by Amy Ruttan
“Jeena?” Maazin asked. “Are you coming?”
“Yes.”
She could do this. She’d sworn an oath as a doctor to do no harm and she was going to stick to that oath. She was not going to put her medical career in jeopardy because she was worried about operating on the Kalyanese King. And she wasn’t going to embarrass her new country by being the Canadian doctor who couldn’t save the life of the Kalyanese King.
Forget that!
She was going to save his life. For as much as she was nervous about operating on King Uttam, she loved Maazin and she knew that Maazin cared about his father. Even if he seemed to blame himself for Ali’s death.
Maazin held out his hand, which was breaking protocol, and she smiled at him. She reached out and took his hand as he helped her out of the limousine. His hand was strong and he believed in her. She was going to do this for him.
Once she was out of the limo, he let go of her hand and she took another deep breath, calming her nerves.
Here we go. You’ve got this.
She straightened her shoulders and held her head high as she followed Farhan and Maazin through the large double doors into an entranceway of white marble and creamy stone walls that gleamed brightly.
“Maazin, so you’ve finally decided to grace us with your presence.”
Jeena glanced up to see Queen Aruna standing there, regal and poised. She didn’t smile and she didn’t seem to look worried or have any kind of emotion as she looked at her sons.
Maazin walked over to his mother and took her hand in his, bowing over it.
“I’m sorry, Mother,” Maazin apologized. “I was only doing my duty to my people.”
“Yes. That’s all very well and good, but we had to send Farhan out to fetch you. Your yacht was late getting in.”
Jeena could sense the tension, the coldness and the detachment between Queen Aruna and Maazin. It was like they were strangers rather than mother and son. Perhaps Aruna did blame Maazin for Ali’s death. There was a huge rift between them.
It was sad.
She was so close to Syman. She could never treat Syman with such aloofness.
“I’m sorry, Mother.” Maazin stepped back and the Queen’s hardened gaze fell on her.
Jeena curtseyed. “Your Majesty.”
“Dr. Harrak, I am so glad you’ve come and I understand from my daughter-in-law that you’re also Kalyanese.”
Queen Aruna addressed her very politely, but Jeena could hear the undercurrent of displeasure and Jeena realized then Queen Aruna knew exactly who she was.
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Jeena straightened. “How can I be of assistance?”
“Farhan, you’re a doctor—please explain it to our dear doctor and then take her to your father to perform the procedure. Please excuse me, but I haven’t slept in the last twenty-four hours.” Queen Aruna excused herself. She turned back up the stairs and disappeared out of sight.
Farhan turned to her. “Dr. Harrak, my father has a pulmonary embolus and he needs catheterization to remove it before it does further damage. My father has had a stroke in the past and he suffers from macular degeneration as well as atrial fibrillation.”
“And none of your surgeons can perform it?” Jeena asked.
“Not under these conditions. In a hospital, yes, but we were told by your team that you were able to do it and you had done it successfully before.” Farhan looked over at Maazin. “Again, none of us in the royal family can assist you, but there are some of the finest royal physicians in attendance. He is prepped and waiting for the procedure. He’s had a sedative and is groggy.”
Jeena nodded. “Take me to him.”
Farhan bowed his head and gestured to show her the way. She was led down a hallway to a small antechamber and a room that was used a formal sitting room for visiting dignitaries. Only now it had been transformed into a procedure room.
Jeena glanced through the window and saw that King Uttam was laid out and prepped. They were just waiting for her.
You’ve got this. This is just another patient. He’s not a king. He’s a human being who needs your help. He’s not your King right now. He’s a patient. Just an ordinary, normal patient.
“There are scrubs in this room here and a place to scrub in,” Farhan offered. “I’ll leave you to it. Maazin, if you’ll follow me.”
“Just one moment,” Maazin said. He took a step toward her and his presence was reassuring. She wished that he could stay with her. She wanted him to stay, she needed him there while she did this procedure on the King of her homeland.
She didn’t want to be known as the doctor who killed the King of Kalyana.
“You can do this,” Maazin whispered.
“I’m frightened,” she whispered back. “This is your father...the King.”
“He’s just a patient. This is like any other patient you’d work on and try to save. You can do this.” He took a step back and turned away with his brother.
Jeena took another deep breath and then went to get changed. She quickly changed into the scrubs that had been left for her, cleaned herself up and then headed into the makeshift procedure room.
Another doctor was there.
“Dr. Harrak, I’m Dr. Imran Patel, and I’ll be your assist.”
Jeena nodded. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Jeena walked over to the King and looked down at him. He was mostly out of it, but not completely under. The King’s gaze locked on to her and he smiled, as if she was an old friend and not some commoner who’d had his secret illegitimate grandchild. He probably didn’t even know about Syman. Which was for the best.
“You look familiar,” the King whispered.
“My name is Dr. Harrak. Jeena Harrak. I’m from Canada, previously from Kalyana.”
