A Secret Birthright

by Olivia Gates

  His father’s expression was one he well knew. A “you dare?” and a “dream on” rolled into one eyebrow raise.

  Before he did something irretrievable, his father said, “I won’t continue this discussion standing by a helicopter on a beach. Anyone would get the impression I’m not welcome.”

  “You’re not,” Fareed growled, aborting his father’s stride. “And this discussion is over. There is nothing to discuss. And don’t try to pull rank. You’re not king here. I am.”

  His father ignored him, looked at Gwen. “And you’re queen here. You won’t invite your father-in-law into your home, even if your husband is rude enough not to?”

  “Leave Gwen out of this, Father. I’m warning you…”

  Gwen’s hand on his arm stopped his tirade.

  Then she stepped in front of him. “It would be an honor and a pleasure to receive you in o-our home, Your Majesty.”

  Fareed wanted to hug the breath right out of her, emotions colliding inside him. Pride and delight, at how she held herself, addressed his father, the effect her graciousness and classiness had on the old goat. Delight that she’d said our home. Oppression that she’d hesitated while saying it. But mostly, dread of letting his father deeper into their lives under any pretext.

  He watched his father take Gwen’s elbow as she led the way back into the villa. He walked a step behind, felt Emad fall into step with him. He only spared him a gritted “Later.”

  His father tossed him a glance. “Later, I might take him off your hands. It appears I’ve been remiss in estimating his worth.”

  “I’ll make you a gift of him. It appears I’ve overestimated it.”

  Emad grunted something, the very sound of politeness. To Fareed’s versed-in-his-noises ears, it sounded like a grown-up groaning at the posturing antics of two juvenile charges.

  Once inside the villa, Gwen turned to his father. “We were about to have dinner. I hope you’ll be able to join us. If you don’t like seafood, I’ll get something else prepared right away.”

  “The only time we met, I insulted and threatened you.” The king’s regard turned thoughtful. “Even if I abhorred seafood, it would still be better than crow.”

  Fareed blinked. Had his father just cracked a joke?

  He could think of only one explanation for this aberration. He got his confirmation in Gwen’s crimson discomfiture.

  “Oh, no, you don’t, Father. I’m damned if I let you play on Gwen’s sympathies. You’re not some kind, bereaved old man, so you can quit trying to blindside us into lowering our guard right now. We’re not letting you get your hands on Ryan.”

  His father gave him a considering glance. “What have you told her I’d do when this comes to pass?”

  “No ‘when’ here. And it was Hesham who told her—” he tried again to adjust to the fact that it hadn’t been her Hesham had told, had loved “—told her sister that you almost loved him to death, pressuring and coercing and hounding him into becoming the heir you would find acceptable.” Suddenly he couldn’t stand not knowing. He swung his gaze to Gwen. “What happened to your sister?”

  He knew the answer. If not from the fact that she had Ryan, then from the grief that he’d felt dimming her spirit. She’d been mourning her sister. How had she died?

  He hated to resurrect her pain, her loss. But he needed knowledge to stop his father’s incursion, especially now that he was using unexpected weapons.

  He still almost retracted his question when mention of her sister reopened her wounds right before his eyes.

  But she was already answering. “After the accident, they gave her only a preliminary exam. M-Marilyn was told she was fine. They discharged her to make room for those with obvious injuries. Hesham had already…” Her tears ran faster. “By the time I got to her she was deteriorating. I rushed her to another hospital, but she hung on only long enough to start my adoption of Ryan and give me her and Hesham’s last will. I knew everything already because I more or less shared their lives, moving everywhere when they did. I stayed even closer after I realized something was wrong with Ryan…”

  “So you were the one who diagnosed him.”

  A tear splashed on his hand, burning him through to his soul. “When he was four months old. But Hesham feared seeking you out.”

  He rounded on his father, snarling, “That’s why you’re not coming near Ryan, Father. Because Hesham feared you so much he wouldn’t seek my help for his son, his own brother, the best-equipped to offer that help, until he was on his deathbed.”

