A Secret Birthright

by Olivia Gates

  “Assef, Somow’wak—sorry, but you will stand aside now and let me complete my mission.” Mohsen produced his gun from his holster.

  She drove her elbow into his gut with all her strength.

  He gasped, staggered, but he tightened his hold on her neck. She choked, the world wavered and receded. She heard Fareed’s roar as if from a distance, saw his contorted face as he charged toward her and her captor, saw a gun pointing at him, from a hand beside her face. Dread for him swelled as she fought to sink her teeth into that hand…

  “That’s enough!”

  A roar reverberated in her bones, then she was snatched from the vise imprisoning her, and swept into the arms she’d thought she’d never feel again in this life. Fareed’s.

  Her wavering gaze panned around. Emad was at the top of the stairs standing between Rose and Ryan and the men who’d gone after them, protecting them with his own body, like Fareed had done for her minutes ago. Fareed’s guards were cordoning the scene, four or five to each of Zayed’s men, pinning them at gunpoint.

  “Took you long enough, Emad,” Fareed snarled as he took her deeper into his embrace, beckoned to Emad to get Rose and Ryan down and into his protection.

  “My apologies, Somow’wak.” Emad led the shaken Rose who was clutching the bawling Ryan in a feverish embrace down the stairs, encompassing her by his side. Gwen bolted from Fareed’s arms, reaching out to Ryan who threw himself in her trembling ones.

  Fareed’s footsteps almost overlapped hers, and the moment Ryan filled her arms, he took them both back into his own.

  Ryan’s sobs subsided as soon as he found himself nestled between their bodies, his arms around her neck but his face buried into Fareed’s chest, recognizing him as their protector.

  Emad went on. “I was on the road when I got your emergency signal. I had to investigate the situation and organize enough men and the plan to end this farce with minimum fuss.”

  “With no further fuss.” Fareed turned his wrathful glance to Zayed. “Isn’t that right, Zayed?”

  Zayed, still trying to recover from the vicious blow Fareed had dealt him, looked at him with grudging consent, acknowledging that he’d outmaneuvered him, had won. This round. He gestured for his men to stand down, retreat.

  In minutes, all armed men, the king’s and Fareed’s, had left the mansion.

  Rose was the first one to break the silence that expanded after their departure. “Holy James Bond! What was all that about? And what do they mean Ryan is some prince’s son?” Rose put her hand on Gwen’s arm. “Is this true?”

  Gwen gave a difficult nod, unable to meet anyone’s eyes, hugging Ryan tighter, the fright still cascading through her in intensifying shudders.

  Fareed tightened his arm around her, as if to absorb her chaos, squeezing the restless Ryan between them, crooning to him, “It’s over, ya sugheeri, you’re safe. I’m here and I’ll always be here. No one is ever coming near you again.”

  A whimper caught in Gwen’s throat at the protectiveness and promise in Fareed’s voice, at the way Ryan responded. As if he understood and totally believed him, he transferred his arms from her neck to Fareed’s, burrowing deep into him, his whimpers silenced.

  She almost snatched him back into her arms, cried to Fareed not to promise Ryan what he wouldn’t be able to deliver.

  Before she could say anything, Fareed turned his eyes to her. “I’m sorry about what happened. My father will pay for this.”

  She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Of course, it does. And it’s partially my fault, our fault, my siblings’ and mine. We’ve long become too involved in our lives and projects, we’ve left his council to work unopposed. He’s always been old-school, and has grown more rigid with age. That had once proven effective in matters of state, but when his inflexibility started causing problems, we just fixed them, instead of fixing his views and policies. And we’ve been paying bigger prices for treating the symptoms instead of the disease. His last unforgivable action was what he’d done to Hesham. But today he’s gone too far.”

  Her headshake was more despondent this time. “I meant it doesn’t matter what you, or I, do now. He’s found out about Ryan, and everything that Hesham feared has come to pass.”

  Fareed frowned down at her, the intense pain that seemed to assail him when she mentioned Hesham gripping his face.