The King’s eyes widened. “I’ve heard of you. You have a son, don’t you? A son who plays hockey.”
Jeena’s heart dropped to the soles of her feet and she felt faint. How did he know about Syman? How did he know that Syman played hockey? And then she realized that Kalyana had been keeping tabs on her for some time, even from as far away as Canada. She had been a fool to think otherwise.
It rattled her completely.
She wanted to turn and run. She wanted to run back to Canada and hide Syman, but she couldn’t do that. She couldn’t turn her back on a patient who needed her services, even if she felt like that patient posed a threat to her family.
She would save King Uttam’s life and if he came for Syman, she would remind him how she’d saved his life and perhaps he would feel he owed her a debt and that debt would protect her son from this life of protocol and pomp.
* * *
Maazin was worried about Jeena. She looked so nervous, doing the procedure on his father, and he couldn’t blame her one bit. If the situation had been reversed he would feel the same way. He couldn’t stop pacing as he waited with Farhan in their father’s office.
Maazin knew that his constant pacing was antagonizing his father’s macaw Sophie, because she would squawk every so often when he got close to her perch.
“You’re driving that bird crazy with your incessant pacing,” Farhan remarked calmly. “Truth be told, you’re driving me crazy too.”
“I can’t help it. I’m worried about her.” And then he pinched the bridge of his nose and cursed inwardly for the slip.
“Are you having an affair with the Canadian doctor?”
“What’re you talking about?” Maazin asked, trying to keep calm.
Farhan rolled his eyes. “I see the way you look at her. Be careful. The public thinks you are still with Lady Meleena.”
“I’m not!” Maazin snapped. He was annoyed with his brother’s questions.
“Having an affair?”
“I am not with Lady Meleena and not having an affair with Dr. Harrak. At le
ast...”
“At least what?” Farhan asked cautiously. “You’re not having an affair with Dr. Harrak, are you? Please tell me you’re not.”
“No, but... I did.”
“When?” Farhan asked, confused. “You’ve been nothing but faithful to Lady Meleena. Even when you two were apart for so long.”
“And look where that got me. She had her own countless affairs.”
“I’m sorry she hurt you,” Farhan said.
Maazin ran his hand through his hair. “Meleena did hurt me. But I couldn’t care less about her and the men she saw. It was something else.”
“Really?” Farhan asked.
“I never wanted to marry Lady Meleena.”
Farhan rolled his eyes as if to say, I know that. “You promised Father.”
“So?”
“I married who Father told me to marry.”
“And I’m glad it worked out for you and I’m glad it worked out for Ali too and our parents. I’m glad for every arranged marriage that works out, but...” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “Ten years ago, before Ali died, I was in love with someone else and that’s Jeena. I adored her, worshipped her and I wanted only her. Then she vanished. Mother told me she’d left and there was a letter Meleena found. I was distraught and hurt. Little did I know that Jeena left because she was pregnant and she was afraid of having the illegitimate child of a prince.”
Farhan’s eyes widened. “She was pregnant and Meleena knew? It all seems very odd.”
“I know.”
“Should we let Jeena be operating on Father, then?” Farhan asked with a frown, getting to his feet. “She’s the mother of your child.”
“She won’t harm him. She takes her oath seriously. She came to Kalyana because of her love and respect for Canada and Kalyana. She is the last person to do him harm.”
“How did you find out about...your child?”
Maazin nodded. “Syman. I have a son. A son I’ve never met and his name is Syman. He’s nine.”
“Why didn’t she tell you about him? Even if she left for Canada with her parents she could’ve called or mailed a letter, even gone to the tabloids.”
“She wanted to protect her son and Meleena told her that I didn’t want our child. That I didn’t want her.”
“And clearly you did.”
“Yes.”
Farhan ran his hand through his hair. “And yet Father arranged for you to marry Meleena, who manipulated all this? If Father had known about his grandchild, he would have insisted you marry Jeena. Father loves his children.”
“He loved Ali,” Maazin said bitterly, and then his shoulders slumped. He hated bringing Ali up.
“When are you going to stop blaming yourself for that?” Farhan asked.
Maazin didn’t answer him. Instead he looked back at the portrait of their father that hung on the wall. Next to it was a portrait of Ali.
Ali had been his parents’ favorite.
And Maazin had destroyed that. His mother had made that all too clear to him.
I’m sorry, Ali. So sorry.
“Well, that explains her nervousness,” Farhan said, breaking the silence that had descended between the two of them. “I thought it just had something to do with operating on the King.”
“Well, I’m sure that’s part of it,” Maazin said.
“What’re you going to do about your son?”
“I promised Jeena that I wouldn’t hurt her and it would hurt her if I tried to claim him and bring him into this life. I don’t want to do that to him.”
“He has a right to know who his father is,” Farhan stated. “He has a right to know where he comes from.”
Maazin sighed. “I know, but...”
