Chapter Thirty Five



When Cydalia and Carlos finally got back to the hotel in Luxor after their wonderful wedding and short honeymoon, they were greeted by three surprises. First of all Seb and Rowi announced they were now engaged. That was a nice surprise. Seb had taken Rowi he told them all out on a boat ride and had proposed after much nerves in the middle of the Nile while Rowi was shading under an umbrella. He had placed the ring in Rowi’s glass of champagne.
‘It was so romantic…’ Rowi swooned, flashing her engagement ring about as she spoke and gazing at Seb with love and lust in her eyes.
‘It was rather…’ Seb agreed, coughing slightly at remembering how he had almost fallen into the Nile while climbing with nervous shaking legs into the boat in the first place. Lucky he hadn’t and Rowi had accepted his proposal. And she had survived accidentally nearly swallowing the engagement ring, she hadn’t noticed it was in her glass of champagne until Seb had coughed and told her about his proposal. He could now breathe easily, knowing that she loved him for him. Warts and all.
Next surprise was to do with Fara. As was the third.
‘Fara, had a slight…accident’ Urs told Cydalia mumbling as he spoke.
‘Oh? Accident how?’ Cydalia nervously asked him.
‘She hurt her wrist… and lost her memory’ Urs whispered the last part.
‘She’s what…?’ Cydalia asked, blinking. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing here. How had this happened?
‘Fara. She lost her memory’ David said, repeating what Urs had told her.
‘What? How?’ Cydalia screeched accidentally.
‘She banged her head when she injured her wrist. Knocking herself unconscious for a while’ Rowi said, informing them of what had happened.
‘Did you call a doctor?’ Carlos asked before his wife could.
‘An Egyptian one’ Seb sighed.
‘But she’s ok, right?’ Cydalia asked, looking around.
‘We think so’ Urs sighed now.
‘Then where is she then…?’ Cydalia looked around again. There was no sign of Fara anywhere. They were currently in the hotel bar, hearing this news. Everyone had been there to greet Cydalia and Carlos when they had arrived back. Everyone that is, except for Fara.
‘Back in England’ Rowi shrugged and replied.
‘What?’ Cydalia asked.
‘Fara…she regained her memory’ Urs sighed.
‘And?’ Carlos asked, holding Cydalia’s hand in his in comfort.
‘She regained her memory…we think, then realised Urs had lied to her. So she left Egypt. To go back to England, we think’ Seb said. No one knew for sure where Fara was. They were just guessing the in England part.
‘And you let her go?’ Cydalia accused Urs, glaring at him as she spoke.
‘I couldn’t stop her…I didn’t know she had gone…’ he mumbled in reply.
‘You didn’t know?’ Cydalia moaned.
‘Fara, we think, sneaked out during the night’ David sighed.
‘When?’ Carlos then asked.
‘Last night’ Urs sighed.
‘She left a note’ Seb helpfully said.
‘Give me…?’ Cydalia demanded, holding her hand out, waiting.
Urs sighed and reluctantly handed it over. The only link he had left to Fara.
Cydalia’s eyes scanned the note. ‘This’ she shook the note in her fist, ‘doesn’t make sense. Not any sense at all’
‘It does, to me’ Urs sighed again, slumping down into a nearby chair. He had stood up when Cydalia and Carlos had turned up and hadn’t had a chance to sit down yet, until now.
‘Have you called the airline? To find Fara?’ Carlos asked, looking around at all their friends.
‘We’ve phoned everyone we can think of’ David sighed.
‘We even used every name we could think of, that she may have used’ Dany finally spoke. She had been sitting in a chair, rocking herself backwards and forwards all the time. She was worried about Fara. Worried about what could have happened to her.
‘Hmmm…’ said Carlos, reading Fara’s note now.
‘You lied to Fara then I’m guessing?’ Cydalia then asked Urs.
‘Yes’ he sighed, running his hand through his hair as he spoke.
‘Why?’ Carlos asked.
‘I…I don’t know’ Urs sighed again, staring down at his feet as he spoke now.
‘You stupid… stupid man’ Cydalia told him.
‘Honey…’ Carlos said to her, warning her.
‘No. Cydalia is right. I am stupid’ Urs stopped Carlos, ‘I deserve it. I deserve it all’ he sighed again.
‘One day, my friend, you will learn. Hopefully’ Carlos said, consolingly, patting Urs’ shoulder.
‘Hmmm…’ groaned Urs.


What happened with Fara and Urs was this - Urs had proposed to Fara that night after their walking along the Nile on the roof at sunset as he had planned earlier that day. Fara had accepted. She and Urs had then celebrated their engagement at first kissing then the kissing turned into more and they ended up sleeping together. Making love. Holding each other in their arms. It had felt natural to Fara she had realised. Letting it happen. Sometime during that night Fara’s memory had started to come back. Piece by piece. By the next morning it was almost back to normal and it was then that she had realised, that he, Urs, had lied. They hadn’t been engaged when the accident had first happened. They hadn’t even been talking to each other. Fara had remembered the fight they had had, before she had dropped the glass in the sink after taking some painkillers to help and try mend her broken heart and cutting her wrist badly. That deception, if only small, had hurt Fara more then it really should have and she had come across the idea of making her escape early to go home. To put a stop to her and Urs before it got any more complicated or hurt anymore. It hadn’t been hard to change her air ticket and go home a day early. Not hard at all.
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Now Fara was sitting on an airplane, shaking with nerves and crying her heart out on the way home. Back to her normal life. Back to being herself again. Back to being alone. She was better of alone she thought. Less chance of getting hurt that way. Not letting anyone in. But little did she know, for she wasn’t alone. At least not completely.
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Cydalia and Carlos went with David, Seb and Urs onto America to prepare for the new American leg of their tour and to do the promotion needed for it. Dany and Rowi went to England to try and find Fara. They practically searched the whole country but came up empty handed. Fara wasn’t to be found anywhere. The magazine she worked for came up empty too.
‘She handed in her notice’ Fara’s boss, Valerie, told Rowi when asked, ‘we didn’t want her to leave. She was a good writer’ Valerie added. She had received Fara’s note and had tried to contact Fara, asking why she wanted to leave but like her friends had come up empty handed. Her phone calls and emails had gone unanswered. Even the police could find no sign of Fara when Valerie had contacted them.
‘Did she say where she was going?’ Dany asked.
‘No’ Valerie sighed.
‘Ok. Thank you’ Dany sadly smiled at Valerie before she and Rowi left Valerie to it.
After the search, they left England to join the boys and Cydalia on tour.
‘No sign’ Dany told them all when they asked.
‘Its like she has completely disappeared’ Rowi sadly added, noticing Urs’ sad face looking at her as she spoke.