The Sheikh's Claim (Desert Nights 2)

They’d picked the place based upon being as close as possible to Azmahar’s climate, and the house to maintain the comfort level she’d been used to. In spite of everything, they’d wanted her to feel as at ease and at home as possible in her exile.

But it stopped here. His filial weakness. Not because he’d almost died when he’d thought Lujayn had been kidnapped, or because she’d sabotaged their wedding. It was what she’d done to Lujayn, again. He hadn’t forgiven her for her past transgressions. Now, he never would. He couldn’t bear to imagine Lujayn’s anguish when his mother had forced her to leave their wedding.

Ya Ullah, how had she done it?

Waving away the guards he’d assigned to his mother, he strode into the one-level sprawling house with the first rays of dawn. The thought that she could sleep after she’d ruined his wedding, maybe even his life, had blood roaring in his ears, louder with each step closer to her bedroom.

“…everything you wanted.”

The words barely carried to him, but they felt like a direct blow to his heart. For he didn’t have any doubt who’d said them.

Lujayn. She was here.

His feet almost left the ground to home in on her voice. Then he exploded into his mother’s private quarters, stood at the door staring at a sight he’d never thought he’d see. His mother sitting relaxed with Lujayn over steaming cups of tea.

Neither woman reacted at his entry. As if they’d both been waiting for him. His mother, in an emerald satin dressing gown that reflected some color onto the steel of her eyes, looked as majestic and ageless as ever. Lujayn, in a sedate gray pantsuit, had her hair still in the chignon she must have had styled for the wedding that never was. She kept her face turned away.

He had to tell her she mustn’t feel bad, that he was here to…

“I’m glad you’re here, ya helwi.” His mother’s expression and voice were calm as she extended a hand to him. “Come, join us for tea. Or did you have enough stomach-turning beverages on the plane?”

His teeth gritted. “No, you don’t, ya ommi. You don’t ‘my sweet’ me. Ever again.”

His mother gave a theatrical sigh. “Zain, let me get to the point without any…sweetening. Lujayn has always been my mole.”

Everything went still. Had she just said…?

Incredulity and fury overcame him, crackled from his depths. “Ya Ullah, is there no end to your surprises? Why not tell me Lujayn is actually a man? That would be more believable.”

His mother’s gaze maintained its unwavering serenity. “I sent her to you when you were establishing the New York branch of your business. I needed someone I controlled to keep you away from the unsuitable women swarming around you, by giving you everything you needed from a woman with seemingly no strings and no price. But when you kept going back to her for years, I realized my plan had worked too well, was afraid you’d gotten attached to her. So I ordered her to start alienating you. But contrary boy that you are, you liked her more for it. I waited almost two years for you to walk out, but you didn’t, so I ordered her out of your life, told her she could go for the other man she’d been…cultivating. Lujayn obeyed, of course, cut you off and married your friend, who was conveniently dying. I decided it was safer from then on to drive women away one at a time. But we know I haven’t had to do a thing. You did it on your own ever since.”

Jalal could only gape at his mother, his eyes flitting every other sentence to Lujayn. Lujayn’s face remained turned away, what he could see of it was frozen, expressionless.

His mother went on. “While it was a relief at first that you wouldn’t let anyone near, I felt worried, then guilty that I’d set you up to fall for my impostor, but hoped eventually you’d find others. I never predicted that you’d go after Lujayn after her husband died, wishful thinking on my part. I surely hadn’t counted on you getting her pregnant. When she told me, I ordered her to stay away, hide the child. That is, until I needed to create a scandal for you.”

Unable to feel shock anymore, Jalal only stared at his mother as she rewrote his whole history with Lujayn.

“But again, you, unpredictable boy, thwarted me. Before she could unleash the scandal of your illegitimate child from my servant’s daughter, you had to go unearth her family’s origins. While I was deciding how to deal with this new development and how best to use her child, you found out about him, jumped to acknowledge him and offered Lujayn marriage. So I told her to lull you till the last moment, then leave you standing at the altar. Now that the news has traveled the region, if not the world, no one in Azmahar will think that such a foolish man is king material.”

No end. No end to the blows. To the injuries. He could have taken anything from an enemy. But from her…

His mother’s face finally displayed an emotion as she rose in utmost grace to her feet, approached him with an entreating expression. “I love you, Jalal, but I want Haidar to be the king. Both of you forced me to take action when he stepped down and you kept going full force with your campaign. Now you’re out of the running, he will take the throne. But he will make you his crown prince, and everything will be for the best.”

Silence stormed in the aftermath of her heartless justifications. Jalal closed his eyes for several minutes.

When he finally opened them, they felt lined with sandpaper. Just like his throat and his heart when he looked only at his mother and said, “I don’t believe a word you said.”

His mother sighed. “As I expected. But you would believe Lujayn. Go ahead, ask her.”

“What good would that do?” he huffed bitterly. “She’d say anything you want her to say, because she knows you’d carry out the threats that forced her here.”

His mother inclined her regal head at him. “That’s a very fascinating theory, ya helwi. What did you decide my threats involved? Harming her family? How would I do that from my exile?”

“Spare me, ya ommi. We both know you’re here but your influence remains at large. Something I’ll be rectifying from now on. And I will no longer have any qualms about employing my brothers’ and father’s help in severing your tentacles. So I hope you enjoyed abusing your power for the last time in your life.”

“If you believe using my power to do what needs to be done is abusing it, then I was right and you’re not fit to be king.”

“You always hated me because of my Aal Shalaan face, didn’t you? Just looking at me reminded you of your hated enemies, my father and his sons.”