‘Later I discovered you and your father had disappeared in the night with an excuse about a family problem. I assumed you’d overheard our conversation since it took place where we were supposed to meet.’ His chin lifted as if challenging her to deny it.
Reading the pride in that harshly beautiful face, Safiyah guessed what a blow the news of his birth had been to a man raised as a royal, with every expectation of inheriting a throne. She breathed deep, imagining what it was like to have your world turned on its head.
She didn’t have to imagine too hard. She’d had her life snatched off course not once but twice, her own hopes and goals destroyed when she’d been forced into marriages she didn’t want.
‘I see,’ she said, when she finally found her voice. ‘You thought I hid in the shadows and eavesdropped.’ Safiyah felt something heavy in her chest—pressure building behind her ribs and rising up towards her throat. ‘Then persuaded my father to make up some excuse to leave? As if he wasn’t a man who prided himself on his honesty?’
She’d hated the subsequent marriage her father had pushed her into but he’d done it for what he’d believed to be good reasons. He’d been a proud, decent man.
‘As ifI…’
The stifling sensation intensified, threatening to choke her breathing. She forced herself to continue, her chin hiking higher so she could fix Karim with a laser stare.
‘You thought I abandoned you when I discovered you weren’t going to be Sheikh. That all I cared about was marrying a king? That I didn’t have the decency to meet you and tell you to your face?’
Safiyah choked on a tangle of emotions. Disappointment, pain, distress. How could he have believed it of her? He knew nothing about her at all! She’d been in love, willing to risk everything for a night alone with him, and he’d believedthatof her.
She swung away, fighting for breath. Through a haze she saw Tarek, running in circles, trailing his precious kite.
‘You have to admit the timing fitted,’ said Karim.
Yes, the timing fitted. Drearily, Safiyah thought of how fate had yanked happiness away from her. But Karim hadn’t loved her. If he had, he’d have at least stopped to question his awful assumptions.
She turned to him, seeing not the man she’d once adored, nor the passionate lover who’d introduced her to a world of pleasure. Instead she viewed the man who’d thought the worst of her—and her family. Who’d refused to give them the benefit of the doubt, treated them with contempt.
No wonder he hadn’t returned any of the increasingly desperate messages she’d left all those years ago. He’d excised her from his life with ruthless precision.
The choking sensation evaporated and Safiyah dragged in lungsful of clean sea air. They felt like the first full breaths she’d taken in years. For too long she’d lived with regret over the past. She’d hidden it away, pretended the pain wasn’t there while she tried to make the best of life. Now, like glass shattering, regret fell away. With clear eyes she faced the man who’d overshadowed her emotions for too long.
‘Yes, it was a coincidence. But, believe it or not, the world doesn’t revolve solely around you and the Za’daqi royal family.’
‘Safiyah, I—’
She raised her hand and, remarkably, he stopped. It was as if he sensed the change in her. The tide not of regret and hurt, but of cold, cleansing disdain. For the first time she could remember Safiyah looked at Karim and felt no yearning, felt nothing except profound disappointment.
‘The night you heard you were illegitimate my father and I discovered Rana needed us.’ A quiver of ancient emotion coursed through her, that dreadful fear that had stalked her too long. ‘She’d tried to kill herself.’
‘Safiyah!’
Karim stepped closer, as if to put his arms around her, but she moved back and he halted. Deep grooves bracketed his mouth and furrowed his brow and Safiyah read genuine concern.
‘I had no idea.’
‘No—because you never gave me a chance to explain.’
He recoiled as if slapped, his face leached of colour. Strange that Safiyah felt no satisfaction.
‘Tell me?’ he said eventually.
‘Rana was living in the city, studying to become a vet. But university life didn’t suit her, and she found the city challenging after being brought up in the country. Plus, although we didn’t know at the time, she was being stalked by another student. There had been harassment and she felt isolated, afraid to go out. She became anxious and depressed. I knew something wasn’t right, but on the phone she sounded…’ Safiyah swallowed. ‘She overdosed on tablets.’
‘I’m sorry, Safiyah. Truly sorry.’
Karim’s face was sombre, and she knew he wasn’t just referring to her sister, but to all his assumptions about Safiyah’s character and actions.
It was easier to focus on Rana. She didn’t want to talk about herself. ‘I think the shock hastened my father’s death. He went downhill fast after that.’
The speed of his illness and his desperation to see at least one of his daughters settled had broken down her resistance to marrying Abbas.