by Leah Leonard
“Really?” he chuckled. “I did not think you would be so easily persuaded.”
“Let’s just say I’m at a stopping spot right now,” Kelley said.
“Wonderful, I shall see you soon then.”
Just when all hope was lost, Kelley felt relieved to know there was still one person in the world she could count on.
She hurried and packed her bags, tried straightening up the cottage as best as she could, despite the fact she wanted to leave it a total wreck after what Safina and Josh had pulled.
Kelley still believed Safina might be involved in the deception. Josh insisted she wasn’t, but then again, they hadn’t exactly proven themselves to be trustworthy. The whole situation made her ill, but for now, she decided to push those thoughts aside and concentrate on getting back to Khalil. “I can’t wait to see you again.”
Thirty-Eight
Khalil rode into the city and went to the family jeweler where he, his father and his brother all bought gifts for their wives. He had given Safina only a small token of his intentions, having planned to give her something more elaborate once they were wed. And Oma was a simple woman who never asked for more than a gold band.
Kelley was different. She was his exotic blonde beauty from the west, the woman of his dreams, and for her, there was no ring that was big enough to match the love and admiration he felt for her.
“Sheikh?” the jeweler asked after presenting him with several options. “Have you decided?”
“I shall have this one.” Khalil lifted a ten-carat princess cut stone surrounded by diamonds from the case, handing it to the jeweler. The piece was brilliant and unique, exactly like the woman he loved. A princess. The size of the stone would look lovely on Kelley’s long fingers.
As the jeweler wrapped up the purchase, he handed it to Khalil and said, “I was sorry to hear of Oma’s passing. This must be an extremely difficult time.”
Khalil was more than sick of listening to everyone remind him of his loss. Oma was a wonderful woman, yes, but the smirk on the shopkeeper’s face was disrespectful of Kelley. Had anyone known about what a beauty she was, both inside and out, they should only be pleased for the future happiness he was sure she would provide him. “Indeed.” He would not dignify the remark with anything more.
Next, he visited the family ‘s personal tailor and had a special gown made for his lovely bride-to-be. Made from the finest turquoise colored silk, Khalil couldn’t wait to see how well it matched her beautiful blue eyes.
He would present this gift to her this afternoon when they met at the airport, telling her he wanted her to have something to wear at dinner, then he would ensure the setting was perfect, and at the appropriate time, he would ask for her hand in marriage.
Khalil had planned every detail with great precision. He would make his proposal in the finest, most expensive restaurant in the city. Only the best for his Kelley. The restaurant agreed to close the balcony to all other guests to ensure the couple would be alone with an even grander view of the Bosporus than the one they had before.
He checked his watch and realized he fortunately finished his errands in time. He must now go to the airport to pick up his love and reconnect with the one woman whom he desired more than any riches in the world.
Thirty-Nine
Once she spoke to Khalil, Kelley packed quickly. The truth of the matter was that she couldn’t wait to get out of here.
The sad truth was she would likely not dig here again. Her shipment showed up two days earlier, and thanks to the new situation Josh presented her with, she had to gather up everything and take it back with her.
“You are taking all of this?” the driver asked with a puzzled expression on his face.
“Yes,” she wanted to add, unfortunately, but figured it would be best not to explain.
He studied her equipment. “Will you return next week?”
“No.” She hoped Khalil wouldn’t mind. At some point, she would offer to pay him back for all of this, but at the moment, she simply needed to get her belongings and herself as far away from this place as possible.
The driver said nothing, but slowly loaded everything into the car. She tried presenting him with a tip when she arrived at the airport, but he quickly brushed it off. “No madam. The Sheikh is my employer and it is my pleasure to serve.”
Once the car was loaded, after a short drive, they were back in the familiar private landing strip at the Izmir airport where the Sheikh’s jet awaited.
She climbed aboard, slipped into her favorite leather recliner and closed her eyes, hoping to shut out the world for awhile.
All she wanted was to think about the future and seeing Khalil.
Soon the jet landed. She glanced out the window and the sight took her breath away.
Khalil stood waiting in a sleek grey suit, his black curly hair moved in the breeze, his sunglasses covered his eyes and accentuated his gorgeous smile. He held a bright bouquet of the most exotic flowers Kelley had ever seen.
Rather than excitement, deep fear suddenly clutched her heart. Everyone she trusted lied to her so far. She knew the moment she saw Khalil out the window that she loved him. She hated herself for that. She didn’t want to be so vulnerable to anyone. What if he hurt her? What if he lied to her like everyone else?
She couldn’t allow herself to think about that now. She wanted something to believe in, or in this case someone. Khalil fit the bill, and then some.
Forty
When Khalil saw Kelley alight from the plane, her beauty took his breath away. He wanted to rush and grab her, swing her about in his arms and ask her to marry him right there and then.
Out of respect for him, he supposed, she wore the same white gown he had given her last week. Her blonde hair peeked out from her hood and his eyes fell to the ground, where he saw her bare feet in sandals and noticed her freshly painted nails.
