Page 36 of The Sheikh's Fake Bride Scheme

“Come into the study and sit down, Kareem,” his father said.

Kareem followed his father, seeing no way out of it. He felt as if he was a very young man again, about to be reprimanded for something he’d done wrong. His father’s scolding hadn’t gotten to him in years, but right now he knew that his father had the power to take away the thing he wanted most, and that was a very difficult thing to face.

“Sit down,” his father said, and Kareem sat.

His father sat across from him and looked him square in the face. After a few moments, it became obvious that he was waiting for Kareem to speak first.

Kareem had long since learned not to fall for that. If he spoke first, he risked getting himself into worse trouble than he was in already. He would wait to see what his father already knew.

“You were aware,” his father said eventually, “that any woman you brought home would have extensive background checks run on her. You were aware that we would investigate her thoroughly and find out everything there was to know. Did you think we wouldn’t catch on?”

“I’m not sure what you mean,” Kareem said.

“Keira Harding,” his father said. “Her family is well known in the United States, aren’t they?”

“I wouldn’t say they’re well known.”

“Stop it, Kareem. I already know, so you might as well admit it. You didn’t bring Keira here because you fell in love with her. You brought her here because of who she is.”

Kareem said nothing.

“Go on,” his father said. “Tell the truth. I looked into things here in Qalmar, and I know that a venue has been reserved for a major sporting event. That race you asked me about. You’re going ahead with it anyway, aren’t you? Despite my objections. Despite the conversation you and I had about it. You’ve decided to organize it anyway.”

Kareem drew a steadying breath. This would always have happened eventually, and he knew it. At some point, his father was always going to find out about the race, and Kareem wouldhave had to admit to what he was doing. It was happening earlier than he had expected it to, but he had still known that it was coming, and he could still deal with it.

“All right,” he told his father, doing his best to maintain an even tone. “You’re right. I am planning a race.”

“And you’ve been lying to me about it, thinking that I wouldn’t find out.”

“I knew you’d find out,” Kareem countered. “I always planned to tell you eventually, Father. I just wanted to make sure that we had the plans in place before I spoke to you about it.”

“You did that because you wanted to make it more difficult for me to cancel the event,” his father said. “You wanted to make sure that it would go ahead. Isn’t that right?”

“I did want that,” Kareem agreed. There seemed to be no point in lying about it now. “I wanted to make sure our plans would come to fruition. I’ve worked hard on this. And, Father, I didn’t use any of the crown’s money. I respected what you said when you told me that you didn’t want to contribute to an event like this. I used my personal funds.”

“I suppose you think that makes it all right?”

Kareem waited. In fact, he was sure that it wouldn’t be all right with his father. But he wasn’t yet sure what the reasoning would be.

“You knew perfectly well that I didn’t want you to do this,” his father said. “You know what I think about racing and how I feel about your involvement with it.”

“Yes, I do,” Kareem said evenly. “I also know that you and I are never going to see eye to eye about this, Father. And I’m verysorry about that, but you simply cannot expect me to structure my entire life around trying to please you. The fact of the matter is that I haveneverbeen able to win your approval. I don’t believe I ever will be able to. I had to abandon the attempt eventually. I had to move on and allow myself to live the life I want to live. I’m sorry that’s disappointing to you, but you must acknowledge that everything I do is disappointing to you.”

“I have no hesitation about acknowledgingthat,” his father said. “I’ll happily let you know what a disappointment you’ve been — and frankly, your passion for racing has very little to do with that.”

“Don’t expect me to believe this isn’t about racing, Father. That’s why you called me here today — because I’m planning a race and you don’t like it. Because you look down on motorsports and you always have.”

“I think it’s a foolish hobby,” his father agreed. “But people have foolish hobbies. You know I don’t like the fact that you’re publicly attaching your name to such a thing, but at the end of the day, itisyour name, and you didn’t use crown money, so I can appreciate that. But the real problem is that you manipulated me and your mother. Pretending to be married in order to disguise what you were doing — that’s going too far, and I’m surprised that you didn’t realize that. I can’t believe you could bring that woman home and lie about a marriage to her in order to get what you wanted. I never dreamed you were so selfish.”

“It isn’t a lie. We really did get married,” Kareem insisted.

“And is it your intention to remain married?” his father asked, raising his eyebrows.

There was no good answer to that question, of course, so Kareem remained silent.

“You thought I wasn’t going to figure out this part of your plan,” his father surmised. “You knew that eventually I would catch on to this race of yours, but you thought I would never realize that you meant to end your marriage — or rather, not until it was too late for me to stop you. You thought you could use a marriage as a way to manipulate this whole family, to trick us into supporting you and turning a blind eye to your behavior. Isn’t that right?”

“It wasn’t like that,” Kareem said.

---