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Anger flashed in the sheikh’s blue eyes. “What right do you have to say that?” he demanded coldly. “You were the one who turned me down. You were the one who married another man—-”
“I know.” Bitter regret underscored Cecile’s voice. “I think of it every night. I cry about it inside here—-” She pounded her chest with her fist. “—-every damn night.”
“I don’t give a damn.”
“But you do—-” She forced her shaking knees to work as she rose from the chair. “And we both know it.” Her voice grew urgent. “And I’m telling you now – I’ve been telling you all this time – I want a second chance with you.”
“It’s too late—-”
“I love you—-”
“And so does she,” he said harshly. “I’ve pushed her away more times than I can bear to remember, but she’s never stopped loving me. She knows I love someone else, and it hasn’t made her turn her back on me.” He watched Cecile’s exquisite face grow increasingly pale with every word he uttered, and he had to force himself to do nothing.
“R-Rayyan.”
But the way the sheikh was staring at her made it seem like he was a stranger, and she had lost all right to think of him as hers.
“You promised.” Vines of fear wrapped around her heart at seeing him turn his back on her. “You p-promised, damn you. You promised.” Her voice broke. “You said you’d love me forever.” But not once did he look back, and fear turned into cowardice as she closed her eyes, unable to bear the sight of him walking away from her – this time for good.
Aisha was already waiting in the hallway when the sheikh stepped out of the conference room. “You’ve taken care of it?” he asked abruptly.
“Nem, alshaykh.” CCTV footage of whatever had taken place the past thirty minutes inside the conference room had been edited, with no one the wiser.
Giving the agent a curt nod of thanks, he then instructed her to stand guard and make the appropriate excuses to keep anyone from entering the conference room until Cecile had properly recovered.
And after that, despite still hearing the faintest sound of Cecile weeping inside the room, despite having the sight of her in pain burning in his mind – he forced himself to walk away.
It was what he owed Hyacinth.
It was the least he could do.
And he hoped to God that the day would never come he’d end up hating her for all these things he was forcing himself to do – and all because he felt guilty about not being able to love her back.
Eighteen
Sex was supposed to solve everything, or so Hyacinth had tried to convince herself, but reality sadly taught her otherwise. The months that followed seesawed from blissful to dreadful, depending on how big the latest elephant Mrs. B had sent to their room.
Three months ago, a major scandal broke out when one of the kingdom’s most prominent construction developers had been charged with fraud, bribery, and embezzlement, among many others. The large-scale scam perpetrated by Jacob Bauer, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, had been discovered by a special task force jointly overseen by the kingdom’s defense and finance departments.
More sensationalized headlines soon followed, with media having swooped in to dig up more dirt and consequently unearthing evidence of Bauer’s womanizing past and how he had been cheating on his wife for years.
Outraged by the news, Prince Arthur privately expressed his displeasure to his ex-lover and made it clear that he expected their daughter to divorce Bauer, a man whom he had ironically handpicked as Cecile’s bridegroom. But since the prince’s son-in-law was never the type to stay on a sinking ship, Jacob had retaliated with blackmail, saying he would reveal the truth of Cecile’s parentage if their divorce pushed through.
All this, Hyacinth had learned from Rayyan himself, whom Prince Arthur had come to rely on since he was the only other person in the royal family who knew of his predicament.
“So what now?” Hyacinth tried to keep her voice cheerful and unsuspecting even as the food in her mouth suddenly tasted like lead. With Anisah away on another educational conference, tonight was one of the few nights they could spend together, and she had been looking forward to it for so long.
It was supposed to be romantic, starting with a private dinner in his suite, but everything was ruined now, her appetite disappearing the moment she saw that look in his eyes.
“My uncle wishes me to speak with Cecile on his behalf,” Rayyan said softly.
And he wanted to do it, she thought, because even now, he still felt guilty about the way Hyacinth had forced him to completely cut ties with her.
At her prolonged silence, the sheikh’s voice turned exasperated as he asked, “Surely you do not think we’d do anything else?”
