Bella and the Merciless Sheikh

‘Stop pretending you don’t care.’

‘I shouldn’t care. I’ve had it for most of my life. I’ve been the “bad twin” since I was packed off to boarding school. I even lived up to the nickname the press gave me.’

He gave a sardonic smile. ‘Did it work?’

‘Did what work?’

‘The attention-seeking behaviour?’

‘No. To get attention, there has to be someone around to give you attention.’ Bella sniffed. ‘My mother died, stepmother number one dumped me in boarding school and left me to fend for myself and then a few months ago—’ she swallowed ‘—my second stepmother, Lillian, died. I didn’t spend much time with her but she was a good person. And she didn’t deserve my father. So you can see that it’s pretty hard being saintly in our family, with him as an example. And pretty hard being told to mend your ways by someone like him.’ She tried to pull away but Zafiq was still holding her firmly, his eyes fixed on hers as he prised the truth from her.

‘Are you telling me he sent you alone to the Retreat just after discovering that your sister was the child of another man and that your mother had an affair?’

‘I was supposed to think about my behaviour and memorise my Balfour rule. Dignity—’ She imitated her father’s voice perfectly. ‘“A Balfour must strive never to bring the family name into disrepute through unbecoming conduct, criminal activity or disrespectful attitudes towards others.”’

‘You are supposed to follow that rule?’

‘Until I stole Amira I’ve never indulged in criminal activity,’ Bella muttered, ‘but I guess I’ve pretty much ticked all the boxes now. Still, I’ve made the newspapers a fortune.’

‘Your father was wrong to send you away with no support.’

Bella’s eyes burned but she felt a stab of guilt. ‘Actually, it was my fault,’ she whispered. ‘I behaved horribly.’

Zafiq curved his hands over her shoulders and she shivered because it felt so good to be touched by him.

Too good…

‘It was the afternoon before the ball.’ Anticipating rejection, Bella pulled away from him, rubbing her fingers over her face to clear the tears. ‘My father holds this charity ball every year, you know the sort of thing—glitz and glamour. Anyway, Olivia and I decided to go through our mother’s things. There were boxes of books, jewellery, ball gowns—I found a diary.’ She dug a tissue out of her pocket and blew her nose. Who would have thought he was capable of being such a good listener? ‘Being stupid, we read the diary.’

‘That’s how you discovered your mother’s affair?’

‘Yes. And immediately it all made sense. I was always proud that I looked like my mother. It was as if there was that special link between us—as if when I looked in the mirror, I was seeing a bit of her reflected there.’ Bella fiddled with a strand of her blonde hair. ‘But suddenly I discovered why my father can’t even bear to look at me. Every time he looks at me, he thinks of her betrayal.’

Zafiq inhaled sharply. ‘Bella—’

‘Well, obviously it wasn’t a great thing to find out. I wanted to keep the whole thing a secret—I didn’t want to tell anyone. Especially not Zoe—that’s my sister. I thought that would be a hideous, horrible thing to discover about yourself.’ She pushed the tissue back into her pocket. ‘Why stir up stuff that no one needs to hear?’

‘But your twin disagreed?’

‘Morally up standing Olivia—always has to do the “right thing” even when the right thing is going to create carnage. You’d get on well with her. She’s big on duty and responsibility. Goes without saying we’re non-identical. Anyway, we had a terrible row.’ She rubbed her fingers across her forehead. ‘Olivia said we should tell Zoe the truth. I pointed out that telling Zoe meant telling everyone—I mean, our mother kept it a secret, I wasn’t sure it was our business to blurt it all out. You have no idea what a mess it was. Olivia said I was like our mother—’ the breath hitched in her throat, remembering just how badly that accusation had hurt her ‘—and I…I slapped her.’