‘Not about this,’ Layla said. ‘There is something else I regret—that I did not let you say I love you and that I did not tell you that I love you, and that I shall for the rest of my life.’
Mikael felt his heart squeeze in pain, and then the knife in it twisted as she continued.
‘I wish you had been my first. Then I could perhaps have been punished and made a spinster…’
‘Layla…’
‘I have to go. Jamila is knocking at the door. Abadan laa tansynii,’ Layla said.
‘I’ll never forget you either,’ Mikael replied.
‘And I will love you for ever,’ she said.
‘I’ll love you for ever too.’
Mikael’s answer was honest. His response immediate.
He walked out and past Wendy and gave a shake of his head that said not now.
He went straight to his car and smiled at the scratched paintwork before gunning it to the airport.
Layla loved him.
Which meant he was going to Ishla to plead his case.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
‘RETURN OR ONE-WAY?’
‘Return,’ Mikael said, and then changed his mind, for he could not imagine returning without Layla by his side, and in dark superstition he said, ‘One-way.’
‘It’s actually cheaper to buy—’
‘False economy,’ Mikael interrupted. ‘I’m going to be fed to the dogs when I get there.’ As he had with Alina, Mikael smiled again at another woman who was not Layla—for that was what Layla had done. She had been in his life for less than a week but, despite the pain of living apart from her, in ways he was happier than he had ever been for she made the world a nicer place.
‘Enjoy!’ The stewardess smiled back and handed the good-looking man his first-class one-way ticket to Ishla.
Mikael would not be enjoying the flight.
He would be working the hardest that he ever had in his life.
He asked for sparkling water with lime—their first drink.
And he asked for a peeled and finely sliced apple and raspberries.
He knew that he worked better hungry.
As he prepared for the biggest case of his life he had no distractions. He would focus purely on Layla, on every meal, every conversation they had ever had—and he did.
He went over and over it all in his mind, honing in on words, recalling with intricate detail every conversation that had been shared, and he worked out, too, who he might have in his defence.
Trinity was a given, Mikael immediately decided, for she had smuggled the phone.
Zahid?
He loved his wife and had caused controversy himself, given that Trinity had been pregnant when they’d got married, and with Trinity buzzing in his ear… Mikael asked for more water and recalled proud Prince Zahid close to tears when he had been reunited with Layla and knew that he loved his sister.
Yes, he had Zahid.
But it was Layla’s father, the King, whose consent he required.
What did Mikael know?
He remembered Layla’s eyes filling with tears, for her father was sick.
Noted.
It wasn’t enough, though, Mikael knew. There was something he was missing—there just had to be more.
Jamila?
He thought of the old lady, who must surely love Layla, but she was set in her ways and would perhaps want tradition to be followed.
There was something missing, but Mikael did not know what. He was going into the biggest fight of his life and yet he felt unprepared.
Mikael pulled out his wallet and stared at the piece of paper she had given him and the dots and swirls that had proved so hard to decipher.
Intensely private, he did not like to ask for help, and he had done his best to work her words out for himself, quite content to spend the rest of his life learning Arabic if that was what it took. But now Mikael needed every detail.
When the stewardess came round to ask if he would like his bed prepared for sleep, Mikael shook his head and said that he would be working through the flight.