  He turned to Emad, his frown deepening. “What I want to know is how my father found out about Ryan.” The accusation was there in Fareed’s voice. But when the confession surfaced with equal clarity on Emad’s face, it still seemed to shock Fareed to his core. “B’Ellahi, why?”

  Emad exhaled heavily. “I had no idea he’d react that way, but…I’d do it again, Somow’wak.”

  Fury overcame confusion in Fareed’s eyes as he ground out, “And you have a sane reason for this?”

  Emad held his eyes, his grim but unwavering. “Because I’ve known the king longer than you have, have seen different sides to him than what he shows his children. But you are pragmatic and emotional at once and have never given your status or its dictates precedence over your decisions, so you never try to understand his position. There are worlds between being a prince who’s not in line to the throne and being a king. That is the loneliest place to be.”

  “And is this analysis of my father’s character and position and your view of both supposed to make any difference to me right now?” Fareed growled.

  Emad shook his head. “I’m not asking that you forgive, just that you try to understand.”

  Sarcastic disgust coated Fareed’s voice. “Shukran, Emad. I can’t fault my father for playing true to type, but I have you to thank for this impasse. You’re a sentimental fool and you romanticized that heartless relic.”

  Emad cast his eyes downward, as if realizing anything he said now would incense Fareed further.

  But Fareed wasn’t done. “Because you’ve run to him with your discovery almost the moment you made it, have you also been keeping him updated on my efforts to find Gwen and Ryan?” Emad just nodded. Fareed snorted. “I can’t tell you how great it is to find out that my most trusted ally is also a double agent. And for what? The most misguided sentimental crap for someone who’s never shown anyone the least sympathy.” He stopped, his fingers digging into Gwen’s shoulder, his arm tightening over Ryan, as if he was intensifying his protection. “And among all those fond memories of my father, didn’t you store the one when he forced Hesham into exile? Apart from the vile threats to the woman he loved, you do remember what he thought of the ‘inferior union’ that would soil our venerable line? So, because you’re the expert on my father’s deepest emotions and motives, b’haggej’jaheem—what by hell’s name does he suddenly want with Hesham’s son, the child he disowned before he came into being?”

  Emad looked as if he wouldn’t answer that, at the risk of enraging Fareed even more.

  Then he did, his eyes heavy, solemn. “I know you think the king cared nothing about Hesham, and I might never be able to convince you otherwise. But he cared too much. He never stopped looking for him either, and in the last year or so, I believe it was to call him home, find a resolution that Hesham would accept. Then Hesham died and remorse and agony almost drove him to the brink of insanity. Only knowing Hesham had a son, and the hope of finding him, has been holding him together. Once I found out who that son was, I couldn’t hide Ryan’s existence and presence in Jizaan from him.”

  Fareed looked at Emad as if he was seeing him for the first time, his eyes gone totally cold for the first time since she’d seen him. “And I hope you’re happy with the results of your catastrophic misjudgment.”

  And even though Emad had caused irreparable damage, she couldn’t help squirming, as she felt Rose did, too, at the intensity of Fareed’s disappointment in him, at Emad’s mortification.

  After a moment of heavy silence, without looking at Emad anymore, Fareed said a curt, “Ready the helicopter.”

  Emad on
ly gave one of his deferential nods and strode out of the mansion. Rose ran out in his wake.

  Gwen clutched Fareed’s forearm. “Where are we going?”

  “Where my father can’t find us.”

  She clung harder, implored, “He will find us, sooner or later, Fareed. If you want to help me, help Ryan, you’ll help us disappear. If you don’t, your father will take Ryan away from me.”

  His face turned to stone. “No, he won’t.”

  Her desperation mounted as she felt his finality trapping her, dooming Ryan. “If I don’t disappear, he will.”

