Shackled to the Sheikh

‘I think perhaps you should.’

And a chill descended his spine as he took the letter from his vizier’s hands.

Dear Matt

Don’t think twice about the quarter of a million—it’s a drop in the ocean to me right now. I’m just sorry you’re having a tough time of it.

As it happens, I won’t need to mortgage my home to help you out—we’ll never have to mortgage anything ever again!—as I’ve stumbled on the mother lode: a rich petroleum billionaire who has royal connections. I know! The dollar signs in my eyes lit up too! I am confident I will be able to send you at least half a million dollars in one or two days.

Hang in there and keep watching that trust account—and keep listening for the ka-ching!

It’s coming!

Your cousin

Victoria

PS Yes, blood really is thicker than water.

Rashid’s blood ran so thick and cold it was practically curdling in his veins. A rich petroleum billionaire who has royal connections. The dollar signs in my eyes lit up too!

Something new and fragile threatened to crumble inside him then, his faith in her wanting to shatter into tiny pieces to scatter on the desert winds.

‘You see, Excellency,’ said Kareem, ‘why I thought you might be interested in reading the contents.’

He could see all right, but no, this was Tora they were talking about. ‘It cannot be true.’ No way could it be true. This could not be Tora writing this. And even if it was... He flicked the paper in his hand. ‘Surely this is some kind of joke?’

‘I am sorry, sire, we thought the same, but there is more. It seems this Matthew Burgess and a solicitor colleague are both being investigated by the financial authorities for misappropriation of client funds.’

‘There must be a misunderstanding, then. If this is the cousin Tora told me about, she doesn’t have anything to do with him.’

Kareem bowed his head.

‘What?’ demanded Rashid.

‘I wish I could say there had been some kind of mistake, but the solicitor’s account at the heart of the fraud case—it is the same account the sheikha had us transfer the quarter of a million dollars to.’ He paused. ‘And there is evidence that the sheikha had repeated visits and phone calls to her cousin’s office in Sydney before she came to Qajaran.’

‘But she told me that she has nothing to do with the cousin who lives in Sydney. Is there another cousin?’

Kareem bowed again. ‘I am sorry, sire. There is only the one.’

And Rashid’s fragile new world splintered around him, leaving him shell-shocked and raw again, just as he’d been when he’d learned of his father’s three-decade deception. But Tora’s deception cut still deeper, because she’d played him for a fool.

‘It’s not about money,’ she’d told him, after sending this message to her cousin.

It wasn’t about money?

Liar.

‘So her cousin is a crook,’ said Rashid tightly. ‘Which is no doubt why she needed the quarter of a million dollars so urgently, and another half million besides, so she could try to bail him out.’

‘So it would seem, sire.’

And Rashid closed his eyes and turned his head to the ceiling. He had to hand it to her—all that talk that money couldn’t fix things. All that holding out on him while all the time comforting him, reassuring him, making herself indispensable to him. All the while making out that she cared for Atiyah when it appeared now that all she had been concerned about had been riches.

His riches.

Betrayal wrapped its poisoned arms about him. There was a reason he didn’t get close to anyone. There was a reason he preferred to wander this world alone.

‘Kareem, as soon as the desert brothers and their wives have left today, I want you to remove Atiyah from Tora’s suite and place a guard on her door. From then on until she leaves here, the sheikha is under house arrest.’

Kareem inclined his head. ‘It will be done. I am sorry, sire.’

‘Why are you sorry?’

‘For pressing the urgency of your marriage to adopt Atiyah.’

‘God, Kareem, it wasn’t your fault I got lumbered with Tora. I chose her. I should have waited for you to find me a proper wife.’

‘I did think, for a time, that she would make a good sheikha.’

Rashid ground his teeth together. He’d been thinking along the same lines. More fool him.

* * *

Tora took coffee and yoghurt with fruit on the terrace feeling happier than she’d felt for what seemed like ever. She ached in all kinds of places she hadn’t known could ache and she didn’t mind a bit because every twinge reminded her of why she ached and how she’d earned it, and every memory made her smile anew.