Chapter 10 - The Brother Who Wasn’t
Khalid said nothing for almost ten seconds.
Then he laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because sometimes the mind rejects a truth before the heart can feel it.
“Amina.”
She lowered her eyes.
“Don’t.”
“Khalid—”
“My father raised me.”
“Yes.”
“He gave me his name.”
“Yes.”
“He made me heir.”
“Yes.”
“Then whatever you’re about to say better be worth destroying a dead man’s memory.”
Amina’s voice shook.
“He knew.”
That stopped him.
“He knew what?”
“That you weren’t his biological son.”
Khalid gripped the back of a chair.
“Who was?”
Amina looked toward Farid.
The old doctor opened a locked drawer.
He removed a sealed envelope.
Inside were medical records.
Birth certificates.
A handwritten confession.
Farid placed them on the table.
“Princess Mariam was nineteen when she fell in love with a palace officer named Omar Haddad.”
Samir’s surname.
Khalid noticed immediately.
“Samir?”
Farid shook his head.
“His younger brother.”
Khalid stared.
Amina continued.
“Omar was a soldier. Intelligent. Loyal. But not royal.”
“My grandfather refused?”
“He never knew.”
“Then what happened?”
“Mariam became pregnant.”
Maya sat slowly.
Amina continued.
“Sheikh Hassan was her childhood friend. When he discovered the pregnancy, he offered to marry her.”
Khalid’s face tightened.
“He raised another man’s child?”
“He loved your mother.”
“Where was Omar?”
Farid answered.
“Killed before you were born.”
“How?”
Amina looked at him.
“A training accident.”
Khalid’s eyes narrowed.
“That sounds familiar.”
“It should.”
“Was Kareem involved?”
Farid nodded slowly.
“We believe so.”
Maya whispered, “Why?”
“Because Omar discovered Kareem’s first smuggling network.”
Khalid paced away.
“So Kareem killed my biological father, then twenty-six years later killed my mother?”
“We believe he arranged both.”
Khalid turned toward Samir, who had insisted on being brought from the hospital and now sat weakly near the doorway.
“You knew Omar was my father.”
Samir looked at him.
“Yes.”
Khalid walked toward him.
“You watched me grow up.”
“Yes.”
“You never told me.”
“I promised Mariam.”
“He was your brother.”
Tears entered Samir’s eyes.
“Yes.”
Khalid looked away.
Maya felt something strange settle inside her.
If Omar Haddad was Khalid’s father, and someone else was hers, then she and Khalid were not full siblings.
Perhaps not siblings at all.
She looked at Amina.
“Who was my father?”
Amina stood.
“Mariam loved Omar all her life.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
“Years after Sheikh Hassan married her, their relationship became genuine. They cared for each other deeply.”
“Was Hassan my father?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Amina whispered, “Your father was Prince Tariq Al-Rashid.”
Khalid’s head snapped around.
“My uncle?”
Samir closed his eyes.
Maya stared.
“Princess Mariam had a child with her husband’s brother?”
Amina shook her head.
“It wasn’t an affair.”
Maya went cold.
“What does that mean?”
Amina struggled for words.
Farid stepped in.
“Mariam was attacked.”
Silence.
Maya’s stomach turned.
Amina grabbed her hands.
“Maya, she loved you. From the moment she knew you existed, she loved you.”
Maya pulled away.
“Did Tariq—”
“No,” Amina said quickly. “Not willingly.”
Maya stared.
Farid explained.
“Mariam had been drugged at a diplomatic retreat. Tariq claimed he had also been drugged.”
Khalid frowned.
“Claimed?”
“Nobody ever proved what happened.”
Amina’s face hardened.
“But Mariam believed Kareem arranged it.”
“Why?”
“To create a scandal capable of destroying the entire succession.”
Khalid whispered, “And if the child became known…”
“Your enemies could claim the royal family was corrupt, unstable, unfit to rule.”
Maya laughed bitterly.
“So everyone decided I should disappear.”
“No,” Amina said.
“Mariam decided you should live.”
Maya’s eyes filled.
The distinction hurt.
Farid handed her another letter.
It was addressed:
To my daughter Yasmin.
Maya opened it.
The handwriting matched the archive letters.
My beautiful girl,
If you ever read this, then I failed to give you the life I wanted.
You were born from cruelty, but you are not cruelty.
You are not shame.
You are not a scandal.
You are my daughter.
And I loved you before I ever saw your face.
Maya stopped reading.
Her tears fell onto the page.
Khalid turned away, jaw trembling.
Amina embraced Maya.
This time Maya didn’t resist.
Then a phone rang upstairs.
One of Khalid’s guards answered.
Moments later he ran down.
“Your Highness.”
Khalid wiped his face.
“What?”
“The palace council has called an emergency session.”
“Why?”
The guard hesitated.
“Minister Kareem has accused you of illegally detaining foreign guests, hiding an unknown woman inside the royal residence, and becoming mentally unstable.”
Khalid laughed once.
“He’s moving against me.”
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“He says he has proof Maya is part of a conspiracy to seize the throne.”
Maya slowly lifted her head.
May you like
The guard swallowed.
“And Princess Noura is publicly supporting him.”
