Sheikh Without a Heart

“I’m sick of your lies!”

“It isn’t a lie. I loved you. I loved Ethan—”

“Yes,” he said, letting go of her. “I believe that.”

For a second Rachel’s heart soared—but it didn’t last.

“I believe that you do love Ethan, which is why I’ve come to talk to you.” He paused. “He is going to need a nanny.”

“Roberta will—”

“She won’t. She’ll stay the week but she’s enrolled for summer classes in New York.”

“Well, Suki will have to manage alone.”

Karim’s mouth twisted.

“Your sister and I had a talk last night. She’s already gone.”

“Suki? But—”

“Being given the choice between raising her son and granting me custody turned out to be no choice at all.”

“You mean she’s letting you keep Ethan?”

“She agreed to sign away her rights and let me adopt him.”

Rachel stared at him. “Why would she agree to that?” Her eyes widened. “You paid her off.”

He had. That was why he’d agreed to step into the spider’s parlor. Suki had expected sex. What she’d gotten was a check for seven figures, an iron-clad document that bound her to silence about Rami, the baby, and anything pertaining to the matter, and a warning never to come anywhere near Ethan again. But he wasn’t going to talk about that.

“Let’s just say we reached a mutually beneficial arrangement.”

“And—and the rest? Did she tell you that she’d lied about me?”

“We didn’t discuss you, only Ethan.”

Rachel nodded. She could feel the burn of tears behind her eyes. Why would they have talked about her when Karim had believed Suki’s lies without hesitation?

“And?”

“And what?”

“And what are you doing here?”

“I thought you would want to know that I will raise Ethan. I assumed that would be important to you—that you’d be happy to know he will be safe.”

Tears rose in Rachel’s eyes.