The Sheikh's Sleeping Beauty Nanny

by Shay Violet

  I walk into the kitchen a few minutes later. I need coffee to wake up my mind, and it’s my normal routine. Normally, Claire or one of the other staff members will have it ready for me.

  When I walk into my kitchen today, however, I’m met with a surprise I’m not expecting, nor one I asked for.

  My mother-in-law, Estelle, is sitting at the kitchen table. I tell her good morning, resisting the temptation to ask her who let her in the house. I did explain to her that although she wasn’t invited to stay at the house, she could come and go as she pleased to see Nadia.

  I am confused, however, because I don’t see Nadia anywhere around here, which puzzles me about why Estelle is here.

  Harold is standing in the doorway behind Estelle. He’s always creeping up on people, always watching and listening to conversations. It’s difficult to say anything around Estelle you don’t want him to hear.

  “Where is Nadia?” I ask and glance around the room.

  “With her nanny I presume.” Estelle chuckles resentfully.

  I again resist the urge to ask Estelle what she’s doing here if not visiting with Nadia.

  Then, as I am looking at her bitter face, something dawns on me. A revelation, if you will.

  I focus my attention to Harold. “I need to talk to Estelle, alone,” I announce.

  Estelle scoffs, the first to protest. “Harold doesn’t have to go anywhere,” she informs. “He’ll stay right here with me and listen to whatever you have to say.”

  I shoot an apprehensive glance at Harold and then look at Estelle again. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”

  Estelle looks me stone cold in the eyes. “If there is something you want to say then say it. There’s nothing I don’t tell him anyway, so he’ll be hearing it whether he’s present in the room right now… or not.”

  I hesitate, but in the end I relent. I just want to get this over with. I take a deep breath and a step closer to Estelle, narrowing my eyes as I study here and prepare myself for the confrontation I know has to happen.

  “I know it’s you,” I say.

  “Excuse me?” Estelle raises her eyebrows in suspicious shock.

  “You heard me,” I say in a grizzly tone. “You’re the one who has been sending me the threatening messages.”

  “I—” She begins, shifting her weight and looking alarmed.

  I interject her. “I don’t need to hear your excuses. I just want to tell you that the texts need to stop.”

  Estelle has genuine shock etched in her features. “I have no idea what you are talking about.” Her eyes dart frantically from Harold and then back to me with rising confusion.

  “It’s you, Estelle. It’s time to own up to it. Stop denying it. I already know you are behind the messages,” I implore more forcefully.

  “Jai, I have no idea what is going on…” she looks dumbfounded by my accusation. I have to hand it to her, she’s a great actress.

  “I know you are in pain because you lost your daughter,” I say in a gentler tone, “but you can't take it out on me. Yes, she died, and yes, it’s a terrible situation, but I did everything I could to be a decent husband to her.”

  I pause. Estelle’s mouth gapes open in shock, probably from getting caught.

  “I love my daughter, and I’m doing the best I can to provide her with the wonderful life she deserves,” I declare.

  Estelle is still playing the part of innocent and confused mother-in-law. She shakes her head and mutters something unintelligible.

  I point my finger on the table and she inches away. “We both loved Nadia and wanted the best for her. I still do.”

  “All right.” Harold speaks loudly, surprising both me and Estelle. We both stare at him expectantly.

  Harold shifts his weight uncomfortably and sighs. His eyes flicker with a guilt I don’t understand.

  “It wasn’t Estelle who sent the threatening messages. It was… me.”

  “You?” I look at him as utter shock ripples through me. “Why you?” Even Estelle seems horrified by the confession.

  Harold steps forward. “I loved Amita with all my heart. I loved her as if she were my daughter.” He points to himself. Agony twists into his features.

  “What?” Estelle looks at him like she can’t believe what he’s saying, and honestly, neither can I.

