AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘And you know she can’t attend the event tonight?’
Khalif was going to have to see a dentist before the week was out. And Amin might be paying a visit to the doctor. He opened his mouth to speak when he felt Reza’s hand on his shoulder, as if holding him back from the violence he wanted to inflict.
‘I think we all understand that. In the meantime, let’s take a short break before reconvening for the run-through for tonight’s event.’
The quiet authority of Reza’s tone had the desired effect on his staff and the opposite effect on Khalif.
‘I don’t need you to speak for me,’ he growled.
‘Of course you don’t. But you also don’t need a mutiny on your hands, which is what will happen if you push your staff any harder.’
‘It is no harder than I push myself.’
‘You’re right. It is considerably less. But that doesn’t mean either is manageable.’ His best friend let go of the hold on his shoulder as the last staff member left the room. ‘What are you more afraid of? That she is pregnant or she isn’t?’
‘Does it matter? I couldn’t do this to her,’ he said, finally saying it out loud. ‘I know what it is like to have that freedom taken away and I can’t...’ Khalif shook his head.
‘I know the sacrifices you have—’
‘Sacrifices? I changedeverything! Istoppedeverything.’ Khalif stared at his best friend in disbelief. Finally, after three years, it poured forth. ‘I gave up an international business I had built from scratch, I dropped everything and came home. I buried my brother and Samira in front of the world’s press. I made phone calls and shook hands within hours of their funeral... I did what I had to and would do it again. But Reza, I couldn’tbreathe, let alone grieve in the way I wanted.’ And forwhoI wanted, he finally admitted to himself. ‘This? It’s like being in a straitjacket, folded in on yourself, cramped, confined. The expectation of everyone, the watching, the pressure. How on earth can you think I would willingly put that on someone as innocent as Star?’
Reza stared at him with deep understanding and sympathy. He placed his hand on Khalif’s shoulder, the weight both comforting and steadying. He nodded once and Khalif knew that his best friend understood.
‘Okay,’ Reza said simply. ‘Then let’s talk about how this holographic presentation is going to work, because that is going to blow their minds.’
It felt strange to be back in Khalif’s suite. Especially since everything that had happened between then and now had begun to feel like a dream. She was on the balcony, the late afternoon sun sinking into her skin, warming her pleasantly...but not quite enough.
She rolled her shoulders, bracing her hands against the balustrade, eyes searching the horizon. The view of the city looked a little different now that she knew out there, beyond the stretches of golden sand, the sloping dunes and hazy blue skies, was a desert palace seen only by a few and an oasis that would always be in her heart.
She glanced at the rucksack containing everything she had brought with her and one new item. She had returned the connected pendants to the velvet bag and was yet to be able to wear them, putting off the moment until she truly knew that she would be going home. The necklace now had a double chain, as if it would always acknowledge that it had needed two people to come together to make it whole.
She felt a tide of anxiety washing against her soul, back and forth like the sea. She was nervous for Khalif, knowing how much the reveal of his plans for the memorial meant to him. So much so that she’d borne the look of guilt he’d worn as he’d explained why she couldn’t come to the event that night with understanding and acceptance. Both of which she truly felt. But it had hurt nonetheless.
Yet it hurt in a different way to how she had felt alone in the palace in the desert. This was not the sense of shame and rejection she had felt because of her grandparents, it was more a sense of inevitable ache. A sense of loss that was down to fate rather than intention. Where once Catherine had been forced to do her duty, now it was Khalif’s turn—and Star honestly couldn’t have argued against either.
He’d offered her a way that she could still see the presentation, which she would take, because it was his moment and she wouldn’t take that away from him. Which was why there, on the balcony, facing the desert, she sent a prayer to Catherine and Hatem, and Faizan and Samira, to look out for him that night.
There was a knock on the door. Star had been expecting it, but it still made her jump. She turned back into the room to find Maya closing the door behind her. She smiled at Star, who braced herself.
‘I was hoping you could help me with something. Do you think it’s possible to take the test today and for it still to be accurate?’
Khalif flexed his jaw, hoping to relieve the ache in his cheeks from the perfunctory smiles he’d masked himself in.
Samira’s father, Abbad, had been casting grim glances his way since the first guests had arrived and his wife’s vacant gaze wasn’t any better. The only time he’d felt himself relax was when Nadya had winked at him and run off to play hide-and-seek amongst the legs of the guests. His parents were thankfully preoccupied by small talk with dignitaries and international diplomats.
‘It is a stunning design,’ Reza said quietly, having stuck by his side the entire afternoon.
‘I know.’
‘You should be proud.’
‘And she should behere,’ he growled, his tone grating his throat.
‘There are three hundred people present, the Duratrian press both inside and outside the palace, along with more than a few representatives of the international newspapers. You think that a woman with hair like the sun would go unnoticed in here?’ Reza reminded him. ‘Tonight is about Faizan, Samira...and you.Aftertonight,’ he pressed, ‘is another matter entirely.’
You are wrong, my friend, Khalif thought, no matter how much he wished it weren’t the case.
Khalif stepped up to the podium and the audience grew quiet and turned to face him. He looked out across the faces he could see beneath the bright powerful glare of lighting trained on the stage. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck lift, his heartbeat stumbled and while he didn’t know how, or where, Khalif knew that Star was here. He took a breath.
