The prince has set me free. Please do this for me, Nazir. Please,” she begged with all the strength of her soul.
“Yes, mademoiselle.”
Since Lauren had fled from his arms like a sand devil spinning away with the speed of light, Rashad had sealed himself in his Raz apartment. Now that it was evening, the helicopter had come back for him.
During the short flight back to Al-Shafeeq, Nazir reported that everything had gone smoothly at El-Joktor. He had walked Lauren on to the jet without problem. Since then, he had had word that her flight had landed in Geneva. Was there anything else he could do for Rashad?
With nothing more to be done, Rashad assured him there’d be a big bonus in his paycheck for services rendered. After thanking the others, he went inside the palace and headed straight for his parents’ suite. When he walked in, Farah came flying across the sitting room and threw her arms around his waist.
“I’m so sorry for speaking to you the way I did last night. Please forgive me, Rashad.”
“There’s nothing to forgive because I know love motivated you.” He kissed her forehead. “I deserved it and a host of other things you didn’t say.”
“This morning I came to say goodbye to Lauren, but she’d already gone.”
Rashad closed his eyes tightly. “She’s in Geneva as we speak.”
“You can pretend all you want, but I know you love her.”
He studied his sister who’d always been there for him. “I won’t lie to you about that, but she’s gone now, so there’s nothing more to be said.” Their grandfather’s blood flowed in Lauren’s veins, too. One couldn’t jump high enough to get over that camel’s hump.
She touched his face. “You look ill.”
“It will pass.”
“No it won’t!” she stamped her foot in a rare show of temper. “Go in to the bedroom and tell our father you can’t go through with your marriage next month.”
That checked him. “How did you know about the change of date?”
“Father’s been looking for you all day and could not find you. No one knew where you were, not even Nazir. Your phone has been turned off. He got so upset he called the entire family and told everyone to look for you.
“I knew you were with Lauren, but I didn’t say anything to give you away. When I asked him why he was so upset, he let it slip that you have to let Sheikh Majid know of your agreement about the new date for the wedding by tomorrow night.”
“I’ll go in to father now. Is mother with him?”
“No. She’s still talking to the chef about the meal preparations for our birthday party in a few days. You know how she is.” Farah’s eyes filled with liquid. “She wants everything perfect for us, for you. So do I, but I know you’re never going to know joy. You can’t go through with this wedding, Rashad. It won’t be fair to you or to Princess Azzah.”
Rashad ran a hand over his face in despair. As he’d found out this morning, life wasn’t fair. “Bless you for being you, Farah.” He kissed her once more, then strode quickly to the bedroom where his father sat on the side of the bed with his bad foot propped on an ottoman piled with cushions.
His father simply stared at him. He didn’t need to speak. Rashad already knew every word he would say if he chose to express himself.
“Farah met me in the sitting room. Forgive me for giving you a scare, father. I—”
“You need explain nothing. I have my own eyes and ears around the palace. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have lived this long. The American. Is she gone?”
“Yes.”
His father’s dark eyes pierced through to Rashad’s soul. “For good?”
A boulder lodged in his throat. “Yes.”
“Good. Did you send her away with your baby?”
Rashad threw his head back in torment. “No. There’s no possibility.”
“That’s even better. The wound that bleeds inwardly is the most dangerous. Tell me what’s going on that has you writhing body and soul.”
Rashad’s pacing came to a halt. “When we buried grandfather four months ago, was he wearing his medallion?”
The change of subject caught his father off guard. “Who told you he wasn’t?” he snapped uncharacteristically.
Pain shot through Rashad. Lauren’s truth was the truth. He was crucified all over again with that knowledge.
“No one,” he whispered.
“Since you know he wasn’t wearing it, why did you ask me?”
Rashad shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. I just wanted you to know it’s been found.” He reached in his pocket and drew out the medallion and chain. After staring at it for a minute, he put it in his father’s hand.
Dumbfounded, his father eyed Rashad strangely. “How did you come by it?”
Rashad drew up a chair next to him. “The American woman was wearing it around her neck when I flew her to the palace more dead than alive.”
His father’s eyes filled with wonder. “Go on.”
“Yes. Go on,” his mother said. She’d come in the bedroom without Rashad being aware of it. She looked like an older version of Basmah, tall and lovely. She sat down on the bed next to his father.
For the next little while Rashad told them everything from the beginning, leaving nothing out. When he’d finished, his father said, “And throughout all this business, you fell in love.”
“Yes.” Rashad jumped up from the chair, unable to contain his emotions. “But she has Grandfather’s blood in her just as I do.” Nothing could have shocked him more in his life. No news could have devastated him more.
His father nodded. “Now I understand why you feel you can never see her again.”
Rashad stared at his parents for a long time. “I realize I’m a great disappointment to the two of you, but what I felt for her went beyond honor or duty the moment I carried her from the sand to the helicopter. It felt as though she’d been delivered to me. For me …
“Before I found out we had a grandfather in common, I planned to come to you and tell you I couldn’t go through with the marriage to Princess Azzah because I intended to marry Lauren. When I took her to the Garden of the Moon, I realized I couldn’t live without her.”
His mother eyed him with tenderness. “That doesn’t surprise me. You’ve always been led by what you believed in your heart, Rashad. I’ve been listening to everything you’ve said.” She looked at his father. “I think it’s time we told him, Umar. Don’t you? I know we agreed not to as long as it wasn’t necessary, but now I know that it is.”
“Tell
