Chapter 34
New York – A Few Hours Later
I listen to Amin’s explanations about the details of my future mother-in-law’s transfer to Rheadur—how many doctors will be required and the bodyguards assigned to ensure Arif doesn’t get near her—when two knocks at the door precede the entrance of my American secretary.
The name she announces catches me completely off-guard: Elina Lykaios.
What is she doing here?
In the days leading up to my arrival in New York, I tried to contact both her and her husband.
I learned that Odin was away traveling, and although I would have preferred to meet with him instead of Elina, after months of investigating my half-brother’s disappearance, I’m hardly in a position to choose.
Especially since, by all indications, the answers I’ve been seeking are tied to the Greek blonde herself.
I never imagined she would come to find me. It doesn’t seem like Odin’s style to let his wife get involved in matters like this. If the former FBI agent I hired is right and Odin literally erased all traces of Naim, then he also knows I’ve been investigating him.
My instinct tells me he doesn’t know his wife is here.
“Let her in,” I say, then turn to my assistant. “Amin, we’ll discuss this later. Leave us.”
“No, I’d like you to stay,” a woman’s voice cuts in, ignoring me and speaking directly to my assistant. “I have no reason to trust being alone with anyone from your family, Your Highness,” she continues, head held high, and now, at last, meeting my eyes.
The first thing I notice as I face the blonde, who looks like a runway model despite her visibly pregnant belly, is that she’s brave.
No one has ever spoken to me like that before, and although I suspect she may have her reasons for despising anything related to Naim, I still feel offended that she thinks she wouldn’t be safe in my presence.
“I’m Elina Lykaios,” she introduces herself belatedly.
“Kaled Faheem,” I reply, shortening my name. “Please, have a seat. Amin, you may stay. We wouldn’t want our guest to feel frightened.”
“I’m not afraid of anything, Your Excellency.”
“Your Highness, madam,” Amin corrects. “Prince Kaled has already been appointed interim sheikh of Rheadur.”
For the first time since arriving, she falters slightly, a small crease forming between her brows. “But that position belonged to your brother.”
“Yes. Until he vanished from the face of the earth,” I say, watching her reaction closely.
The woman would make an excellent poker player. Not a single emotion flickers across her face.
I gesture toward the leather armchairs across the room, and she hesitates before deciding to sit.
She looks at us like a doe expecting to be attacked, yet with the defiance of a warrior.
Admirable.
“I came because you told my assistant that you wanted to speak with me,” she begins. “And I can only assume it’s somehow related to your brother.”
After taking my seat across from her, I study her face for any trace of guilt or fear when she mentions Naim.
Nothing.
The only thing I see there is contempt.
“Does your husband know you came here?”
“No. Odin’s traveling. Why?”
“If I were him, I wouldn’t want my wife meeting with the enemy.”
“You’re the enemy?”
“Your attitude so far has made that perfectly clear.”
She sighs, looking tired. “Let’s make this brief because I’m sure neither of us wants to be here. I can’t give you answers about your brother’s whereabouts, but I can tell you who he was and why my husband and I want this story buried once and for all.”
“You came to defend the two of you?”
“For me to have to defend us, we’d need to be guilty of something,” she says sharply, and I realize that whatever her husband did to Naim, Elina herself is innocent.
“But if we were guilty, so what? In our home, I’m not subservient just because I’m a woman.
Decisions about our lives are made together. ”
She speaks slowly, and I recall reading in an interview that she’s dyslexic. In a world obsessed with appearances, Elina Lykaios is remarkably brave to own that publicly.
I can see the restrained fury in her, despite her calm facade. There’s no doubt how much she hates Naim.
“Tell me about your relationship with my half-brother.”
“Half-brother?”
“Yes. His mother was my father’s first wife.”
“There was no relationship. My father sold me to him.”
For the first time since she arrived, I’m fully engaged, momentarily forgetting I’m supposed to be analyzing her, not getting drawn into what she says.
What she reveals is so shocking it commands my full attention.
“What do you mean, sold? An arranged marriage?”
“No. My father, Leandros Argyros, traded me for a fortune.”
“I know who your father was,” I say, choosing to ignore—for now—the part about the money.
“Then you must also know he was bankrupt. So he thought it was a good idea to sell me as your brother’s fourth wife.”
As unbelievable as her words sound, the pieces begin to fall into place.
“Go on.”
“The problem, besides the fact that they treated me like merchandise, was that neither of them bothered to ask my opinion. And of course, I had no interest in being involved with Sheikh Naim.”
“Why not? He was wealthy. As his wife, you would’ve had many privileges.”
“Setting aside the obvious, that I was never and will never be for sale, even if that weren’t the case, there isn’t enough gold on earth to make me marry Naim. He was, along with my father, one of the most despicable people I’ve ever met.”
She stands, agitated. “The day your brother told me I’d been sold for a hefty sum, he attacked me, tried to assert his dominance both physically and verbally. We were at a party at Odin’s house, and if it hadn’t been for the man who is now my husband, Naim might have assaulted me right there.”
“You and Odin were together back then?”
“No. He also . . . uh . . . had his own issues with my father, and we weren’t even friends.
Anyway, that same night, Odin announced to the world that my father was bankrupt and gave him a deadline to leave our island, which then became his property.
The next morning, my parents fled with the money your brother had paid them in advance, and Naim showed up at my house demanding his part of the deal.
With no one left to stop him, he attacked me. ”
“He assaulted you?” I ask, horrified. Even after uncovering Naim’s depravity and crimes, hearing it firsthand from one of his victims makes it all the more real.
“Define assaulted. If you mean did he beat me and try to rape me, then yes.”
There’s such dignity in her statement that I can’t help but admire her. Whatever she endured, Elina refuses to see herself as a victim.
“That day, once again, Odin arrived just in time, and your brother was thrown off the island. After that, I moved to the United States. End of story.”
“It’s not the end, and we both know that, Elina. He followed you to the U.S. I have proof.”
She sits back down, folding her hands in her lap. “Do you? Then why haven’t you found him yet?” she asks, as if daring me, then sighs, exhaustion creeping back in. “Listen, in a few months I’ll be a mother, and that’s the only reason I came. I want my children to be—”
“Children?”
“Yes, I’m expecting twins. As I was saying, I want them to be born in peace.
I want a calm pregnancy. That’s why I’m here, to tell you I don’t know what happened to your brother after the last time I saw him.
” She doesn’t clarify when that was, whether in Greece or here, but adds, “If something did happen to him, I wouldn’t doubt for a second that he deserved it.
Naim is a monster. Sheikh or not, he should never have been walking free. ”
An hour later, I’m still replaying the story of Lykaios’s wife in my mind, examining it from every angle.
There’s no justification or forgiveness for what my brother did. Not to Elina, nor to any of the other women unlucky enough to cross his path.
And I can’t disagree with Lykaios’s wife: if my brother is dead, it’s far too little for all the harm he caused.