Page 38 of The Sheikh's Fake Bride Scheme

“Then I don’t know what you’re so upset about!” Keira said. “The race is on, Kareem. We don’t have to worry anymore about what will happen when your father finds out. What did he say?”

Kareem looked away from her.

“He says you’ve got to leave Qalmar,” he said quietly. “You have to go back to the States. He’s given you three days.”

Keira was stunned. She was sure that she must have misunderstood — his words quite literally didn’t make sense.

“Three days?” she repeated. “I can’t go back in three days. That’s before the race.”

“That doesn’t matter. He’s going to let me go ahead with the race, but he won’t let you stay for it. He’s offended that we lied about our marriage.”

“So he’s just kicking me out of the country?” Keira shook her head. “What if I refuse to leave?”

“You can’t do that, Keira. He’s the king. He has the resources to have you removed against your will if you fight him on this, and believe me, you don’t want that. It would not be pleasant.”

“Don’t I have resources?” Keira asked. “I thought I was a sheikha.”

“That doesn’t compare to the power of the king. Especially since your marriage is being considered illegitimate.”

“You mean our marriage?”

“Yes, that’s what I mean.”

“Kareem… I don’t understand. Are you telling me that you’re just going to allow this to happen? After everything I’ve done for you? After all the work I’ve put in to help you achieve this dream, you’re going to let your father do this to me?”

“There isn’t anything I can do about it, Keira. It’s like I just told you — he’s the king. There’s nothing to be gained by trying to stand against him.”

“Did you even argue with him? Or did you just roll over and agree that I should leave?” Keira couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Fury swelled within her like a flame. “I guess you don’t think it’s very important to keep me around now that you’ve gotten what you want — is that it? You know that your race is going to be successful, given all the work I’ve put in, so why bother going to any trouble to keep me around?

“In fact, I’ll bet you’re glad this is happening. You never wanted to let me put my name on this. You told me you were worried about what would happen when your father found out, but that never did make sense to me — it was really that you didn’t want to share the credit, wasn’t it? You thought it would be better if I was gone, and now you’re getting your wish. You got all the benefit of my hard work, and now you’ll get to pretend that you were the one responsible for the whole thing.”

“It isn’t like that, Keira.”

“Don’t bother. I know you could have fought for me to stay if that was what you really wanted.”

“We have three days. Maybe there’s something we can do, some way of stamping your signature on the race?—”

“Oh, stop it,” Keira snapped. “You must be crazy if you think I’m going to hang around here for three more days.”

He looked at her.

“I want you to book me a flight out of here tonight,” Keira said. “It’s the very least you can do, after everything I’ve done for you. I want to be on my way home as quickly as possible.”

“Keira, don’t do this. We don’t need to end things this way.”

“Don’t act like I’m the one who’s ending things,” Keira said. “It sounds to me like things are already over. I just want to get out of here and move on with my life, now that I know this has all been a waste of my time.”

Unable to bear being in the room with him any longer, she turned and walked away as quickly as she could. She hoped he hadn’t seen the tears in her eyes before she’d turned her back on him. The last thing in the world she wanted was for him to realize how much all this hurt.

The truth was that she had always known this marriage was temporary. She had always known this moment lay ahead. There was no excuse for feeling as though her heart was being ripped out because he had told her it was time to go home.

But she couldn’t help it. She did feel that way.

As she packed, Keira told herself that what she was feeling was just betrayal. He had brought her here under false pretenses, promising that it would be a significant moment for her to advance her career. That was the reason she’d agreed to come in the first place. And now that wasn’t going to happen. Her timehad been wasted, because she would never be able to claim this event as something she had helped with.

But the truth was that — although shewasangry and did feel taken advantage of — what she really felt was something much deeper and more painful.

She had genuinely begun to believe that there was a future for Kareem and herself. She’d thought that, perhaps, when their marriage came to an end, something else might happen.

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