at her. “If you’d believed in me, you could have been part of the solution, Faye,” he told her.
Faye stared at him, stunned by his assertion. “What do you mean?”
Zantar watched her carefully, feeling his anger increase. “You kissed me, Faye. You made love with me, told me that you loved me, and then walked out of my life.” His eyes dropped to his daughter. “And then you took away my opportunity to experience our daughter’s birth and the first months of life from me.” He heard her gasp, but couldn’t pull back the words. He couldn’t soften them. “You didn’t trust me to help you!”
Faye’s lips opened slightly and he saw a touch of tears in her eyes. “I couldn’t! You don’t know how bad Scott is!” she asserted, starting to sit up but the movement jerked Shanta out of her happy place, so Faye forced herself to relax once again. She lifted her chin, glaring at him. “Scott was using me to get to you. He was going to force me to manipulate you and I wouldn’t allow that.”
Zantar stood up, trying to come to terms with everything. A lot was happening and he wasn’t sure what he was feeling. “How about if you tell me what the hell happened? You owe me an explanation.”
Faye stared down at their daughter for a long moment and Zantar wasn’t sure what she was thinking. Thankfully, a moment later, she lifted her eyes, which were now filled with tears, and started to talk. “That day,” she said, choking on the word, “that last day, Scott accosted me on the street. He looked horrible.” She shook her head. “Well, I guess it was actually the day before. He approached me and demanded money from me. But I didn’t have very much.”
“I already know about that.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “What happened the next day?”
She sighed. “Scott approached me again. He was even nastier this time.”
Zantar’s eyes narrowed on her and he suddenly remembered something she’d said earlier today. Amid all of the revelations, it was taking him a bit of time to process each of them. But he was starting to understand. “How did he threaten you?”
Faye’s eyes blinked and his body tightened with anger. This time, it wasn’t directed at her. It was firmly directed towards the man currently sitting in a prison cell.
“He told me that, if I didn’t somehow convince you to sign the contracts with the mining company, then he would create videos or pictures of me with some of my students.” She lowered her head. “Actually, I can’t remember if the images would be of me and my students or just teenage boys.” She shuddered. “It doesn’t matter. As a high school teacher, that threat was an evil one.” Faye brushed a hand over Shanta’s cheek again. “He said he’d make the pictures as disgusting as possible.” She looked up at him, her eyes filled with tears now. “I’ve never hurt a child, Zantar! Never! And the idea of any teacher, male or female, taking advantage of a student is repugnant!”