  “I watched her grow up.” There’s a glaze of both panic and nostalgia in Harold’s eyes as he speaks about my deceased wife. “I watched her go through the devastation of the loveless match with you.” He gives me an accusatory glance.

  At this part of the confession, I know he’s talking about me. His eyes skim to me and he gives me a stern glance. I clear my throat and shove my hands into my pockets, waiting for him to continue.

  “You should have tried harder to love her. You should have made it impossible for her to want to stray away from you,” Harold explains.

  Estelle waves her hand in front of Harold. “What are you talking about?”

  This is a tipping point. Harold has given away enough that he will have to come clean regarding Amita’s death. As I exchange a look with him, I realize that he now understands this too.

  I give him a nod, subtly coaxing him to say the whole truth.

  “Harold?” Estelle eyes him with a lecturing glance and raises her eyebrows. “Tell me what is going on, and you better do it quick.”

  Harold licks his lips and scratches the back of his head. He is behaving with nervous energy rubbing off on me and making me feel anxious, too. My palms are sweaty, and my heart rate is intensifying.

  “Jai shared his wife with his brother. He had no respect for her. He didn’t love her. He didn’t care what she did or when she did it. Jai finally sent Amita to live with him. They died together because they were lovers in a secret tryst, not because they were merely traveling together.”

  Estelle gasps dramatically. She looks at me with a glower of rage.

  “He’s not telling you the entire story,” I quickly clarify, needing to clear my own name before Harold defiles it any further.

  “What’s the rest then?” Estelle’s voice is high and shrill with dread.

  “Amita never loved me either. I never touched her, not once.” There’s no turning back now. It’s time to get everything out in the open.

  Both Harold and Estelle stare at me with perplexed expressions on their faces.

  “You never touched her? You never laid with her and had… relations?” Estelle whispers the word as if it’s filthy to even say out loud.

  “No.” I shake my head.

  “What about… Nadia?” The color drains from Estelle’s face.

  I hesitate, but the truth is ready to burst from my lips. “She’s not really my daughter.”

  Suddenly, we hear a crash of something falling in the next room. My stomach drops and slams me with instant nausea. I hastily turn my head. Nadia is there, looking devastated with a huge well of tears glistening in her big eyes.

  As soon as we make eye contact, she spins on a heel and quickly scurries from the room.

  “Nadia, wait!” I call out to her.

  Harold and Estelle are both jogging behind me, trying to catch her before she leaves the house and runs away again.

  Nadia scampers into a tiny closet under the stairs that only a child can fit into. She burrows herself deep inside and covers her face in her hands.

  “Nadia, please, come out. I need to talk to you. What you heard back there—”

  “Leave me alone,” Nadia sobs and attempts to scoot herself even further into the compacted hole.

  “Nadia, please… will you just allow me to explain?” I ask with desperation. My hands are shaking.

  “There’s nothing to explain,” she whimpers. “I heard what you said. You aren’t my real daddy. You don’t want me, just like mommy didn’t want me either. Mommy left me because she didn’t love me, and neither do you.”

  Nadia cries quietly, shattering my heart into un-mendable pieces. As if things can�
��t get any worse, I notice Aurora slowly drift into the room. She’s been listening and witnessing everything unfold. She probably thinks I’m a monster, but as I meet her gaze, I’m surprised to see she doesn’t have judgement in her eyes.

  I open my mouth, but stammer because I don’t know what to say to her. Anything I say will come out sounding superficial and narcissistic.

  “She won’t come out of the cubby!” Estelle cries, speaking for me. She tosses an exasperated look at Aurora as if she expects her to save the day.

  Aurora ignores Estelle and looks at me. There’s maternal patience and kindness flickering in her eyes.

  “Tell her a story,” she instructs.

  “Tell her a story?” I frown and shake my head.

  Aurora licks her juicy lips. She’s beautiful, even under this stressful moment. “Tell her a story to get her to come out of the closet.”