  His eyes bore into her as he put Ryan down on the floor, gave him a few things to play with. “So you’re proposing to do what Hesham did? But Hesham could only do that because he gave up his Jizaanian nationality, changed his name and was a freelancer who could continue to be an artist wherever he lived. You won’t be able to do any of that and remain yourself or sustain your career. You won’t be able to wipe out your existence. Now that Emad has enlightened me about my father’s obsession with finding Ryan, I know he would only trace you and kidnap him. I also realize that was why Hesham begged me with his dying breaths to protect you. He must have known our father was still looking for him, was afraid he would find you and take Ryan from you. But it doesn’t matter that he has now. I will protect you, but I can’t do that long distance. You have to stay with me.”

  She was shaking all over now, feeling her world slip through her fingers like water, and there was nothing she could do to hang on to it.

  “But you won’t always be around,” she pleaded. “You can’t. I stand a better chance of keeping Ryan from him if I’m on the other side of the world, not here, where he rules absolute. You didn’t see how he treated me. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had me…”

  Fareed’s dug his fingers into her shoulder, stopping her projection in its track. “Gwen, you have nothing to fear, I swear it. I will fulfill my oath to Hesham. I will protect you, with my life. As for my father, he won’t even think of coming near you once you’re my wife.”

  Twelve

  Gwen didn’t know what happened after Fareed declared that she’d be his wife.

  Everything blurred before her as he led her to a helipad behind the mansion where a sleek metal monster awaited them with Rose and Emad already inside. He buckled her in the passenger seat and took the pilot seat after securing Ryan in the back with Rose.

  She barely noticed that he flew them over the desert, then out to sea. It could have been minutes or hours later when they came upon an island. He landed in front of a house in the same style as his mansion, only much smaller, steps away from darkening emerald waters and a golden beach glowing with the last rays of sunset.

  Emad took Rose and a sound-asleep Ryan upstairs, leaving her and Fareed alone. Fareed gestured for her to wait for him as he walked away to get engaged in a marathon of phone calls.

  He now walked back to her, tall and broad and indescribable, everything she could love, his fists clenched in the depths of his tailored pants pockets, his eyes cast downward, his brow knotted, his face cast in the harshness of dark thoughts.

  Had she imagined hearing him say she’d be his wife? Or was this why he looked so troubled? Because he was regretting it, was preparing to tell her that he hadn’t meant it?

  He raised his eyes. Her heart clenched at what filled them. Nothing she could understand. He’d been always near, clear. Now he was as far, as unfathomable as the stars that twinkled in the sky framing him through the open veranda doors.

  He exhaled. “I’ve arranged everything. The cleric and the lawyers will be here in a couple of hours.”

  Her heart stumbled through many false starts as she waited for him to elaborate. He just kept his heavy gaze fixed on her, as if he expected her to be the one with something to contribute. An answer. An opinion. An acceptance.

  But of what?

  She finally asked, “What…what do you intend to do?”

  His jaw muscles bunched. “Whatever will keep my father at bay. Now I know his true inclinations, we will need every weapon to stop him. In our culture, a paternal grandfather’s claim to a child, especially if he’s an elder or a man of status and wealth, can trump even a mother’s. My father’s claim as king would be absolute without any foul play. I now understand that when Hesham begged me to find you, he hoped I’d find you first, so I would do this.”

  “This? You mean…”

  “Marry you,” he completed when she couldn’t. “A mother can only gain power against a grandfather’s claim if she’s married to a man of equal status and wealth. My status might not be as lofty as his here, but my international status and assets are weightier. When I adopt Ryan, we’ll have enough rights among us to outweigh my father’s claim to him.”

  This was a dream come true.

  And the worst nightmare she could have imagined.

  Fareed was offering her marriage. But only because he thought Hesham had meant him to, to keep his child out of their father’s clutches.

  She’d already known she’d been just a lover to him. As intense as it had been, had she stayed at his insistence, he would have ended it sooner or later. He would have never offered her anything permanent. He would have never loved her.

  She’d been grateful for that. She should be grateful now. For this proposal that would secure Ryan’s future.

  Even if it destroyed hers.

  Fareed had thought he’d already hit rock bottom.

  He’d thought he’d never know deeper misery than when he’d found out Gwen had been Hesham’s worshipped lover, the mother of his child. Now he knew there were more depths to sink to. It seemed as long as Gwen was in his life, and that was now going to be forever, he’d never stop spiraling down.

