Chapter Two #3
Hana bit her lip and tried not to cry. She hadn’t meant to mess everything up so badly. She certainly hadn’t expected her subterfuge to terminate the engagement! All she’d wanted to do was make sure that he wasn’t the monster that her siblings had teased her about, and now…
‘Make her tell us what she did, Father. Make her,’ commanded her youngest brother, Fadi, loudly enough for Hana to hear through the heavy wooden doors to the great hall.
‘What she did isn’t important right now,’ her father dismissed tiredly.
Hana had been sent out here, while they decided what to do.
‘Of course it’s important. We need to know how badly she’s humiliated us this time.’
That was her oldest sister, Rida.
‘Badly enough for her fiancé—a man so desperate to marry that he’d willingly tie himself to the youngest royal of a neighbouring family—to break off the engagement,’ her oldest brother, Rashad, added.
‘This will ruin us,’ said Fadi.
‘She will ruin us,’ Noor clarified, as if anyone was in any doubt whose fault it was. Hana wanted to cover her ears with her hands and pretend that none of this was happening.
She’d thought that if the Sheikh of Al Surrahin recognised her then he’d be angry. That she’d have to explain. But breaking off their engagement?
It was bad enough as it was, but if her family discovered that she had sneaked in to the spa, disguised, and seen him…naked…
Her cheeks flamed.
Why was it only now that the impropriety of it all was hitting her? Why had she only realised how badly it could go when it had already gone wrong?
Because, honestly, she really did believe that if she just worked hard enough, if she was determined enough, she could make it all okay.
Her head fell back against the wall of the corridor outside the great hall. Tears pressed against the backs of her eyes as she tried to ignore the heavy gazes from the staff passing back and forth, failing to hide their curiosity as to what was happening.
‘No one knows anything yet,’ her father insisted from the other side of the door. ‘And it is highly unlikely that the Regent of Al Surrahin will want the news getting out that he’s suffered another failed engagement. There may still be hope yet.’
‘But when is this going to end, Father? When will she stop doing stupid things—’
‘Enough!’ her father shouted, just as a tear escaped from the corner of Hana’s eye and rolled down her cheek. ‘Make sure that the regent knows one of our helicopters is at his disposal. The least we can do is ensure he gets back to Al Surrahin safely.’
‘Well, he can’t take mine,’ complained Rida.
Shame, embarrassment and guilt drowned out the rest of their conversation, mixing noxiously in her chest as Hana’s heart ached with a familiar sense of rejection and inadequacy.
Hana wanted to know the same thing. When would she stop messing up?
She had really hoped that this might be it.
That marriage would be something she could do really well.
After all, it was something she wanted. Something she’d always wanted.
To be part of a family. To be a wife. A confidante, a companion and a friend.
A mother too. She’d wanted so much to be a mother.
‘Careful Hana. A heart like yours needs protecting,’ Amara would scold her.
‘Why?’
‘Because a heart as soft as yours bruises easily when it doesn’t get back what it gives to others,’ Amara had said, her eyes sad as though she knew what kind of hardships Hana would grow up with.
Hana wanted so desperately to love. But her family had never seemed to want that from her. Instead, she had been little more than a source of irritation or frustration. And that was when she wasn’t just a constant reminder of what they had lost.
Now, out in the hallway, she swallowed the hurt and the ache and focused on the present. She had let them down. Again.
‘Maybe you could just send her away for a few months. At least until we can make sure there’s no negative backlash?’
Her body flashed over with goosebumps, as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice over her.
Noor had always taunted her with the punishment. That she’d be sent away, alone, where she couldn’t be a bother to anyone any more.
‘We can’t take the risk this time, Father. It’s for the best.’
The palace on the western fringes of Omrhain was a small old military garrison that had a skeleton staff keeping it liveable. But for Hana? It was everything she hated. Cold, isolated, lonely. So, so lonely.
Her hands bunched at her sides again. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, let it happen.
She had to find Malik. She had to make him see that it was all just a…
mistake. One that she wouldn’t make again.
She would plead her case, make him see. Make him understand that she would do whatever it took to be the perfect bride for him.
Her conscience pulled at her plans.
What if she made things worse?
But she honestly couldn’t see how much worse things could possibly get.
So, no. She wouldn’t just sit here and let everything fall apart. She had to save this wedding, her family’s reputation and the future of their countries.
She just had to.