Chapter 2 - The Locked Room
Khalid grabbed Samir’s arm.
“My mother died in a car accident.”
Samir didn’t pull away.
“That was the official story.”
Maya stopped breathing.
Khalid released him slowly.
His mother, Princess Mariam, had died when he was ten.
Everyone in the country knew the story.
A storm.
A mountain road.
A driver who lost control.
A royal tragedy.
Khalid had built half his life around that version of events.
“You waited twenty-six years to tell me this?”
Samir looked ashamed.
“I waited twenty-six years to stay alive.”
Khalid’s expression turned deadly.
“Start talking.”
“Not here.”
Khalid opened a hidden panel beside a painting.
A narrow staircase appeared.
Maya stared.
Samir whispered, “The old archive.”
They descended beneath the palace.
The air changed immediately.
Cool stone.
Dust.
Silence.
Khalid led them through two locked gates before stopping outside an iron door.
A falcon surrounded by three stars had been carved above it.
The same symbol as the pendant.
Maya stared.
“My mother knew this place.”
Samir nodded.
“She knew more than most ministers.”
Khalid inserted a palace key into the lock.
It turned halfway.
Nothing happened.
Samir pointed at the center of the door.
A narrow silver slot was almost invisible in the carving.
“The pendant.”
Khalid looked at Maya.
For the first time that night, his voice softened.
“May I?”
She nodded.
He pressed the pendant into the slot.
A click sounded behind the wall.
Then another.
The iron door opened three inches.
Maya’s knees weakened.
Samir whispered, “She kept it.”
Inside was a tiny room lined with shelves.
Most were empty.
But one wooden chest sat beneath a dusty portrait.
Khalid walked toward it.
Maya stopped.
The portrait showed a young Princess Mariam.
Beautiful.
Dark hair.
Intense eyes.
But Maya wasn’t looking at the princess.
She was looking at the woman standing behind her.
A young servant.
Twenty, maybe twenty-one.
Holding a baby.
Maya stepped closer.
Her throat closed.
“That’s my mother.”
Samir nodded.
Maya stared at the infant in Amina’s arms.
“Whose baby is that?”
Neither man answered.
Maya turned.
“Whose baby?”
Samir’s eyes filled with something she could not read.
“Open the chest first.”
Khalid lifted the lid.
Inside were letters wrapped in faded blue ribbon, an old cassette tape, two photographs, and a sealed envelope bearing the royal crest.
Khalid picked up the envelope.
His mother’s handwriting covered the front.
FOR KHALID.
His hands trembled.
He broke the seal.
Maya watched his eyes move across the page.
Then stop.
“What does it say?” she whispered.
Khalid looked at Samir.
“You knew.”
Samir closed his eyes.
“You knew this existed.”
“Yes.”
Khalid crossed the room and slammed him against the wall.
Maya jumped.
“What does it say?”
Khalid’s voice shook with rage.
“My mother wrote this three days before she died.”
Samir whispered, “I know.”
Khalid shoved the page against his chest.
“She wrote that someone inside the royal family was stealing money from humanitarian accounts.”
Samir said nothing.
“She discovered shell companies.”
“Yes.”
“She was going to tell my father.”
“Yes.”
“And then she died.”
Samir looked away.
Khalid stepped back.
Maya picked up one photograph.
Princess Mariam stood beside Amina.
Both women were holding babies.
Khalid as a child was recognizable in Mariam’s arms.
But the second baby—
Maya stared at the date written on the back.
Twenty-six years ago.
Exactly her age.
She turned the photograph over again.
Beneath it were four words in Princess Mariam’s handwriting.
KEEP HER SAFE, AMINA.
Maya’s hands began shaking.
“Khalid…”
He looked over.
She showed him the photograph.
His eyes narrowed.
Maya pointed at the infant in her mother’s arms.
“Is that me?”
Samir’s silence answered first.
Maya looked at him.
“You said my mother worked for Princess Mariam.”
“Yes.”
“Why was she holding me inside the private royal wing?”
Samir stepped away from the wall.
“Maya…”
“No.”
Her voice cracked.
“You tell me now.”
Samir glanced at Khalid.
Then back at her.
“Amina Rahman was not your biological mother.”
Maya stopped moving.
The room seemed to disappear.
“What?”
“She raised you.”
“That’s a lie.”
“She loved you.”
“Stop.”
“She saved you.”
Maya knocked the photograph from his hand.
“STOP.”
It landed faceup on the stone.
Khalid bent down to retrieve it.
That was when he saw writing hidden beneath another picture.
He pulled it free.
The second photo showed his father, Sheikh Hassan, standing beside Princess Mariam.
And behind them was a woman Maya had seen almost every day since coming to the palace.
Khalid’s aunt.
Princess Noura.
On the back, Mariam had written one sentence.
If anything happens to me, do not trust Noura.
Khalid slowly lifted his head.
May you like
At that exact moment, footsteps sounded beyond the iron door.
Someone was coming down the stairs.
