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Chapter 4
THE BUTTERFLIES THAT EXPLODED inside Millie now had nothing to with Zafar. She stared into a pair of eyes so similar to his, so familiar, and fought a wave of nausea.
“I don’t understand,” Farrah’s smile faltered. “Is this some kind of joke?”
Millie dug her fingernails into her palms, searching for words. “No,” was the best she could come up with it.
Farrah stood, pacing across the enormous bedroom, her slim figure encased in a couture dress perfectly suited to one of the wealthiest princesses in the world. Millie knew though that her best friend was far more comfortable in hip-hugging jeans and over-sized t-shirts, that she loved nothing more than traipsing the length of Portobello road in search of the perfect Falafel pita bread, their favourite weekend activity. Her throat hurt with the burden of all the tears she’d been holding in.
“You’re telling me you’ve been seeing my brother?” Hurt was clear on Farrah’s face.
“I — sort of. It’s complicated.” Her stomach rolled. “It was a mistake.”
“You don’t say,” Farrah muttered. “I mean, I love Zafar, but he’s the last guy in the world I’d want to see you with. He will never make you happy. What were you thinking?”
Millie’s heart dropped to her toes. “It’s hard to explain.”
“Well, try.” Farrah pursed her lips together, her hands on her hips, before she sighed, stalking to a fridge in the corner and removing two bottles of mineral water. She handed one to Millie, taking a seat opposite her.
When Millie didn’t speak, Farrah prompted her. “How did it start? When? How long were you seeing him?”
Millie unfurled the lid of her drink, taking relief from her first ice cold sip. “Do you remember when I came here that summer?”
“Oh my God. It’s been going on that long?”
“No, no,” Millie shook her head, her blond hair fluffing around her face like a cloud. “But that’s when it started. I was still so messed up about Jack,” Millie said quietly, remembering that terrible time in her life, less than a year after her twin brother’s death.
“That’s why I invited you here,” Farrah reminder her quietly, reaching out and putting a hand on Millie’s knee.
Millie’s smile was watery. “I know. It was so kind of you.”
“Kind, please. You’re my best friend. I wasn’t going to leave you in the midst of all that grief.”
“And you had to come back here for your attainment,” Millie remembered softly. It was a tradition in Abu Qara that all children of the royal family spend three months being trained specifically in the ways of ruling the country, before being officially ‘attained’ as heirs.
Farrah nodded, waiting for Millie to continue.
“I know you spent as much time with me as you could, but you had a heap going on. I didn’t mind. I was so glad to be out of England, away from my mother and a home where everything reminded me of him. I was determined to see as much as I could while you studied. I explored everywhere.” Her cheeks grew warm as she remembered the afternoon, one week after landing in Abu Qara, when she’d found herself in a room filled with treasures, ancient statues and tapestries, paintings and jewels. She hadn’t realised that she’d made it so deep into the palace, that she’d come to a room no one was supposed to access. “One day, Zafar found me.” He’d been informed by palace security, in fact, and had come to throw her out. “We got talking.” Despite the fact Millie had barely opened up to anyone about Jack’s death, she found herself talking to Zafar about it, unburdening herself completely, and he’d listened, and somehow, talking to him had made a part of her feel whole again. “I guess we clicked or something,” she lifted her shoulders, hating that banal way of describing what she’d felt.
In truth, for Millie, it had been love at first sight. She’d been overwhelmed by him. His physical beauty and strength, his powerful athleticism, his easy command, his intelligent observations, his empathy. She’d been thrown into the middle of a storm-ravaged ocean; what hope had she to swim?
“Why didn’t you tell me this at the time?” Farrah’s hurt was obvious, and Millie perfectly understood. Keeping secrets was something they’d never done, and this was a huge one.
“I hated lying to you,” Millie’s lip quivered. “It all happened so quickly. Zafar and I spent an afternoon talking and then somehow, that turned into dinner.” She shrugged. “When he kissed me, I just —,”
Farrah screwed her face up and Millie understood why. They were like sisters. How strange for Farrah to think of Millie making out with Farrah’s half-brother!
“I’m sorry,” Millie said quietly.
Farrah nodded, her features gentle. She put a hand on Millie’s. “If you’d come to me then, I would have told you something I presumed you already knew. My brother – as much as I love him dearly – is a serial womaniser. He has been since he was a teenager. He’s far too handsome. Women have always fallen at his feet. I never had any idea of you being one of them.”
Millie’s heart cracked. “I didn’t know,” she agreed softly. “At the time, I was just…overwhelmed by him. I’d never known anyone with his charisma and magnetism. And after Jack, and feeling so devastated for so long, it felt good to be happy. He did make me happy, Farrah.”
Farrah evidently decided that less was more when it came to sermonising on her brother’s tendencies. “I’m sure he did.”
“But I had university, and we ended it.” Millie glossed over the truth of that afternoon, the depth of her heartbreak. Given her impending marriage to Zafar – and obviously she had to marry him, she saw that, even though it was paved with uncertainty and doubt, difficulties everywhere – she wanted to paint as rosy a picture as possible for Farrah.
“I see,” Farrah murmured, scanning Millie’s face.
