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‘Yes.’
She bit down on her lip. ‘Is it going to be a problem that our wedding is so understated? Perhaps your parents will expect something more substantial?’
‘The size of the wedding had nothing to do with my parents.’
She considered that. ‘Nor with you?’
‘No.’
‘So your fiancée wished to invite all those people.’
‘Yes.’
‘What happened with the two of you? Why did you break up?’
Khalil stopped walking, his hands on his hips as he stared directly ahead. Tension radiated off him in waves. India studied him, knowing she should give him a way ‘out’, tell him it didn’t matter. But curiosity was burning through India, eating her alive.
Finally, he spoke. ‘Fatima is very beautiful, sophisticated, clever, and witty. She made me laugh effortlessly with her dry commentary on our mutual acquaintances. My experience with women, before Fatima, was limited to brief affairs. It had never occurred to me that I might fall in love with a woman, because that is simply not how it’s done for us. My parents’ marriage was arranged by their parents, as was their parents’ before them.’
India could barely breathe, and pricks of light filtered through behind her eyes.
‘She is also very, very ambitious.’
‘And that’s a bad thing?’
‘No, of course not. But her ambition was solely for wealth and power.’
‘Then I suppose it’s fortunate she fell in love with a sheikh.’
‘She didn’t love me.’ The words were spoken quietly, but with all the force of a freight train barrelling towards her. ‘And she taught me an important lesson about love that I will never forget. Love made me weak. Believing myself in love with her blinded me to all her flaws. I stopped seeing her as a real woman. I idealised her. If I hadn’t, I might have anticipated her behaviour. I might have at least known what she was capable of.’
India’s lungs were filled with a rush of hot air. She tried to expel it, drawing breath from deep within. He was speaking about another woman but his indictment of love was like a weight on her chest. ‘What did she do?’
‘What Fatima cared about most in the world was money.’ He spat the word with derision, and even though he was speaking about another woman, her tummy swirled. She knew instantly that she’d been tarred with the same brush the morning after they’d slept together—what else could explain the level of his venomous anger? ‘My personal wealth is no secret. Separate to the royal income, my family has several businesses and holdings abroad. When it came time to negotiate our marriage contract, she asked for a king’s ransom.’
Just as India had.
Heat stung India’s ears and she felt nausea spread through her. She pressed a quivering hand to her brow, nodding, silently encouraging him to continue even when a wave of guilt at having asked him for anything made it difficult to think straight.
‘I had no interest in the negotiations. To me, they were a triviality. Because I was in love.’ He spat the word scathingly. ‘I left the work to my lawyers; that was a mistake. If I was too emotionally invested, they were not nearly enough. They refused many of her requests, argued over things I would never have cared about. The negotiations stretched on and things between Fatima and me grew tense.’
India pulled her lips to the side in a gesture of deep thought. ‘But surely you and she could have talked about it—’
‘She would never have showed her hand to me. She wanted me to think our wedding was all about love for her too. And fool that I was, I believed that. If the wedding had happened, she would have had access to anything she wanted. It wasn’t necessary for her to do it.’
She didn’t need to prompt him. It was obvious that he had disappeared through a time tunnel; he was back in the past, reflecting on the events as they’d happened.
‘Negotiations soured. She presumed I knew and had done nothing to salvage them. To punish me, she had an abortion.’
India’s lips parted on a noise of shock and horror. ‘No.’ The word drained out of her.
His face was ashen. ‘At least, that’s what she said. I don’t know if she made it up to wound me. She certainly hadn’t told me she was pregnant, but that doesn’t mean...’ He shook his head, as if that could wipe his grief and worry. ‘I have been tormented by guilt. If her claim is true, then the negotiations were responsible for the death of my baby. I couldn’t protect my own child.’
But I’ll protect these.
A frissonran down her spine, as understanding shifted in her mind. It was why he’d fought so hard for her to stay in Khatrain, why he needed to see and be near her, to ensure nothing happened during this pregnancy.
‘Your fiancée was responsible, no one else.’