  It’s a good idea, but I’m at a loss for words. I stare blankly at Aurora. She kneels down in front of Nadia and gives her a sympathetic smile.

  “Your dad has something he wants to say to you,” Aurora mentions gently to Nadia.

  “He’s not my father,” Nadia squeaks.

  “I still think that you should hear what he has to say,” Aurora offers tenderly.

  Aurora looks at me with an expectant expression. I feel like I’m in a spotlight I don’t want to be in.

  “I uh… I don’t know what to say to her,” I whisper with regret and an expression of chagrin.

  Aurora’s eyes are still shimmering with a depth of kindness I don’t deserve. “Just try.”

  24

  Jai

  A swell of emotion succumbs me. I don’t know where it comes from. It slams into me out of nowhere, and suddenly I know all the right words to say to Nadia. At least, that’s my hope.

  “Nadia,” I begin as soothingly as I can. “Listen. I love you very much. Your mother loved you very much too. We both loved you more than you could ever imagine, more than I could ever explain.”

  Nadia stares at me, blinking innocently.

  Even though she’s not my biological child, I love her like a real daughter. I keep this to myself. I don’t want to cast any extra light on the fact that she’s not my daughter. She needs time to process it. I don’t want her to be in pain.

  I never got along with my brother. He was a huge playboy. He thought he was better than everyone. He had a condescending arrogance about him and always tried to be the one of us who did everything right and responsibly.

  I decide that the best way to explain what happened with Amita is to put it into a fairy tale for Nadia.

  I smile at her. She gives me a wary glance. I hope I can redeem myself by what I’m about to say to her.

  “Nadia, you are my daughter, and you deserve the truth,” I begin. I glance up at Aurora who gives me an encouraging nod and smile.

  I take a deep breath and continue. “Your mommy and I, we had to get married even though we weren’t really in love with each other. We tried to make it work, but sometimes it was hard.”

  I do my best to explain things so a six-year-old child will understand. If I can sugar coat the story, then maybe she won’t be so disappointed.

  “My brother and your mommy had more of a special bond than I had with her. They made mistakes and got into a car accident. This is how they went to Heaven.”

  It is the best way I can tell it to her. Aurora smiles and gives me a sincere smile that makes me feel like all my problems are erasing at once.

  I focus my attention back to Nadia. “My brother, your real father, wasn’t like a father to you, not like he should have been. He was too focused on making your mommy happy.”

  Nadia looks confused, but she continues to listen.

  “Everyone thought it was probably best I act as your real father instead. I rose to the challenge. I felt like I had a better bond with you than he did. It was taboo for your mommy to be in a relationship with my brother while she was still married to me. I felt like my love for you was even more wonderful because you were my brother’s child, and you were my flesh and blood too.”

  I look up at Aurora. She’s still giving me that endearing look.

  “I always felt like I had a special connection to you Nadia,” I say, and hope she can hear the earnestness in my voice. “I felt like everything I lacked with my brother was redeemed by my connection to you, like the void was finally filled. You were always the missing link, Nadia, and I hope that one day you will understand how much I truly love you, then and now, and always.”

  Nadia grins at me. She slowly inches her way out of the hole. “That was the weirdest fairytale I have ever heard,” she says and then pauses with a grin. “But I loved it.”

  I smile, feeling myself relax. “Really?”

  “Yes.” She opens her arms and embraces me in an amazing hug.

  I wrap my arms around her, receiving her and hugging her back as affectionately as I can.

  The connection I had desperately been trying to establish and hold in place with Nadia is finally embedded in both of us. I no longer feel like I’m lacking anything. As soon as I am finished hugging Nadia, I stand up and hug Aurora too. She feels like a security blanket I have searched for all my life, a physical presence that breaths new life into my soul.

