Page 108 of The Billionaire's Timed Wife

She doesn’t cry again—the pain has been replaced by anger, which is a good thing. Anger will make her strong.

“Now, will you lie with me for a while? I don’t want to sleep alone,” she says, scooting over.

I eye the narrow hospital bed, unsure it will hold us both, but there’s nothing she could ask now that I wouldn’t do.

I fit myself in as best I can, and the moment I cradle her delicate body in my arms, I can breathe properly for the first time since this began.

The storm inside me, however, doesn’t subside.

More than a promise, finding the culprit is my life’s mission now.

Chapter 48

“I did as you ordered. The palace has been locked down until further notice. No one is allowed to leave until we catch the culprit. We’re also reviewing the security footage, Your Highness,” my head of security reports.

“That’s not enough. Close the borders. No one enters or leaves Rheadur.”

I’m in a room adjacent to my wife’s hospital suite, with my father and Amin.

It’s been less than five minutes since I left Adeela asleep beside her mother. I needed to act, even though every instinct in me screams to go back to her.

The conversation is interrupted by Amin’s phone ringing. He steps aside to answer, then returns a minute later.

“We’ve located the woman who served your wife the tea. She admitted preparing it herself. I’m going to interrogate her.”

“No. I want the police present, and I’ll be there too. If she requests counsel, appoint a public defender. Everything willproceed according to the law, but she and her accomplices will know, every step of the way, that mercy is not an option.”

I listen as the woman, Sajida, sobs while confessing, but there’s no room in my heart for pity.

“Mercy, my sheikh. I didn’t know what I was doing. My husband’s unemployed . . .” She looks at me for the first time.

“Stop. Nothing you say will change your fate.”

I could kill her and the one who ordered it with my bare hands.

I glance at my father, who’s sitting motionless. His expression is unreadable, but I know he’s shaken too, because he understands the days ahead will test our family like never before. No matter how much I love him, or how I’d normally do anything to spare him grief, nothing will stop me from avenging my wife and our unborn child.

“Take her to the next room. Guard her. She’s not to be left alone for a single second. Bring the mastermind before me tomorrow morning. Until then, both of them are under house arrest. Don’t let them out of sight for an instant.”

Amin’s eyes widen, darting between me and my father. I know why. I’ve just ordered my stepmother’s arrest.

Finally, he nods and leaves.

“Are you all right?” I ask.

“If you mean my heart, yes. I’m not unwell.”

“Good.” There’s no diplomatic way to say what must be said, so I choose honesty. “There will be no forgiveness. Eiza will be tried as the criminal she is.”

Sajida confessed that she knew the tea she brewed and served my wife was abortive, but she claimed she only did it because her husband was jobless, she needed the money, and the former sheikh’s first wife, Eiza, blackmailed her.

She didn’t take long to spill everything. What she said merely filled in the details. My security chief had already retrieved footage that proved her guilt.

Once the technicians knew what to look for, they found several clips of her and Eiza whispering together in the palace corridors.

It was providential that Amin had reinstated full surveillance after the attempt on my mother-in-law’s life.

I pressed the maid about the scorpion, but I’m convinced she had nothing to do with that. Which doesn’t mean Eiza wasn’t behind it.