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Though they were fast at Pret, she lifted her phone out of her bag once more to skim the morning’s news while she waited.
It was just a small link, at the bottom of the headline page she’d surfed to, but she’d know Layth’s face if it was printed as the size of a pin. Her finger trembled as she clicked on the image, and her foot tapped impatiently as she waited for the page to load.
Finally, it did.
It’s official! Takisabad Royal Names Bride After Months of Speculation.
Cassie’s heart was hardly beating. She skimmed the first paragraph, her face flushing as she saw Arja’s beautiful eyes staring back at her. The report confirmed that Layth and Arja had finalised details for their wedding the previous day and that they were intending to formally marry within a fortnight.
Cassie’s chest was burning. Her eyes were stinging. Coffee forgotten, she stumbled backwards from the crowd. Agent Two was instantly alert.
“Madam, what is it?”
“Leave me alone. Please,” she whispered, her brain firing rapidly with all the implications of this discovery.
Layth was to marry Arja.
He had made arrangements before it had occurred to him that Cassie might be pregnant.
Cassie lifted a hand to her stomach with a sense of terror and panic.
It changed everything.
“Madam,” Agent Two was whispering. “It is time to return to the hotel.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Don’t touch me. And do not tell me what to do.”
She looked out onto the early morning street. Traffic was barely moving, but it would be soon.
She sent Agent Two a desperate look and began to walk quickly towards the do
or. When he followed, she made a noise of impatience and turned to face him.
Her brain was hurting. Her body was cold. She wrenched the enormous ring Layth had given her from her finger and threw it at Agent Two. “Give this to Layth. Tell him I never want to see him again.” Agent Two bent to pick the diamond up from the middle of the footpath, and while he was distracted, Cassie hailed a cab.
Agent Two was quick but not quick enough.
Cassie slipped into the back of the taxi and leaned forward. “Please hurry. I need to get away from that man.”
Apparently her driver had long-harboured secret fantasies of being part of a spy drama, because he took to the theme with great alacrity. The black cab screeched away from the footpath and onto the road. Cassie looked behind her, and saw Agent Two speaking into a small communication device he always carried.
She collapsed down in the seat, her mind spinning.
Engaged!
She thought back to the day before, when she’d returned from her jog. He’d been pleased to see her. Relieved. He’d started to speak to her, but then she’d seen the lipstick and become ill.
And that had sparked a whole new vein of thought.
He had become engaged to Arja.
And now he was worried that Cassie might have a baby within her belly. His baby.
“Where to, love?” The cabbie asked over his shoulder.
“Oh.” She blinked. That was a great question. “Don’t suppose you feel like driving me up to Ostwery?”
“Where’s that, eh?”
