Despite the tenor of their conversation, Millie giggled. “I like having you in my corner.”
Farrah laughed as well, but she sobered almost straight away. “I always will be in your corner. You know that, don’t you?”
Millie nodded, tears moistening her eyes. “Does that mean you’ll go tell my mother when you get home?”
Farrah grimaced. “Seriously? You haven’t told her?”
“I couldn’t do it, I chickened out. She’d be so…”
“Disappointed,” Farrah sighed. Her mother had warned her again and again – usually after she’d been drinking – of the dangers of trusting the wrong man.
“I will tell her,” Millie said quietly. “Once the dust settles a bit. Your brother’s agreed to hold off a week or so on making an announcement, just to give me a chance to break it to her gently.”
“She’ll be okay,” Farrah said, linking arms with Millie. “Because she knows what I do – you’re capable of looking after yourself. This is your decision.”
Millie bit into her lip.
“It is, right?” Farrah prompted. “He hasn’t blackmailed you or anything?”
Millie’s eyes fled to Farrah’s. “God, no. Farrah, what’s got into you? You’ve always idolised Zafar. To hear you speak now, it’s like he’s the devil incarnate.”
“I never knew he’d seduced my best friend before,” she said with a disapproving frown. “I love him, of course. I do think he’s a wonderful person, and an exceptional Sheikh. He loves this country and would lay down his life to serve it. But emotionally, he’s very closed off. I don’t know if I can blame him, given —,”
Millie waited, breath held, but Farrah pulled a face. “You know, his parents’ divorce,” she finished slowly. “It was very messy, and he was only four. And then my mother came along and she never really accepted Zafar as her son. Which only made me love him more,” Farrah confided with obvious honesty. “I hated how she’d try to exclude him.”
Millie’s heart trembled for the young boy Zafar had been, but she stopped herself before she could feel too much sympathy. After all, tragedy didn’t give someone a free pass to be a jackass. “I get that his childhood was atypical,” Millie murmured.
“That’s one way to put it,” Farrah sighed. “He had a lot to deal with and it changed him, Millie. I don’t know anyone else with the ability he has to keep people at a distance. He is colder than ice, and I’m so worried you’re going to get hurt.”
“I know that.” Millie put her hand over Farrah’s, wondering how she could sound so calm. “I didn’t then. I was stupid and way too trusting, but I’m not a naïve teenager now. I see him for who he is, and I’ll be way, way more careful this time around. I promise. You don’t need to worry about me.”
“Then let’s go do this.” Farrah gestured to the open door. “On the upside, we’ll finally be sisters – for real.”
“A true silver lining.” Millie stopped walking and pressed a kiss to Farrah’s cheek, even as her heart was sinking at the enormity of what she was doing. “Thanks for your support. I’m lucky to have you.”
* * *
Farrah’s eyes meant business.They bore into Zafar throughout the short reading of the sacred texts, so that he was reminded that Farrah had herself grown into a strong, confident young woman. And apparently, a tiger who felt Amelia was some kind of cub in need of defending.
He witnessed just that sentiment when the time came to add their signatures to the document. Farrah moved closer to Amelia and whispered, “You don’t have to do this. You can come home with me. He won’t stop you.” He was the only other person close enough to hear, and the words turned his core to ice. Farrah didn’t look at him, but Amelia did. Her eyes lifted to his, appraising him, so he felt strangely exposed and vulnerable – feelings he didn’t particularly relish – and he held his breath, wondering what the hell he’d do if she turned to Farrah and nodded. Would he fight with Farrah to keep Amelia here? Yes, absolutely. But he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to think that this was against her will. He didn’t want their marriage to exist because he’d forced her into it. He stood where he was, waiting, watchful, time groaning to a stop, his body on tenterhooks.
“It’s okay,” she murmured, the softening of her lips into a smile that was for Farrah and not him. She leaned down, her cheeks a deathly white as she added her name to the documents. He breathed out, a long, relentless breath borne of true relief. She’d chosen this future. For their baby, this was what they’d agreed to, it was what they both acknowledged to be necessary.
And that was that. With a small signature, their fate was sealed.
“Congratulations, your highness,” the officiant bowed to the new Emira. “May your life be long and blessed.”
* * *
“You’re too…big,”she muttered, fluffing her pillow and inching even further away from him.
“And you’re so close to the edge you’re about to fall off. What is the matter, Amelia? Do you think I won’t be able to resist touching you if you arm so much as brushes mine?”
Heat burned in her cheeks at his condescending tone. “I just think it would be easier to share a bed, even an enormous one like this, if you weren’t the size of a – of a – rhinoceros.”
And despite the tension that had been zipping through her since they’d said their vows that afternoon, a croaky giggle escaped.
“I’m not sure I can help my size.”