Najeeb ended her uncertainty. “Yes, that Fahad Aal Ghaanem. The cousin we all thought long dead.”
It took frozen moments before Jenan shook her head, her bewilderment deepening, not lessening. “How?”
In answer, Najeeb succinctly recounted the story he’d told him. As he spoke, Jenan’s eyes were riveted to Numair, as if struggling to superimpose the new truths on what she’d known of him, what she’d had with him, till now.
When Najeeb fell silent, she asked shakily, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
It was Najeeb who answered again. “This was another thing I sat in there trying to understand. Then I worked it all out. You see, right before you arrived, Numair—or should I say Fahad—told me he was here to exact revenge. On my father, whom he accused of having his father killed. The other reason he mentioned was to reclaim his birthright. And it all became clear. He had a convoluted plan to come here, hurt my father as much as possible until he had solid proof of his lineage. Once h
e did, he’d accuse my father of murder, deposing him in a scandal and of course getting rid of me as the current crown prince, and claiming the throne for himself.” Najeeb turned to Numair, arctic challenge in those eyes that had been all warmth such a short while ago. “Did I miss anything?”
“It’s not like that anymore...”
“What about me?”
Jenan’s voice, so smothered in trepidation, drove a jagged edge in his gut, cutting short his protestations.
“Jenan, I said I’ll explain everything later...”
“Will you?” Najeeb’s words cut through his entreaty like a knife. “Why not do it now? She’s asking a very simple question after all. Why did you approach her in the first place? Or should we say, target her? That was the other thing I sat in there trying to figure out, until I finally realized that your heritage isn’t only in Saraya, but Zafrana. Your mother was Princess Safeyah Aal Ghamdi, and half of your blood is royal Zafranian blood. Being the powermonger that you are, and with the state the kingdom is in, you must consider you’re the one who has both the right and the power to rule it. But since you don’t have a direct claim to the throne as you do in Saraya, you concocted a more convoluted plan. You weren’t saving Jenan from my father, or even trying to hurt him by decimating his power over Zafrana and the massive resources he’d expended to gain it. You wanted Jenan only to use her in the exact same way he intended to.” Najeeb turned his pained gaze to Jenan. “Claiming you, having an heir from you, would make him control Zafrana’s throne during your father’s life, then after his death, until his heir, your father’s heir, comes of age.”
Jenan turned her gaze toward Numair. There was no shock or pain or accusation in there. Just emptiness.
As everything collided inside him, the vacuum in her eyes intensified, as if her essence had totally departed his body. A body that had nothing more to prop it up, and collapsed to the ground in a boneless mass.
“Jenan!”
Lightning-fast reflexes honed through decades of merciless training kicked in, fighting off the paralysis. He caught her before she hit the ground. But Najeeb had also charged to save her.
Finding Najeeb’s hands crowding his on Jenan’s inert body almost made his head burst with rage.
As soon as he laid her down with trembling care on the ground, he flung Najeeb away and tackled him there.
Najeeb was so stunned by his attack, Numair got a few jaw-cracking punches in before Najeeb pulled himself together enough to retaliate. At the first blow that connected with Numair’s own jaw, something crashed in place inside him, rousing him from his blind wrath.
Najeeb was a powerful man, could hold his own with anyone else, but he wasn’t a violent man, and certainly not a killer. But Numair was. Najeeb was no match for him. If he didn’t curb himself, he would kill him.
Flinging himself off him and rebounding to his feet, he watched Najeeb rise to his, rubbing his already swelling jaw as if to make sure it was still hinged. Numair had pulled his punches, or it would have been pulverized now.
Looking at him as if at a horrific monster, Najeeb rasped with obvious difficulty, “What are you?”
“Something you can’t even imagine in your worst nightmares. Consider yourself lucky. I have destroyed men for causing me far, far less than the incalculable damage you just caused me with Jenan.”
As Numair moved, Najeeb’s body stiffened in readiness for confrontation. “Stay where you are, you maniac.”
Numair shot him a baleful glance as he rushed back to Jenan, scooped her unconscious form up and took her to their bed, where he’d missed having her like he’d miss a vital organ. She was warm, breathing easily. It seemed her nervous system had sought the refuge of oblivion to protect her from the brunt of Najeeb’s revelations.
After minutes of trying to rouse her and failing, but knowing she was in no danger, he rose and turned to Najeeb, who’d followed him, as if not trusting him with Jenan now.
“I’m over my murderous fury, which thanks to your punch—” he rubbed his own jaw; Najeeb’s punch would have felled any other man “—I realized was directed at myself. You only exposed the truth about what I once intended.”
Najeeb tried a bitter laugh, and it came out a pained groan. “You know where you went wrong? If you’d come clean to me, to Jenan, if you weren’t a cold, manipulative bastard, we would have gladly given you everything you wanted. I would have recognized your right to the throne, would have made my father relinquish it to you.” He nodded toward Jenan. “And she would have loved you. Of her own free will, and would have considered you the one who deserves Zafrana’s throne. Now I wouldn’t entrust the fate of a heap of dirt to you, let alone that of my kingdom. And if you spread your vicious lies about my father and try to destroy my family, I’ll fight you till my dying breath. As for her, don’t hold your breath you’ll be able to con her again.”
Numair exhaled. “Though you might not believe it now, I got you here so I can resolve this with minimum damage to everyone. But you didn’t let me finish what I had to say, and now anything you think is irrelevant. Fixing things with you will have to wait until I deal with this disaster you’ve caused me with Jenan.”
Najeeb’s antipathy wavered, before his gaze panned to Jenan and it turned to steel again. “You can try. But this woman would have died for you. If I know anything about her, she’d now rather die than let you near her again.”
Turning to Najeeb fully, he let him see the monster he had inside him, and that he could no longer harness it. “You better pray that your prediction doesn’t come to pass. If I lose her, I will have nothing else to lose in this world. Not even I can predict what I’d do then.”