Page 34 of Seduced By the Sheikh

Zak hadn’t even heard her. No doubt the blood was pounding in his veins, the fury making him deaf to her quiet voice. It was his mother’s comment which made him turn to Soraiya.

“What?”

Soraiya gripped her hands to give herself courage. “I said, ‘no’. Your mother should stay.”

He put his hands on his hips and turned his full frown onto her. “There is no way I’ll allow my mother to stay in Sirun, let alone the palace, after what she’s said here tonight. I told you she was poison, and that’s exactly why she came here—to destroy everything we’re trying to build.”

She lifted her chin to meet his fierce gaze. “I know what she’s done.”

Another snort of laughter came from Alishaba standing behind him. He gritted his teeth.

“But,” Soraiya cleared her throat and her voice emerged stronger, “we need to discuss this—with her, with my father. We can’t ignore this.”

“Damned right, you can’t,” said his mother. “Because it will mean the end to all your plans, Zak,” she said in a song-song voice, taunting him.

At that moment, Soraiya knew Zak wouldn’t weaken.

“Guards!” he said in a low, intense voice which had them hastening toward the sheikha. “Show her out of the palace.”

The sheikha shook off the guards’ hands, poured herself another glass of champagne, lifted it to Soraiya. “Here’s to you and getting yourself out of this mess. Because he won’t want you now. No one will.” She slugged back the drink and walked to the door. She nodded at the vizier, who glared at her. Then she continued out, followed by the two guards.

The vizier shook his head and closed the door on Zak and Soraiya.

Zak started over to the door.

“Zak! Where are you going?” asked Soraiya, unable to keep the desperation from her voice.

“To see Aabid. It seems we have important things to discuss.”

“So have we. Please Zak.”

He paused with his back to her. He turned slowly. “Tell me. Did you know?”

“Of course not. I don’t believe it, anyway. If I’d suspected I’d hardly have had a DNA test done, would I?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Perhaps a part of you wanted to know for sure. But whatever, it’s not worked out as you thought. And it certainly hasn’t worked out as I’d ever imagined.”

With that, he walked out, leaving Soraiya alone in her devastation.

CHAPTER 16

Soraiya returned to her suite of rooms to wait for Zak. There was no point following him. She couldn’t bear seeing that stony expression turned on her again. No, she’d wait it out in her rooms where she could be alone with him, and certain of not being interrupted.

But when she reached the terrace, the table was still set for the candlelit dinner and she was suddenly overwhelmed, as she remembered the hopes she’d had for the evening and the news she’d been about to impart. But she could hardly tell him now. He wouldn’t want to know. It wouldn’t mean anything to him if he didn’t want her around. Such information as the sheikha had revealed was grounds for divorce if Soraiya wasn’t who she’d claimed to be.

She opened up the laptop and found the page of the genealogy site which her cousin had shared with her. Delving deeper, she found evidence supporting Sheikha Alishaba’s claim. She was linked to people she’d never heard of and families and names she hadn’t known existed. She closed the computer, closed her eyes and suddenly remembered she had heard one name before. Rather, not heard, but read. She remembered reading it on her mother’s computer. An old friend, her mother had explained. From school days in France. There had even been a photo. She remembered his green eyes. A color which no one else had in her family.

Feeling suddenly nauseous, she went into the bathroom and vomited. As she sat on the cool marble floor, clutching the side of the bath, she felt as if everything she’d known and valued all her life had crumbled away, leaving nothing but a shell. And she was an unwanted shell at that. All the things she’d strived for had come to nothing. Her skills, her hard work, her dedication, her perseverance against all odds. But those odds had suddenly become stacked way too high for her to overcome. She wasn’t who she thought she was. The question was, what was she going to do about it?

Her father would be informed. Of that, she was certain. Someone as vengeful as Zak’s mother wouldn’t keep such gold to herself. She’d tell him, so that she could get at the sons who’d spurned her and taken away her status.

And what would her father do? She closed her eyes and placed the back of her hand against her forehead as the tears re-formed once more. She knew. He’d disown her, and she wouldn’t be able to inherit the land which formed the basis of the future for Sirun, because she wasn’t of her grandmother’s blood line. She wasn’t her “true” granddaughter—born of both her mother and father. A stipulation designed to disinherit her father’s bastards now meant she, also, would be disinherited.

On top of that, her father would disown her. Blood ties were paramount to him, and there was no affection, nothing to stop him from disowning her. And where would that leave her? Nowhere. With no marriage. And pregnant.

What the hell was she going to do?

Zak paced the floor while his vizier stood sternly firm.

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