She was more beautiful than he remembered. He walked up to her, wrapped his arms around her and they kissed. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too,” she said with tears in her eyes.
He was more than flattered by the fact she became so emotional at his presence, but beside their reunion, Khalil sensed there was more behind her tears than missing him. He brushed the tears from her cheek. “Are you all right?”
To his surprise, she shook her head and began to cry. Clutching her flowers, her tears watered the petals. “Oh, Khalil!” she threw her arms around him and broke down in his arms.
He had never seen her like this before. She was normally so
calm, so composed. Someone had harmed her, he felt sure of it. Whoever it was would pay dearly. “Come.” He put a steadying arm around her shoulders, took her hand and helped her into the limo, asking the driver to stay still until he gave orders to leave, just in case Khalil decided to fly to Ephesus himself and personally take care of whoever did this to her. “Darling, I hate to see you so upset. Please, tell me what is troubling you. Did you miss me?”
“Uh huh,” she sniffed.
“But there is more, yes?”
She nodded, but was still unable to speak through her tears.
A tremendous surge of possessiveness washed through him. She was his now, his responsibility, whether she realized it yet or not and he would never, ever allow anyone as loving and kind as his Kelley to suffer so. “You calm down and then tell me, love. What is troubling you?”
The more he asked her to calm herself, the harder she cried. He hated seeing her like this. Something or someone had clearly shaken her to her core. He decided it best to simply be still, allow her to calm herself and wait however long it took until she told him what was wrong.
Had Safina come to see her too? If she did, Khalil hated to think what he would do to her.
Finally, she spoke. “Khalil, I am so sorry. I don’t want to cry, it’s just…”
“Yes, darling. Tell me. Anything.” He removed her hood, brushed her hair with his fingers, wiping her tears.
; “You won’t believe what happened.”
“What?” If someone hurt her, if someone dared to touch a single hair on her gorgeous head, for the first time in his life, Khalil realized he might actually kill someone. He would protect this woman with his life. He had never wanted to care for anyone more than Kelley.
“I was working on my project…and…” she cried a few more tears. “I wasn’t finding anything, but I wasn’t discouraged you know, because I had a grant, and I knew that it would all work out…”
Khalil rubbed her shoulders, which seemed to help. “Yes?”
“When I was done at the site yesterday, I got a letter. Your driver brought it to me, and when I went inside the house…” she broke down again.
“What is it, my love?”
“Someone had been in the house.”
“What?” Khalil nearly lost it. He rolled down the window, motioned to his pilot. “Get the plane fueled up.”
“Sir?” The pilot appeared confused.
“You heard me. Now! I am going to Izmir.”
“Listen, Khalil. It’s not what you think. As it turned out, Josh had been there, you know, the one who ran off with Safina?”
“Indeed,” Khalil really didn’t like where this was going, especially with the visitor he had yesterday. He felt a burning heat rising up under his collar. He clenched his jaw, drew his hand up in a fist. “And?”
She reached into her purse and produced two letters, one was open, the other sealed. “Here.”
“May I?” he asked, not sure he should open her private mail.
“Read that first.” She surprisingly gestured to the sealed one.
Khalil read words he found confusing. “Josh admitted he lied about an email and fabricated a story of some kind. What does this mean?”
She sighed. “He lied about everything. A few years ago, I received an email describing a vessel used by the Virgin Mary. The mysterious sender told me where to find it and went on and on about how I was the person meant to make this important discovery which would greatly influence the future of Christianity.” Tears welled in her eyes as she continued. “All this time, I based my whole life’s work on this one project. I applied for my grant, and thanks to Josh encouraging me, I came here to make a name for myself in the archeological world. What Josh came to tell me was—” she broke off into tears again. “He made it all up. It’s a fake. The letter wasn’t real, and what’s worse, I took grant money from a non-profit to come here.”
Khalil would not tolerate anyone injuring Kelley, either physically or emotionally. “I will take care of him!”
“No, please just listen.” She wiped her eyes. “Josh told me that he sent the email. He was the mysterious person, and he told me the whole thing was a lie. Can you believe it? He only wanted me to follow up on it because he wanted to come over here and see Safina and thought this would be a way for us to get a free trip to Istanbul.”
Not only had Safina disgraced both their families, but she apparently chose to be with a man who had no moral compass. Perhaps she showed up yesterday realizing she was in love with a liar. It did not matter now. He loved Kelley and he was glad Safina was out of his life. As for her lover, the fact he had so profoundly harmed Kelley, and in fact had likely destroyed her professional reputation was something Khalil vowed to avenge. “He will pay for what he has done to you.”
“No, Khalil, that won’t help anything,” Kelley sniffled. “I’m not asking you to be my knight in shining armor and fix everything. I’m telling you because you need to understand why I have to leave now. My work here is done. I need to go home.”
“There must be retribution,” he insisted, clutching the letter in his fist.
This pronouncement brought about a fresh wave of tears. “What’s worse is that I know this is nothing compared to all you’ve been through.”
