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She heard her voice croaking a question that had long burned in the back of her mind. “Are you going to tell me that Shaheen was to blame for this breakup and alienation, too?”
She hadn’t been able to believe the honorable Shaheen could have been responsible for such a rift. Learning of that estrangement after Maysoon’s public humiliation had entrenched her prejudice against Aram, solidifying her view of him as a callous monster who cast the people who cared for him aside.
Though said view had undergone a marked recalibration, she hoped he’d blame Shaheen as he’d blamed Maysoon. This would put him back in the comfortable dark gray zone.
His next words doused that hope.
“No, that was all my doing. But don’t expect me to tell you what I did that was so bad that he fled his own kingdom to get away from me.”
“Why not?” she muttered. “Aren’t you having a disclosure spree this fine night?”
“You expect me to spill all my secrets all at once?” His feigned horror would have been funny if she was capable of humor now. “Then have nothing more to reveal in future encounters?”
“Did I ask you to tell me any secrets? You’re the one who’s imposing them on me.”
His grin was unrepentant. “Let me impose some more on you, then. Just a summation, so grit your teeth and bear it. So…rather than following Maysoon’s advice and latching onto Shaheen’s brothers for financing, connections and clout, I turned down their generous offers. I had the solid plan, the theoretical knowledge and some practical experience, and I was ready to take the world by storm.”
Her sense of fairness reared its head again. “And you certainly did. I am well aware of the global scope of your business management and consultation firm. Many of the major conglomerates I worked with, even whole countries, rely on you to set up, manage and monitor their financial and executive departments. And if you did it all on your own, then you’re not as good as they say—you’re way better.”
Again her testimony seemed to take him by surprise.
His eyes had taken that thoughtful cast again as he said, “Though I’m even more intrigued than ever that you know all that, and I would have liked to take all the credit for the success I’ve achieved, it didn’t happen quite that way. The beginning of my career suffered from some…catastrophic setbacks, to say the least.”
“How so?”
Those brilliant eyes darkened with something…vast and too painful. But when he went on, he gave no specifics. “Well, what I thought I knew—my academic degrees, the experience I had in Zohayd—hadn’t prepared me for jumping off the deep end with the sharks. But I managed to climb out of the abyss with only a few parts chomped off and launched into my plans with all I had. But I wouldn’t have attained my level of success if I hadn’t had the phenomenal luck of finding the exact right people to employ. It was together that we ‘soared so high.’”
Not taking all the credit for his achievements cast him in an even better light. But there was still one major crime nothing he’d said could exonerate.
“So Maysoon might have been wrong—was wrong—about how you made your fortune. But can you blame her for thinking the worst of you? My opening statement in this retrial stands. You didn’t have to be so unbelievably cruel in your public humiliation of her.”
His stare fixed her for interminable moments, something intense roiling in its depths, something like reluctance, even aversion, as if he hated the response he had to make.
Seeming to reach a difficult decision, he beckoned her nearer.
He thought she’d come closer than that to him? Of her own volition? And why did he even want her to?
When she remained frozen to the spot, he sighed, inched nearer himself. She felt his approach like that of an oncoming train, her every nerve jangling at his increasing proximity.
He stopped a foot away, tilted his head back, exposing his neck to her. She stared at its thick, corded power, her mind stalling. It was as if he was asking her to…to…
“See this?” His purr jolted her out of the waywardness of her thoughts. She blinked at what he was pointing at. Three parallel scars, running from below his right ear halfway down his neck. They’d been hidden beneath his thick, luxurious hair. A current rattled through her at the sight of them. They were clearly very old, and although they weren’t hideous, she could tell the injury had been. It was because his skin was that perfect, resilient type that healed with minimum scarring that they’d faded to that extent.
He exhaled heavily. “I ended my deposition at the moment I walked away, thought it enough, that any more was overkill. But seems nothing less than full disclosure will do here.” He exhaled again, his eyes leveled on hers, totally serious for the first time. “Maysoon gave me this souvenir. She wouldn’t let me go just like that. I barely dodged before she slashed across my face and took one eye out.”
Kanza shuddered as the scene played in her mind. She did know how hysterical Maysoon could become. She could see her doing that. And she was left-handed…
“I pushed her off me, rushed to the men’s room to stem the bleeding and had to lock the door so she wouldn’t barge in and continue her frenzy. I got things under control and cleaned myself up, but she poun
ced on me as soon as I left the sanctuary of the men’s room. I couldn’t get the hell out of the palace without crossing the ballroom, and I kept pushing her off me all the way there, but once we got back inside, she started screeching.
“As people gathered, she was crying rivers and saying I cheated on her. I just wanted out—at any cost. So I said, ‘Yes, I’m the bad guy, and isn’t she lucky she’s found out before it was too late?’ When I tried to extricate myself, she flung herself on the ground, sobbing hysterically that I’d hit her. I couldn’t stand around for the rest of her show, so I turned away and left.”
He stopped, drew in a huge breath, let it out on a sigh. “But my deposition wouldn’t be complete without saying that I’ve long realized that I owe her a debt of gratitude for everything she did.”
Now, that stunned her. “You do?”
He nodded. “If her campaign against me hadn’t forced me to leave Zohayd, I would have never pursued my own destiny. My experience with her was the perfect example of assa an takraho sha’an wa howa khairon lakkom.”