  His father ignored his wrath, addressing Gwen directly. “But your adoption of Ryan hasn’t been concluded yet.”

  Fareed felt his head about to explode.

  It almost did when Gwen said, “It’s still pending.” That imploring that compromised his sanity intensified. “That’s what I was trying to tell you. I expected you to find out when your legal team discovered I’m not the birth mother, and my adoption hasn’t been finalized. But they somehow got your adoption approved without this coming to light.”

  His daze deepened. “I told them not to bother me with details, to just do anything to get my adoption through.”

  His father tsked. “Seems anything included falsifying data. Once a discrepancy is found, the adoption might be invalidated.”

  He erupted. “No, it won’t. Go ahead. Do your worst, Father. I’m getting this fixed, and Ryan will be Gwen’s and mine, legally, anywhere in the world, no matter what you do. I’ll fight you, I’ll fight Jizaan and Durrah and the whole world for him, for Gwen’s right to be his mother. And I’ll win. Ryan will never be anyone’s but Gwen’s, the one who loves him, who sacrificed all for him.”

  His father only sighed. “Have I ever told you how much I wish you were my heir?”

  “You know better than to try to appeal to my ego, Father.”

  “No, you’re right. What I wish is irrelevant. In matters of state, it always is. I hope Abbas will come around when it’s time for him to take my place. He might not think so, but he’d make a formidable king. While you are more beneficial to Jizaan and the world being who you are, where you are.”

  “We’re not talking matters of state here. I mean it, Father. I won’t let you near Ryan.”

  “But it’s not up to you.” He turned to Gwen. “I would see my grandson now, ya marat ebni.”

  At hearing his father calling her “my son’s wife,” Gwen’s eyes filled.

  Fareed stopped her as she moved. “You don’t have to.”

  Those eyes that were his world glittered with too much that they took his breath away. “He has more right to Ryan than I do.”

  “That’s not true,” he gritted. “You are his mother.”

  Twin tears slithered down her face as she tore her gaze away and hurried out of the room.

  He stood glaring at his father as they waited for her to come back. She did in minutes, hugging a flushed-with-sleep Ryan.

  At the sight of him, Ryan perked up with the smiles and sounds he bestowed on no one else. He was endlessly thankful for that, for he did love Ryan as if he were his own.

  Then Ryan realized Gwen was taking him elsewhere and turned to investigate his new destination.

  Ryan blinked and looked back at Fareed as if to make sure he hadn’t teleported.

  Fareed’s jaw bunched. Surely Ryan didn’t think he resembled his father that much? And even if they did share much of their looks, he couldn’t possibly feel the same vibes from him!

  Next moment, Ryan buried his face into Gwen’s bosom.

  That was more like it.

  Before satisfaction seethed inside Fareed’s chest, he saw Ryan peeking shyly, inquisitively, interestedly at his father from the depths of Gwen’s chest, and his tension roared back.

  His father spoke, his voice rough with emotion, “Ya Ullah, this is Hesham as an infant all over again.”

  “That’s not true,” Fareed hissed. “Ryan is a replica of Gwen…of her sister, his mother.”

  His fa
ther turned to him with dazed eyes shimmering with what suspiciously looked like tears. “His coloring is throwing you off and that dimpled chin. But I am the one who hung on Hesham’s every detail from birth. He has his same bone structure, the shape of his features. And wait until his hair grows out. It will be the exact color and curl as Hesham’s. He’ll also be like his father in many other ways. Isn’t that right, ya ebni?”

  Ryan squirmed excitedly in Gwen’s arms as if he understood what the king was saying, and that he’d called him “my son.” Then the king reached out to him, and with one last look at Gwen and Fareed, as if he was asking their permission, Ryan reached back.

  Fareed’s mind almost snapped when a tiny whimper escaped Gwen as she let Ryan go. He was about to snatch him back when her hand on his arm stopped him. He wouldn’t have stopped if he’d seen dread filling her eyes. But what he saw there…it was something truly feminine, knowing, almost…serene.