  It’s in this moment I realize that I finally have the true family I’ve always needed to keep me going. I didn’t recognize it before, but now that it’s everything that I’ve yearned for, it’s a sensational feeling. Before, it felt like an obligation to be a family man, but now, it's natural. I finally have the organic love that I’ve always craved. Now that I recognize it and can respond to it, I have all the love in the world to give to both my daughter and the real love of my life, Aurora.

  25

  Aurora

  Epilogue

  “It seems like Estelle has warmed up to you,” Jai states one evening we are sitting down to have dinner as a family.

  “I know.” I grin and glance down at my swollen belly under the table, rubbing it affectionately. “She already told me she can’t wait to have a grandson. She keeps buying him little presents, it's adorable.”

  “That’s great.” He smiles and his eyes flare with lust and desire. He’s charismatic and charming, and he’s now my husband. I couldn’t be happier with the way things worked out between us. I am as happy as I’ve ever been in my life, and I hope the dream never ends.

  “Mommy, can I touch your tummy too?” Nadia asks with a gleam of excitement glistening in her eyes.

  She is bouncing up and down in her seat with anticipation.

  “Sure honey.” I chuckle. “Come on over.”

  Nadia has been calling me mommy ever since Jai and I got married several months ago. The wedding was incredible, a fairy tale dream that any woman would count herself lucky to have. I still wake up every day thinking I need to pinch myself, this is all just a fantasy and I will wake up back in the shady part of town again.

  Nadia jogs over to my seat and crouches on her knees. She gently places her hands on my stomach and shoots me and Jai a giddy smile.

  As soon as the baby kicks, Nadia giggles. The sound of a child’s laughter, my child’s laughter is true bliss, like an angel from Heaven.

  I smile and tuck a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. “He can’t wait to get out and play with you.”

  She peers up at me with excitement blazing in her eyes. “Do you really think so?”

  “I know so,” I tell her with a fond smile.

  Nadia looks between me and Jai. “I can’t wait to have a baby brother.”

  “You will be a fantastic big sister,” I say, giving her a boost of confidence that reflects in her rosy expression.

  I look at Jai and his eyes are gleaming too. He takes my hand and cups it over his, giving it a gentle squeeze across the table. He’s everything I have ever wished for. Maybe it paid off for me to never outgrow fairy tales. My dream came true, and now I was the princess wife of a sheikh.
Who could ask for anything better?

  26

  Jai

  For the first time in a long time, maybe even my entire life, I’m happy. I mean, truly happy, with no strings attached and no grievances to expose. The joy I feel is organic, rooted deep and comfortable.

  I’ll explain why. I am no longer afraid to love my family.

  I can handle my responsibilities as a sheikh, a father and a husband simultaneously. It’s a perfect blend and balance that feeds my soul.

  The next morning at breakfast, Estelle pops in to scoop up Nadia for a fun day of shopping and getting their nails done.

  Estelle is doing much better at being an active participant in Nadia’s life as a grandmother, and not an instigator of drama in Aurora’s or my life.

  After everything came to light about her daughter’s death, she saw how things had been difficult for me too in the marriage, and that I also struggled. She finally realized I was a hardworking sheikh who wanted nothing more than to fall in genuine love and raise a family while ruling the people in my homeland simultaneously. I have to travel back and forth, but we are working out a routine comfortable for us, and so far, it’s working tremendously.

  “Are you ready for a day of fun?” Estelle asks Nadia.

  Nadia jumps up and down. “Yes, grandma.”

  She’s no longer afraid of the woman and often looks forward to their special days out together. I want to encourage their bond. I know Estelle clings to Nadia as the last connection to her deceased daughter. I understand and don’t mind them sharing that connection.

  Aurora and I wave goodbye to Estelle and Nadia as they drive away. I turn to face my wife. She is gorgeous. She’s glowing radiantly. The pregnancy suits her. I can’t keep my hands off her.

  She still has her slender frame, and a curved round shape in her belly. It’s like the rest of her body hasn’t grown, and it looks like she’s hiding a soccer ball beneath her shirt.