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Ariel turned and looked behind her just briefly. And she saw Brianna looking out from the shadows. She looked nervous. Then she looked very much like she cared how well Riyaz fared.
She did love him. Not Cairo. But Riyaz.
That made Ariel feel much better.
Whatever was happening between the two of them might be complicated, but it was not insurmountable.
And it was clear that Riyaz was the man that Brianna wanted.
“You will remember that years ago my family was betrayed. By a militia that rose up here, but also by the betrayal of the Hart family.”
The words slammed into Ariel’s chest. She had not been prepared for him to mention her family.
“Ariel Hart was promised to be my bride at the time, and her father took money to betray my parents. But we have done work to restore that which was destroyed. We will not live in the past. We will not live for revenge. My brother, Sheikh Cairo al Hadid, has taken her as his wife. I myself will take a bride in the coming weeks. But that will be a separate announcement for a separate time. You are free. And the indignities that you have suffered these long years will not go on. We will move forward. Strong and united. With my brother at the head of the military, we will also be undefeated. We will be victorious.”
And now it was Cairo’s turn.
“My brother addressed the betrayal of the Hart family. And we want to make sure that you know that we stand with you. We do not forget the indignity that you have suffered. Riyaz himself was chained up in a dungeon the last sixteen years. But he survived. For the sake of this country. So it is not lightly that we reconcile in this moment. But it is essential that we do so. But we cannot live in the past. Here in the darkness. My marriage to Ariel is a representation of all that we can be. All that we will overcome.” He kissed her hand. Right there in front of the crowd, and it sent her heart soaring. The people cheered, and the royal family left the balcony. And she knew that this would be a day that would live in the history of this country forever.
This was the light at the end of a very dark tunnel. And she felt nothing but pride at the way that Cairo had made this happen.
It was so easy to get bound up in the personal component of the past. What her father had done.
And it was easy to not fully give credit to the work that Cairo had done to heal it. To heal all of this.
He had been tireless. But he had made this moment happen. He had.
And she...
She chose him. She chose this life. This life that this man had fought so hard for. These people that he had never forgotten. His brother that he would never abandon.
She admired all of it so. She... She loved him.
The simple truth was she had a life made of freedom. All of the freedom that she could possibly desire. Her father hadn’t been in her life anymore, and her mother hadn’t really either. It had been up to her to do whatever she wanted. And she had... She had never fully moved on from Cairo. She couldn’t have him. She didn’t want anybody. And as she looked at her husband’s profile, she dimly wondered if he had done similar, just opposite. If he couldn’t have her he would have everybody. And maybe that was aggrandizing her a bit, but she couldn’t let go of the fact that consistently, she was his weakness. Consistently, she was the area where he did not put his brother before everything else.
It made her smile. Even if just slightly.
And it made her certain. That no matter what he had said... No matter what he claimed about loving her...
She loved him. She loved him with all that she was. And she wanted... She wanted him.
Forever.
This wasn’t Stockholm syndrome. She had fallen in love with him when they were children. They were fated. And so many people had stepped in the way to try and keep them from happening. To keep their love from being fully realized. But they didn’t allow it.
She wouldn’t allow it.
Circumstances might have made him hard and dark. Circumstances might have made it difficult for him to know what love was, but that did not mean that she should lose hope. Because for sixteen years, she had carried a candle for him. For sixteen years he had been the only thing. And if a separation, the presumption of death couldn’t banish that, she wouldn’t let anything else destroy it either.
She felt dizzy. Like she had made vows yet again. Like this was a renewal in her soul. Something that she hadn’t anticipated. She had loved him. Of course she had. For all these years. From the time she was a girl she had loved him. She had loved him with all that she was.
But this was... Admitting it. Claiming it. And owning her piece of it. Even if she could leave now, she wouldn’t. She was not a prisoner, because she was deciding she wasn’t a prisoner, not because of what Cairo had given her. Not because of anything other than her own choice.
She was choosing this. Choosing him.
But when it was time for them to go to bed again that night, he did not come to her room. And when she went to his... He wasn’t there.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
