The Sheikh’s Forced Bride(29)
Raising his hands, Khalid said, “The mockery is in the arrangement. This woman loves another man, yet is being asked to give up her happiness and for what? For nothing more than an alliance? One that could easily be worked out on paper. This makes no sense. Everyone, thank you for attending, but once again, you will not be witnessing a wedding. It is one thing to arrange a marriage when the bride and groom are agreeable to such a thing. But to force a woman into a marriage she does not desire will dishonor my family with a partnership based on lies. My father sees tradition. I see injustice. I will honor traditions when it is wise to do so, but when tradition threatens only sorrow, I must do what I can to change the way of things. Father, we must look to the future—and our future is one best served by undoing what is unjust.”
Mehmood’s face reddened. He sputtered. Khalid kept his stare on his father’s face. The sultan was frowning, but had not ordered Khalid to be dragged from the room. Nor had he asked where Zaid was. Both were good signs.
Khalid started to relax, and then the woman standing next to him pulled back her veil. Gasps echoed around the room. Khalid turned and stared down at Casey’s face and her bright, blue eyes. “I guess now is the time I should explain I’m not Fadiyah.”
“Where is my daughter? What have you done with her?” Mehmood demanded. He stormed forward.
The sultan lifted a hand. “I think it is time to take this to my office. Khalid, you and your…that American follow me. Mehmood, you will come as well. Everyone else, please wait and I will arrange for refreshments to be sent in.”
Turning, the sultan strode away, his robes swirling.
Khalid turned to Casey and held out a hand. “I thought I told you I had this handled.”
She smiled at him, but the expression seemed hard. “Seems we had the same idea.” Pushing past him, she followed the sultan. And Khalid couldn’t help but frown—she had not taken her hand.
Once the door to the sultan’s study closed, the sultan faced Khalid. “Explain this farce.”
Khalid shrugged. “Did you not choose your own wife, my mother? But you expect others to accept your choices in all things. Zaid was willing to do this, but once I learned that Fadiyah’s heart belongs to another, I could not allow her life to be ruined.”
The sultan turned on Mehmood. “Is this true? Your daughter has affections for another? Why did you say nothing of this?
Mehmood spread his hands. “Fadiyah is but a girl. She sees a man who works security here in the palace and makes him into something more. It is nothing more than a fancy. She is a dutiful daughter and will make a good, obedient wife.”
“So obedient she runs off first chance she gets,” Casey muttered.
The sultan picked up his phone and barked out orders to bring Fadiyah and whoever might be with her back to the palace. Casey’s eyes sparked and she opened her mouth to say something more, but Khalid stepped forward—he would have his father’s wrath upon him, not Casey. “Father, this plan was all mine and mine alone.”
“That’s not true,” Casey said, the words sputtering out.
Khalid shot her a frown. She glared back at him, then glanced at the sultan. “I told Fadiyah I’d help her—and I did. And she really is in love with Hazim.”
“My head of security?” The sultan sat down with a thump in his desk chair. “Has all the world gone mad?”
Turning to Mehmood, Khalid asked, “Tell me, Mehmood, if my father said he sees Hazim as almost another son—for the man has been with our family forever—if a marriage there would bring you an alliance to our family, would you be happy with that?”
Mehmood shifted on his feet. He glanced from Khalid to the sultan and then said, “Does not every father wish to see his child happy?”The sultan stood. “I am done talking. Mehmood, go and find your daughter when she is returned and see her settled with her Hazim. You have my word such a marriage is as good as marriage into my family. It may not make your grandson sultan, but I can tell you this—you are fortunate not to have any of my sons in your family for they are nothing but trouble.”
Mehmood opened his mouth as if he would say something, but he snapped it closed, bowed and left the room.
The sultan turned to Khalid. “What did I ever do to be cursed with a son such as you?”
Khalid laughed. The sultan stiffened, and Casey turned to stare at him, but Khalid had realized the utter truth in Casey’s words—he was his father’s son. Khalid knew he could easily have turned into a despot such as his father was if he lacked the help of someone at his side to show him a better way. He glanced at Casey, but now was not yet the time to speak to her. First, he must calm his father and prevent any of his father’s anger falling on Casey or on his brothers.