  He stood beside her, confounded, watched his father caress Ryan, murmur things for his ears only, what Ryan clearly liked.

  When the introduction between child and grandfather seemed concluded, and they seemed to have come to an understanding, Ryan made his wish to be held by Fareed clear.

  Fareed took him, feeling as if he was returning his own heart to his chest.

  Silence reigned for endless moments.

  His father finally let out a shuddering exhalation. “I have been more than half-mad since I lost my Kareemah.” He looked at Fareed. “You might now realize how it was for me.”

  Fareed grudgingly had to concede that. If he lost Gwen…

  He couldn’t even think of it.

  “Is that your excuse for what you did to her son and yours?”

  “I thought I was honoring her memory, making her son my heir. But I wasn’t sane most of the time. Not when it came to Hesham. He had too much of her, inspired in me the same overwhelming emotions.” Suddenly his father seemed to let go of the invincibility he cloaked himself in, seemed to age twenty years over his sixty-five. “Now it’s too late to right my wrongs. I’m the reason he’s lost.”

  Gwen took an urgent step toward him, her eyes anxious, adamant. “You may be the reason for many things, but not that, Your Majesty. Never blame yourself for that. The accident that cost you your son, cost Fareed his brother and me my sister, was an act of blind fate. But I want you to know Hesham and Lyn didn’t live in fear. While Hesham took hiding to unbelievable lengths, he and Lyn soon approached it all as an adventure, one they included me in. I never saw anyone more in love or delighted with every second they had together. The shadow of separation only made them appreciate every breath they had of each other. So in a way, you were to thank for the extraordinary relationship they had.”

  His father swayed and reached for the nearest chair, only to collapse in it, dropping his head into his hands.

  Fareed stood frozen, watching this unprecedented sign that his father was human.

  He finally raised reddened eyes, looking at Gwen. “I wish I could have met your mother, ya bnayti.” Gwen started at hearing him call her “my daughter.” “She must have been a remarkable woman to raise not only you, a woman who possesses such generosity, you’d offer me this absolution, this solace, after the injustices I dealt you and yours, but to raise two women who had my most fastidious sons think their lives are a small price to pay to have them. That was the kind of woman my Kareemah was. I hope she had a man worship her as she deserved, as I worshiped my Kareemah.”

  Gwen shook her head, her eyes as red. “Regretfully, no. Our father took off while she was still pregnant with Marilyn. She raised us alone until an accident in the factory she worked in left her paralyzed from the waist down. She died from the complications of a spinal surgery years later, with only me and Marilyn with her. We changed our names to McNeal, her maiden name, because she was our only parent, our whole family.”

  Those were more shocking revelations to Fareed. More insights illuminating Gwen’s life and character and choices.

  “Your father had better be dead, too, or I will avenge her,” his father rumbled as he rose.

  Gwen started in alarm. “Oh, no. He’s not worth it.” Then she gave him a tremulous smile. “And then Mom always said it was the best thing that happened to all of us that he walked. She was happy without him. We were happy together. What happened afterward…blind fate was again to blame.”

  Fareed hugged her into him, unable to bear her losses, the gratitude that she’d survived it all, that he’d found her.

  His father approached, his steps not completely steady. “I was only stating facts when I mentioned your pending adoption.…”

  Fareed cut him off. “Adoption or not, I will fight you, and I will win.”

  His father looked at Gwen. “Will you hold your dragon of a husband back?”

  Gwen stared at him. Fareed did, too. A shaken king was unbelievable enough. An indulgent one had to be a hallucination.

  His father exhaled. “I came here to negotiate, and that’s why Emad let me come. But I won’t now. Not because I believe you would triumph over me in any fight, Fareed. And not because I’ve learned a lesson I’ll never recover from with Hesham. It’s because seeing you together, talking to Gwen and meeting Ryan has changed everything. Gwen has given me a reason to live again with her forgiveness, on her own behalf and that of Hesham and her sister. I’m not losing this reason or more of my flesh and blood to the demands of duty and pride.” He placed a hand on each of their shoulders. “You are Ryan’s mother, Gwen. I will swear to that to the world, starting with the Aal Durrah. Ryan will be your heir, Fareed. While I only want to remain part of your lives, if you would have me.”