Do I really want him to know? Do I deserve to have him in my life?
He left Farhan standing there and walked out onto the terrace. He didn’t want to talk about it any more. He didn’t want to dwell on the things he couldn’t have. He’d hurt Jeena just as deeply as she’d hurt him.
There was no going back. Even if he desperately wanted to.
She’d made it clear that there was no going back for her.
* * *
Jeena pulled off her surgical mask and then walked out of the room. The King had tolerated the procedure well and she’d removed the clot. He was being moved to his own bed to recover.
Jeena slid down the wall and tried to take a few calming breaths.
She’d saved King Uttam’s life, but he knew about her son.
He hadn’t actually acknowledged that Syman was Maazin’s but he knew about her son. How did he know about him?
She wanted to call her parents about it and ask their advice, but she didn’t want to send them into a tizzy.
Jeena closed her eyes and tried to find her center, a place that had always calmed her. That place was standing out on her bedroom balcony overlooking the green lush hills, the fields of vanilla, and beyond all that she was tall enough to see the ocean.
How she wished she could go back there.
Even for a moment.
“How did it go?”
Jeena opened her eyes to see Maazin standing in the shadows.
“Are you supposed to be here?”
“Father’s been moved. I’m allowed to be here.” He smiled. “Are you all right?”
“No. That was... It was hard and I feel dizzy. I wish I could reach out to my parents and talk to them about it, but I don’t want to worry them. That’s the last thing I want to do, so I was trying to find my happy place.”
“And where is that?” Maazin asked.
“My old home. The plantation.”
“Then let’s go,” he offered.
“Shouldn’t you be here or with your father?”
“It won’t matter I’m gone. He won’t care.”
Jeena tilted her head to the side. She could see the pain in his eyes, the blame he bore. “Are you so sure?”
“Do you want to go or not?” he asked.
“I do, but my family doesn’t own it any longer.”
“I know,” Maazin stated. “I went there after you left. I thought maybe your parents would be there and I could ask them where you’d gone. I saw that they had left too and the plantation was for sale, so I bought it.”
Jeena’s eyes widened and she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You bought it?”
“Yes. I own it. It’s still a plantation and during tourist season I rent it out as a little cottage. It’s empty at the moment. There are no tourists in Kalyana. We can go there.”
Even though she knew she shouldn’t go with him, she wanted to go back home. Just for a moment, even if it was with him.
A man who made her lose all control.
A man she couldn’t have but still cared for. A man who still owned her heart, even if she didn’t want him to.
“Yes! Please.”
Maazin nodded. “Go and change and we’ll sneak out of the palace and head over there.”
Jeena nodded and got up. She hurried off to get changed. She was shocked that Maazin had bought it. It had been his money that had allowed her parents to start a new life in Canada and she’d had no idea.
Why would he buy it?
She shook that thought out of her head, because all she cared about right now was that she got to go home. Even for a brief moment.
She was going home.
CHAPTER NINE
THE CLOSER THEY go to her home, the more excited and emotional Jeena got. She recognized the road they turned down, although it was a better quality road than she remembered. She closed her eyes and thought about all the times she had come down this road on her way home.
There had been some changes, but the scent of the fields and the sight of the orchids that she knew so well hit her, and a tear slid
down her face.
Her father had liked to grow his vanilla orchids on wooden poles, as originally orchid vines had grown up trees and her father had always believed that the wood added to the productivity of the fruit.
And he had spent hours and hours checking on the flowers.
He had loved his plantation. He had known everything about it and he’d given it all up for her. She was still in shock that Maazin had bought the plantation. Why had he done that?
As they rounded a bend she cried out as she saw the fields. The vines were still growing on wooden poles. Some were old still and there were also fresh ones, but the fields were neat and tidy, just like she remembered.
She wiped away the tears as she drank in the sight.
“Can you stop the car?” she asked Maazin.
“Of course.” Maazin pulled over to the side of the road and Jeena slipped out. She walked up to the fence and climbed up. Teetering precariously, she took a picture for her father. He was sleeping now, so she would send it to him later so it would be the first thing he saw when he woke up.
“We tried to keep it the same,” Maazin said, coming up behind her. “Your father knew his stuff and he was admired around these parts. So I made sure that the man who farms this land now does it the way your family has always done it.”
Jeena nodded, fighting back tears. “I still can’t believe you bought it. Why did you buy it?”
Maazin shrugged. “I didn’t want to see it ruined. You loved this place and I didn’t understand why your family left. I know why now, but at the time I thought that maybe you would come back and I wanted it here, waiting for you.”
“Thank you.” She brushed away tears again. “Let’s see the house. Please.”
“Of course.”
They climbed back into the Jeep. Jeena was swallowing back all the emotion that was welling up inside her. She drank in the sights. This was her happy place. This was the place she always came back to in her mind when she was scared, when she was hurt and when she was uncertain.
This was home.