LITMIR.BIZ

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course.’ He nodded. ‘I am fighting blind at the moment, but...’ he shook his head ‘...there is no way to find out unless I speak with my mother.’

      ‘And we both know that no good can come from that.’

      He didn’t look convinced.

      ‘Kedah, I’ve worked with people who’ve been caught red-handed and they’ll all admit to once, but...’ She shook her head. ‘You need irrefutable proof—DNA testing.’

      ‘I’ve told you—I couldn’t get a sample without his knowing.’ Kedah pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. ‘Soon the elders will call for one.’

      ‘Then find out now.’

      ‘Ask him?’

      ‘No.’ Felicia shook her head. ‘I doubt your father would want to know, unless forced. What if you asked him to come to your office?’

      Felicia took a large box from the bag she had carried in and opened it. Along with a stunning crystal decanter and glasses there was a pair of white cotton gloves.

      ‘I’ve got the buffering solution. I can prep the glass, and if he takes a drink from it I can fly straight back and have the test done. You said they already have your profile?’

      Kedah nodded to that question, but then he shook his head. It could never work ‘Felicia, you’ve seen how it is there. There is no way he would come into my office for a discussion, let alone stay long enough to have a drink. No, he would ask me to meet with him in his.’

      ‘What if you had your office set up for a presentation?’

      Kedah looked at her. ‘What sort of presentation?’

      ‘The one you’ve spent years working on—your hopes for Zazinia. Your vision for your country. All the plans you have made.’

      All the plans that had been knocked back. ‘I told you to delete that file.’

      ‘Since when did I do as I was told?’ Felicia shrugged. ‘And I’m glad I watched it...’

      ‘You watched it?’

      ‘Of course I did.’

      Of course she had, Kedah thought. This was the woman who had taken a screenshot of that article that had only briefly appeared online. He was a work project, a problem to solve, and for a while he had forgotten that.

      ‘Aside from obtaining a DNA sample, I think it’s something that your father ought to see. He needs to know what he’s taking on—or turning his back on.’

      Kedah had grown too used to the other side of Felicia—the softer side he sometimes glimpsed—not the very tough businesswoman she was.

      And this, although private, was business.

      The business of being royal.

      ‘Show it to him,’ Felicia said. ‘We can set up for a presentation in your office and ask him to come and view it. It goes on for an hour...’

      It could work, Kedah realised. By the time the Accession Council met he could know the truth.

      ‘Whatever the result, I shall fight for my people.’

      ‘Ah, but it will make it so much easier, Kedah, if you’re able to laugh in Mohammed’s face...’

      ‘Assuming the result is the one I want.’

      ‘And if it’s not?’

      ‘I can handle the truth, Felicia.’

      Could he?

      She thought of the baby within her and wondered for a brief moment if it might be better to tell him—but then, in the same instant, she changed her mind.

      Kedah needed to find out who his father was before she told him that he would soon become one.

      * * *

      There was no question of them whiling away the flight in the bedroom.

      Kedah had not only his presentation to his father to edit, but also his speech for the Accession Council to prepare.

      Aside from that, Felicia didn’t know if she could risk being close to him right now without confessing her own truths.

      Not just the baby, but the fact that she loved him.

      So she put herself firmly into Felicia mode.

      Or rather the Felicia he had first met.

      She only had one robe that complied with the dress code in Zazinia, so an hour from landing she went and changed into the dusky pink one.

      Her hands were shaking as she did up the row of buttons and her breath was tight in her lungs. She feared that he might come in, for she was not sure she possessed the strength not to fold to his touch.

      He did not come in.

      Oh, he thought about it, but he didn’t dare seek oblivion now. He knew he had to keep his mind on the game.

      God, but he wanted her.

      ‘Still working that worry bead?’ she teased when she came out from getting changed and saw him tapping away.

      ‘I told you—I never worry.’

      ‘Liar.’

      ‘I don’t worry, Felicia. I come up with solutions. I’ve known for a long time that one day this would happen. While the outcome might not be favourable, I’ve prepared for every eventuality. I’m a self-made billionaire. I’ll always get by.’

      He flicked the diamond across the table to her and Felicia picked it up.

      ‘It’s exquisite.’

      ‘When my designs for Zazinia were first knocked back I spoke with Hussain. He had studied architecture with my father, and when I told him the trouble I was having he said his struggles for change had been thwarted too, and he would not let history be repeated. He invited me to come in on a design with him in Dubai. It was my first hotel, and a stunning success. Back then I sold it. I had never had my own money. I cannot explain that... I was royal and rich, but to receive my first commission brought a freedom I had never imagined, and with the money I bought this. I know each time I look at it that, if need be, I can more than make my own way.’

      ‘People will be hurt, Kedah, even if the result is what you want. If Mohammed discredits your mother...’ Felicia had thought about that too. ‘She will be okay. It would be awful for a while, but—’

      ‘No,’ Kedah interrupted. ‘She would not be okay. She isn’t strong in the way your mother is.’

      Felicia looked up from the diamond she was examining. She had never heard her mother described as strong; in fact she had heard people suggest she was weak and a fool for standing by her father all those years.

      ‘It must have taken strength of character to go through all she did,’ Kedah said, and after a moment’s thought Felicia nodded. ‘My mother doesn’t have that strength.’

      It wasn’t something that had ever been said outright, yet he had grown up knowing it to be true.

      ‘I remember when my father went on that trip. His last words were, “Look after your mother.”’ Kedah hadn’t even been three. ‘My father always said it, and I always took it seriously. She is a wonderful woman, but she is emotionally fragile. All the arguments, all the politics—we do our best to keep them from her. She does so many good things for our country. She worries for the homeless and cries for them, pleads with my father to make better provision for them. She takes their hurts so personally...’

      There was no easy answer.

      ‘She’ll be okay,’ Felicia said again, and watched as Kedah gave a tense shrug.

      Had she even listened to what he had just said? he wondered.

      She had.

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