The Sheikh’s Secret Son(25)

“You know why I didn’t want them to meet,” she reminded her sister.

“Listen,” Amy insisted in the Sheikh’s private quarters, “regardless of what your reasons were, they are together now, and you owe it to both of them, and to yourself, to be a part of it.” She pushed her sister. “It’s so obvious how much you still care for Zaid. Do you really want to give that up? Now, get over there and act like that’s your family, because it is.”

Rebecca gave in and sat on the couch on the other side of their son. “Do you guys mind if I join in?” she asked.

“Uh-oh,” Zaid said through the action figure in his hand. “Mommy’s onto us, kid. We have to hide.”

The boys laughed and moved their action figures to hide them. As soon as the toys were out of the way, Zaid looked at Rebecca and said, “We’re fine now. What’s up?”

She’d never seen that look on his face, the utter happiness he seemed to be feeling with his son there next to him. He was glowing, as he gave her a silly smile.

“I just wanted to know if I could play,” Rebecca said.

Zaid looked at Calum, who was hiding his action figure behind his back, and asked the boy, “What do you think? Should we let your mother in?” he asked.

Calum nodded with a big smile, and the three started playing together.

Rebecca began to realize what she had been missing as well. She saw before her the opportunity to finally have a real family.





11





After Calum and Zaid played together for a while and the excitement of it all began to wear off a bit, Rebecca noticed Calum start rubbing his eyes. When he snatched his action figures back from Zaid and refused to play anymore, Rebecca decided it was time to cut things short.

“Kiddo,” Rebecca said, “it looks like it is somebody’s bedtime. Are you feeling tired?”

“Uh-huh,” Calum said with a little whine to his voice and nodded his head.

Zaid scooped him up in his big arms. “He can sleep in my bed,” Zaid whispered.

“That’ll be fine,” Rebecca agreed.

“I’m feeling pooped, too,” Amy chimed in. “I can stay here with him while you two go grab a bite to eat. I imagine you have a lot to talk about after today.”

Rebecca cocked an eyebrow at Zaid. “We do,” she agreed.

“A lot,” Zaid added. “Are you sure you don’t mind?” he asked Amy.

“Not at all. We have this down, don’t we kiddo” she asked as she reached to rub his back. “We’ll be fine.” She looked around the Sheikh’s quarters. “Besides, this is like an apartment. You’ve got everything I could possibly need in here.”

“And you can call us,” Zaid added, “if you need anything. Please don’t hesitate.”

Rebecca watched as Zaid carried Calum to his bedroom with Amy to help them get situated. When he came back out, he looked at her. “Just to make it easy, you want to go up to the terrace again?” he asked.

She smiled. “I’d love to.”

Once they reached the rooftop terrace, Zaid took out his phone and called the palace chef. They ordered food and wine, and talked while they waited.

“He’s big,” Zaid said.

Rebecca laughed. “What did you expect? He’s four.”

“Yeah, but I always imagined meeting my son while he was an infant. I never imagined meeting a child of mine after he was already that old.”

She felt a pang of regret. “I’m really sorry,” she told Zaid. “I panicked and didn’t know what to do. You know, what we had back then was great, and I would have loved for it to last, but at the end of the day, the simple fact remained that our lifestyles were not compatible. You’re royalty. You’re the Sheikh for crying out loud. And I’m an activist of sorts. I’m out there every day trying to help people fix problems like oppression and poverty. The two don’t exactly go hand in hand, you know?”

“But they can,” Zaid suggested. “We’ve already seen that here, with you helping to point out what’s wrong in Sharjah so that I can fix it.”

“I was afraid you were going to say that,” she said with a nervous laugh. “And I’m still angry with you for going behind my back and bringing Calum here. He is much too young to be drawn into any of this and Amy…I …” Rebecca couldn’t finish that sentence. “What if something had happened to the plane? Or worse?” She didn’t even want to contemplate what would be worse than a plane crash.

“You’re right. It was thoughtless of me. I apologize.”

The wine arrived just in time to distract them from the conversation.