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She ducked under the sheet protecting the special project from view and picked up her paintbrush, trying to lose herself in the rich browns sweeping up the wall. Despite Khalif’s instruction, shedefinitelyneeded a ladder for this, but she had been very careful.
She only had this to finish, and the stars in the bathroom, which was a good thing because in four days they would be returning to Burami for the memorial and to find out if she were pregnant. After one test, she would know whether her life would irrevocably change or go back to how it had been before. For as close as she and Khalif had become in the last few days, she couldn’t deny that he had not spoken of what would happen if she wasn’t pregnant. And she couldn’t shake the feeling that the answer was...nothing. Nothing would happen. She would return to Norfolk as if they had never met.
But, even if that were the case, she knew instinctively that her life would never be the same again. She felt changed. Not just by Khalif, but by Catherine, by Duratra, all of it. It was as if the desert had seeped into her skin and bones and was part of her now.
But, like Catherine, she also knew her duty waited for her back home. She would return to Norfolk with the necklace, they would find the Soames diamonds, sell the estate, her mother would get the treatment she needed and... And then...
For the first time in her life, the thought of returning to the flat she shared with her sisters, and the job she loved so much with the children...it just didn’t seem as exciting as travelling through the desert, or seeing what else was out there in the wide world. Meeting so many different people, all with their own stories.
It struck her then that she hadn’t spoken to either of her sisters for nearly a week. She knew she was avoiding them because she didn’t want to lie to them about the necklace, or about where she was. But she missed them so much. She retrieved her phone and hit the call button, holding it to her ear with one hand while she painted a rich vein of muddy red upwards towards the ceiling.
But as the phone rang and rang she was transported back to a bus stop nearly ten years before. Cold, wet, she shivered even now. An automated voice announced that she had reached Summer’s answering service and the tremor that tripped over her body had her hanging up without leaving a message.
Minutes had turned into hours at that bus stop. She’d sat unseeing, facing the road as it rained, stopped and then rained again. Her mother and sisters hadn’t come for her. And the entire time her grandparents’ voices ran on a loop in her mind.
We want nothing to do with your mother or you. Do not ever come back here.
And that was when Star had realised that reality was a much harder, darker place than stories ever could be.
Khalif hadn’t meant to stay overnight, not that he’d slept for more than three hours, or let his staff sleep much more. But he was anything but exhausted.
Star had been right. He should have spoken to Nadya and Nayla months ago. If his mother had been surprised when he’d asked to see his nieces, she didn’t show it. And neither did they. They’d run to him as if he hadn’t stood them up only days before, they’d run to him as if he hadn’t retreated from them emotionally and physically in the last three years.
He’d spent hours playing with them, building forts from cushions and sheets draped over tables and chairs. He’d smuggled inma’amoul, the semolina cookies that had been a favourite of Samira’s, andghraybeh, the shortbread that his brother had preferred. And as dusk had fallen and their bellies had filled with the sweet treats, he’d talked to Nadya and Nayla about their parents. He’d always imagined that they would find it sad and difficult but the moment he’d said their names the twins chatted away happily. And while it had taken a little while to get used to, time for his heart to get over the initial jolt of shock and unfamiliarity, the girls had launched into a list of the things they remembered about their parents as if they recited it every day.
Nadya had wanted birds, Nayla had wanted flowers, and Khalif had managed to sidestep World War Three by promising that the memorial would have both. He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten how much Samira had loved birds. He had, in the way only adults could, assured himself that the twins couldn’t make a contribution that he hadn’t already thought of. He felt as if he were see-sawing between a sense of sadness, happiness, relief and regret for so much wasted time.
He’d gathered his team together and informed them of the changes—thebigchanges—he wanted them to implement. He was done trying to please everyone else. There was no way that could be done. Trying to second-guess what his parents, Samira’s father and the people of Duratra wanted had only served to dilute all previous ideas and he would not risk that again. And despite the concerned looks that crossed the table from one side to the other about the timeline they had to accomplish those plans, Khalif was finally completely happy with the memorial.
By the time he’d finished the briefing it had been too late, or rather too early in the morning to track down his mother, so he’d returned to his suite, crashed out on his bed fully clothed and woke a few hours later with a thumping headache. He’d showered, dressed in fresh clothes and was a second mouthful of espresso down when he’d watched his father’s cavalcade leave the palace from his balcony. Khalif couldn’t say for sure that he’d purposely missed connecting with his father, but it had made the visit easier. Because he knew instinctively that he could not stand before his father—hisKing—and keep Star’s possible pregnancy from him. Only when he knew for sure...
Unbidden, the image of himself holding a child—hischild—left him winded. Because in all the scenarios that had run through his mind—the practicalities of what would need to happen were Star pregnant—he’d not allowed himself to think of what it would be like to hold his baby in his arms. A baby with Star’s blue eyes and his dark skin. Someone who trusted and loved him implicitly, without question. The weight of that responsibility heavier than a crown or a country.
In that moment, Star’s possible pregnancy morphed from something to be feared to something that he might actually want, might look forward to. And in his mind he saw Star, staring at him with the same trust and love and his heart turned.
His mother had sensed it when he’d sought her out. She’d asked if something had happened and he’d forced his thoughts away from Star herself and instead to the reason she had come to Duratra. When he’d finished explaining what he needed, his mother had seemed surprised and curious, but had done as he’d asked without question.
Now that he turned the last corner on the road to Alhafa, he wondered how Star had been in his absence.
Still not pregnant, he imagined her saying and couldn’t help the smile that formed on his lips.
Entering the palace, he went straight to Nadya and Nayla’s suite. A quick scan told him that she wasn’t there. She wasn’t in her rooms either and the tendril of concern that he’d been away too long began to root in his stomach. The palace felt empty. He quickened his pace and went straight to the staff area, hoping that they would know.
He knocked on Masoud’s office door, surprised to find the man glaring up at him from behind his desk.
‘Your Highness.’
Khalif frowned, the shortness of Masoud’s tone unusually censorious.
‘Have you seen Star?’
‘I might have,’ he said, looking down at the paperwork on his desk.
‘Masoud.’ His tone rich with warning, Khalif glared down at one of his most loyal employees, wondering when Star had enticed him over to her side.
‘Sir, with all due respect—’
‘Masoud, I’m noticing a distinctlackof that due respect,’ Khalif prodded.