“Of course it is, darling.” He took her hands, squeezed them tight. “Your work is important to you.”
“I know, but look at you. You lost your wife, and your fiancé…I don’t want to keep crying and carrying on, but you have to realize this was my dream, the only thing I’ve been working on, the one hope I had for my future, and now it’s gone. And the sad thing is, it was never real to begin with. I feel so…”
“Betrayed?”
“Exactly.”
Khalil reached his hand up to the breast pocket of his jacket and felt the box containing the engagement ring he wanted Kelley to wear the sooner the better. “I planned a dinner for us, however I believe it may be best to postpone until tomorrow when we are both feeling better, do you agree?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“Shall we go home, then?”
“I don’t want to be a burden to you, Khalil. You gave me a place to stay, you’ve transported me back and forth and I truly appreciate everything you’ve done. I can get a flight back to Boston in a few days and—”
He cupped her face in his hands. “I shall hear of no such thing. I want you here with me. Come home with me. To our home.”
Forty-One
Kelley loved hearing Khalil refer to his home as theirs, but she had to come back down to Earth. Her lifelong fantasy of archeological fame was over. “I have to go back to Boston.”
“I won’t allow it.” He shouted up at the driver, “To the palace, at once!”
His protectiveness of her was flattering, but nothing would change her mind, no matter how she felt about him. Besides, once reality sank in and Khalil realized what a fool she’d been, how she had no money and very little success, he would not likely want anything to do with her ever again. “I haven’t told you the worst part. Here.” She handed him the letter from the foundation. While he read, Kelley explained. “Aside from the whole Josh fiasco, the grant committee ran out of money, so my work here is officially over. Not only did Josh lie, it turns out I never had a benefactor at all. My project is a total failure.”
“Untrue!” Khalil insisted, ripping both letters into tiny pieces, and shoving them into the trash. “See? All gone. Nothing to worry you any longer, my love. I shall take care of you now.”
The only worry Kelley had was leaving the one man she knew she loved. “I appreciate that, but I still have to go home.”
“Impossible,” Khalil demanded.
“I can’t stay here. There’s no relic out there. None of this is real. The past few years of my life have been based on lies and deception. I have to face the facts. The sooner I cut my losses, the better.”
Khalil took her hands. “What about us? Our future?”
Kelley gazed out the window of the limo, watching the hills and mountains of Turkey rush past her and thought about all the events of the past few weeks.
The fantasy of being with Khalil, who was literally the most gorgeous and kind man Kelley had ever known was just that – fantasy. All the emotional turmoil they had both been through only clouded their judgment when it came to relationships. Her boundaries were shot. She had failed to successfully develop the ability to judge other people. She made consistently poor decisions.
Neither she nor Khalil could be expected to be thinking clearly with all that had happened to them both. “I’m sorry, Khalil. It won’t work between us. I think it would be best to take me back to the airport so I can go on home today.”
Khalil leaned forward, clutched her shoulders in his hands. “Have you ever considered, my darling, that all of this, all of the suffering you and I have been put through was meant to be so we could find each other? Has it not occurred to you that the grand architect of destiny has played his part in our meeting?”
“Well…” Kelley wiped her tears.
“It is true! I feel this in my being! You and I are meant to be together, my love, even my dear Oma saw this and pronounced this fact upon her deathbed as one of her last impressions she left upon this earth. This is happening for a reason, my darling. You are the love of my life.”
Kelley got the shivers when Khalil mentioned the destiny between them.
She felt the same way about him. She was so upset about Josh, but the whole time her professional world was crumbling around her, she thought of nothing but Khalil, and how happy she was they met.
All the humiliation would be well worth it if she found the one person on the planet who she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt she was meant to spend the rest of her life with. Her eyes filled with tears. “Are you sure?”
“I know so,” he pulled her to him, gazed into her eyes, kissed her. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Fiery passion burned in his eyes. He pressed her to his body, held her tight. “I missed you so these past few days. I wanted to call you, see you, touch you in every moment, but because of you, who you are, your integrity, I honored my wife, I mourned, and I am a better man for it, all thanks to you.”
Safina’s words echoed in Kelley’s mind. “You are a good man, Khalil.”
“I am convinced this terrible story about your life’s dream and your work ending was all to bring us together. Do you believe in fate, my love?”
Kelley gulped. “I didn’t until now.”
“I did not either, but knowing you, hearing Oma’s words before her passing, and having spent the last three days contemplating the life I had with her, and the empty existence I planned with Safina…” Khalil’s voice trailed off with emotion. “All lies! My life was a lie filled with promises I did not make myself.”
“We all compromise in our lives, Khalil. Every single person alive does.”
“I refuse to continue to live a lie. While you were away, I realized that I love you more than anyone has ever loved before. I choose you, Kelley. Not because someone told me I had to, but because I wish to grow old with you. Please…” Khalil pulled a box from his breast pocket, opened it.
Kelley gasped.
“You will marry me and make me the happiest man alive.” Without asking, Khalil slipped a giant square diamond ring on Kelley’s finger.