Page 65 of Liam

Fawzaana moved closer to the bed, her hands hidden in the folds of her sleeves and Taamira’s guard rose, her senses tingling at the way Fawzaana was looking at her. The woman kept looking at Liam in the bed and it was unnerving her, she needed to get Fawzaana’s attention back on her.

“Fawzaana, speak, or I will call Waggs to escort you out.”

Fawzaana glanced up at her at the same time she withdrew a deadly looking knife from her sleeve. “I don’t think you will, or Liam will not survive the next attack.”

Taamira gripped Liam’s hand, her other coming up towards Fawzaana. “What are you doing?”

Suddenly things began to make sense, the inside job, the way the person had such close access to her nieces.

“If you want something done, do it yourself. Isn’t that the saying? I want you to die, but first, you will watch him die like I had to watch my love die.”

“You and Mustafa?”

Fawzaana laughed, but it was hollow and empty. “I have loved him since the day we met, but I had to marry Abdul. It was what my family decreed, and a good Eyan woman does not go against her family. Yet, you could always do as you pleased. The Crown Princess had different rules than the rest of us.”

“Why did you not tell your family? Abdul would not have forced it if he had known.”

Fawzaana looked at her as her hand inched closer to Liam’s side, where his heart beat, the hatred on her face turning her features ugly. “Silly girl, you do not say no to a future king. Mustafa had it all planned, we would run away, but then I got pregnant with Najwa, and our plans changed! Then Mamina came along. Your stupid father underestimated me, but when you started to rebel, we saw a way to destabilise the family.”

Taamira fought the snarl at the hate-filled words aimed at her father. “Is Mustafa Najwa and Mamina’s father?”

“Of course he isn’t. I am not a fool. I needed my daughters to have royal blood for my plan to work.”

“What was the plan?” Taamira asked as Liam’s fingers flexed in hers.

He was awake but staying still as if he still slept. Taamira feared he would do something to save her and get himself killed for real this time.

“To dishonour you. We paid the men on the island to kidnap you, and when your father authorised the ransom, Abdul gave his trusted guard the order. Unfortunately, it did not translate, but then those men saved you.”

“How would dishonouring me help you?” Taamira swallowed the bile that another woman could order that sort of attack on a sister.

“It would distance you even further from the family and make Abdul more malleable. He has always been easy to manipulate, but you were his adored sister, and everything came back to you. There were a number of times I had to convince him to do things a certain way instead of following what you would want.”

“I still do not understand. How did that help you and Mustafa?” The knife was resting against Liam’s ribcage now, the vicious-looking blade touching his skin.

“With you dead, the King would have a nasty heart attack. We would all mourn then a few months later, a tragic accident would befall Abdul, leaving his underage daughter the sole heir to the Eyan throne.”

“Meaning you would be Queen Regent until she was of age.”

“Now you understand, but you killed the man I love, and now I must do the same to you.”

“You will never get away with this. Men are outside the door, if you hurt Liam they will come running.”

“None of it matters anymore. I would rather die than live without him.”

“Fawzaana, do not say that. What about Najwa and Mamina? They need you.”

“No, they do not, they always favoured their father over me.”

Taamira couldn’t deny that because it was true.

“Say goodbye.”

Fawzaana moved suddenly, and Taamira screamed and dove across the bed, but Liam had grabbed hold of Fawzaana’s wrist in a lethal grip, twisting it so the knife clattered to the ground.

Mitch and Waggs burst through the door and subdued a screaming Fawzaana, who held her mangled wrist to her chest.

“Liam, are you okay? Did she hurt you?” Her hands were all over his body, looking for injury as he groaned.