  Fareed gaped at him. He’d never…ever…

  His stupefaction was interrupted by another surprise.

  Gwen threw herself at his father, clung around his neck, reiterating, “Thank you, thank you.”

  His father was as taken aback. It took him long moments before he brought his shock under control and hugged her back.

  At last he put her at arm’s length, looked down at her. “You are all heart, aren’t you? But you don’t have to accept me. Your husband can get me off your backs permanently if he so wishes.”

  Her smile trembled up at him. “I don’t want him to. And Ryan doesn’t either. He wants his grandfather. He…recognized you, like he recognized Fareed.”

  “He was far more eager with me,” Fareed protested.

  His father dared placate him. “Of course he was. He knows his priorities, recognized you’d be the one who would be constantly present in his life and therefore in need of more intensive…humoring.”

  Fareed harrumphed. “With all due respect, Father…”

  His father suddenly laughed. “I think you left it too late to even mention respect where I’m concerned, Fareed.”

  “Fine, we won’t mention it. But even though I am thankful for your change of heart—make that flabbergasted by it, not to mention distressed that I have to revise my opinion of you, and of my whole life, and we do have to discuss the past, present and future down to the last detail later—please, go away now.”

  The king went away. Eventually. After the dinner Gwen had invited him to.

  She was sorry she had. Not because it didn’t turn out to be beyond her wildest expectations. It was because Fareed constantly looked about to explode with wanting him gone.

  He didn’t, thankfully, but he kept prodding him with demands to eat faster. He even cut up his food so he’d finish it sooner.

  Now everyone was gone. She was alone with Fareed.

  She wanted to do one thing. Beg. His forgiveness.

  Before she found the words, he said, “Tell me. Everything.”

  Everything was made of one simple statement. “Lyn was with me during that conference party.”

  He looked at her as if he was revisualizing the past. It was as intense a gaze as what had mesmerized her during that conference. And changed her life forever.

&
nbsp; “And Hesham was with me. I walked out, but he stayed behind, approached her.”

  She nodded. “I didn’t notice much that night, but she told me later it was love at first sight.”

  “And the rest is history.”

  She had nothing to add. Not about this. But she had so much to say about everything else.

  Words rushed under pressure. “I never dreamed your father could be this way. Hesham and Lyn made me dread him so much I…”

  He waved away her explanations. “You had every right to expect the worst. I myself can’t believe what happened still, am wondering if he’s biding his time until he can pull something.”

  “I know he won’t. But I wanted to be the one to tell you the whole truth, and…I left it too late.”

  The weight of his gaze increased. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  She’d probably lose everything answering him. She probably had already. But whatever happened, she owed him a full confession. “I believed I’d just pass through your life, and I’d be risking losing Ryan by revealing my weaker claim to him, weaker than yours, let alone your father’s. I did trust you, but I thought if you knew, your father eventually would. But I should have told you. You married me because I didn’t. I was still hoping that my adoption would come through and the marriage would serve its purpose. But we now know Ryan will be safe, so the marriage no longer serves any purpose. Now you can…end it.”

  His eyes had been flaring and subsiding like fanned coals. Now they went almost black. “I gave you the essmuh.”

  “Then…take it back.”

  “It doesn’t work that way. Only you can end it now.”

  So this was it. Moment of truth. He would have never chosen to be her husband. But he would remain in this non-marriage for Ryan’s sake or if she didn’t release him.

  “H-how do I do that?”

  “You just tell me. The rest is just paperwork. It’s the words, the intention, that are binding.”

  She looked at him. The only man she’d ever or would ever love. She’d be forever empty when he left her life. But she’d be destroyed if she clung to him when he didn’t reciprocate.