  He hadn’t expected her to jump for joy when he’d mentioned marriage. But he’d thought even if her emotions weren’t involved, that she wanted him, might welcome the idea of marrying him, at least see the benefit to her and to Ryan.

  But it seemed nothing worse could have happened to her.

  It seemed she’d suspended her grief in her gratitude for him and relief over Ryan’s cure. She’d plunged into sexual intimacies with him, but must have thought she’d been betraying Hesham’s memory, and with his brother of all people. To ameliorate her guilt, she’d been promising herself she’d leave, and he’d never know. She might have thought that by disappearing and putting up with any subsequent hardship to protect her child and Hesham’s, she’d atone for succumbing to her need to feel alive and desired again. It had all been bearable, as long as it remained temporary.

  But now she’d found out it would turn permanent. She’d realized that the only way to protect Ryan was to marry him, Hesham’s brother, when she’d been unable to marry Hesham himself. This looked as welcome to her as a dull knife through her heart.

  He had to stop her punishing herself, assure her that he wouldn’t be compounding her guilt.

  His voice was as dead as he felt inside as he said, “I want you to know that I will never ask anything of you again. This is to give Ryan, and you as his mother, the Aal Zaafer name, what Hesham should have been able to give you, with all the privileges that you’re both entitled to. This is also to give Ryan the father he needs, the only man on earth who’ll love him like a true son.”

  He’d thought he’d seen her distraught before. But now, she looked as if her heart were fracturing, as if his every word crushed it.

  He knew this pact would sentence him to a lifetime of deprivation, but he had to finish detailing it. “I’ll give you the essmuh. In our culture, this means that you’ll control the marriage. You’d be able to end it, if you so wish, without my consent. I’ll also give you full power of attorney, giving you control of my assets. In case anything happens to me, I’ll make a provision to circumvent our inheritance laws, so you’d inherit everything. If we’re both gone, everything will be Ryan’s. If he’s not of age, anyone you choose would be his guardian until he is. This will make you
as powerful as I am, will give my father no way to attack you even if I’m gone. As for our daily life, I’ll be in Ryan’s life however you choose me to be.”

  And he was done. Finished. She looked as annihilated.

  He watched her sag to the couch, then turned around.

  He heard a helicopter.

  It was time to make this terrible pact securing Gwen and Ryan forever binding.

  “Zawaj’toka nafsi.”

  I give you myself in marriage.

  Gwen droned the words, her eyes glued to the pristine white handkerchief. Her hand was clasped with Fareed’s beneath it. The cleric had his hand on top of theirs as he recited the Jizaanian marriage vows and prompted their repetition.

  Emad and a guard were their witnesses. Rose and Ryan were present, one crying rivers, the other giggling a storm.

  Soon the brief ritual was concluded and the cleric documented their marriage. She watched him drawing intricate script that looked as if he was casting spells, in a huge, ancient edition, the royal book of matrimony. Then he invited them to sign their vows and the details of the holy bargain they’d struck.

  Fareed looked as if he was signing away his life.

  Sinking deeper in misery, she signed, wishing she could sign her own. If only he’d take it, she would have.

  One of the female servants let out a zaghrootah, a shrill, festive ululation. Rose—who thought this was all real in spite of the irregular circumstances she was just beginning to understand—was highly intrigued and tried to replicate the sound. Ryan was delighted and did his own ear-piercing imitations. Gwen felt her head might split open at any moment.

  Fareed looked as pained at the unbridled mood as sharbaat ward—rose essence nectar—was distributed to those present in celebration of the happy marriage. But he endured it all with a stiff smile. He was the one who’d organized it after all.

  She wondered why? It couldn’t be because he was treating this as a real marriage. He’d told her in mutilating detail not to expect anything from him. Except everything she didn’t want, that was. His status, his name, his wealth, in life and death. His heart had never been on offer. His passion, his ease and humor were things of the past. She wouldn’t even have his companionship. She could only expect his presence where Ryan was involved.