Page 17 of The Billionaire's Timed Wife

“Don’t worry. I keep my wives within arm’s reach. There’s no defiance a good beating can’t cure. I’m planning to make the engagement official next week. When will you transfer her dowry to me?[28]“

“As soon as we finalize the contract.”

“What are the terms?”

“No returns. If you tire of her after a few months, do whatever you want, just don’t send her back to my house.”

That’s when I stopped listening and ran.

Why does he hate me so much? What have I done, other than being the daughter of the woman who left him, to deserve a life without a single act of kindness? It’s as if he’s been using me all along to punish my mother for leaving him.

Even with all the new restrictions on women’s rights since Sheikh Naim came to power, it’s not common for fathers to despise their daughters the way he does, even if they make it clear that sons are their favorites.

My father went a step further.

He doesn’t just treat me with indifference, like he does my sisters. He’s cruel, as if he spends hours thinking of new ways to humiliate me.

The panic I felt after hearing that conversation sent me wandering aimlessly, until I realized I’d left home and was walking toward the palace. I was in shock, and if I hadn’t runinto Jazmina, I might have fled the city altogether with nothing but the clothes on my back.

She took me to her quarters, and there, I finally broke down and told her everything: about the nightmare that is my life in my father’s house, from what I remember of my mother’s departure to what I overheard today.

Jazmina is the kind of woman who acts quickly. Her mind races ahead of everyone else’s, and I felt calmer once she took charge.

She came up with the idea of calling her brother, saying that Kaled would be the only one brave enough to stand up to my father’s wrath.

And here we are.

The prince’s call inviting us to Paris completely ruined my father’s plan to finalize my engagement, since, on paper, we’re supposed to stay abroad for the next three weeks.

That means my father has broken his promise to the man he’d chosen as my husband.

But what only Jazmina knows is that I’m never going back to Rheadur. She’s going to help me escape.

Not temporarily. Forever.

This trip to Paris will not only save me from a forced engagement but also give me time and means to search for my mother.

Once I find her, I’ll go to America.

I wash my face and stare at my pale reflection in the mirror, replaying what happened yesterday. I don’t know what Jazmina told her brother, but before sunset, a representative from the palace arrived at my house sent by Prince Kaled himself.

He brought a phone with him and handed it to my father, saying the prince wished to speak to him.

Of course, I already knew why. But I was still terrified when I saw the change in my father’s expression.

Hatred.

His entire body radiated fury, and I had no doubt it was aimed at me.

His tone stayed calm, but he tried to argue with the prince, claiming that I shouldn’t travel at that time. Yet he didn’t mention the engagement, and I think I know why.

As the sheikh’s advisor and a close friend of the late ruler, he’s a man of prestige. He has to choose carefully to whom he offers his daughters’ hand.

Even if I’m technically unfit to compete with the women who dream of marrying a sheikh or a prince, my future husband should at least be a man of influence and power, as is customary for marriages among the elite.

The man he chose for me, however, is coarse and unrefined, a merchant with no education or wealth.

Those things wouldn’t matter to me if I loved him, but that would be impossible, since I’ve never even seen him before.