Chapter 4 - The Hidden Daughter
Maya laughed once.
A broken, unbelieving sound.
“No.”
Khalid didn’t move.
Samir stood slowly.
“Maya—”
“My mother was Amina Rahman.”
“She was the woman who raised you.”
“She was my mother.”
“In every way that matters, yes.”
“Then stop trying to turn me into someone else.”
Samir reached for the photograph.
Maya pulled it away.
“Don’t touch it.”
Khalid finally spoke.
“How old was the child?”
“Six months.”
“And Maya is twenty-six.”
“Yes.”
Khalid looked at her.
She hated the way he looked at her now.
Not like a maid.
Not even like a stranger.
Like a question.
Maya shook her head.
“No. I grew up in a small apartment above a grocery store. I went to public school. My mother worked two jobs. I don’t have royal blood. I don’t even want royal blood.”
Samir’s voice was gentle.
“Princess Mariam arranged that life.”
Maya stared at him.
“Why?”
“To hide you.”
“From whom?”
Samir glanced toward the door Noura had just left through.
Maya’s skin prickled.
Khalid’s voice sharpened.
“Tell me everything.”
Samir sat.
“Your mother discovered financial crimes linked to members of the royal council. But that wasn’t the only secret.”
He looked at Khalid.
“After you were born, your mother suffered several miscarriages. Years later, she became pregnant again.”
Khalid’s face tightened.
“I remember her being sick.”
“She was hiding the pregnancy.”
“Why?”
“Because by then, she no longer trusted everyone around your father.”
Maya whispered, “And the baby was me?”
“Yes.”
Samir continued.
“Mariam gave birth outside the palace under a false name. Only four people knew.”
“Who?”
“Your father. Me. Amina. And Dr. Farid Nasser.”
Khalid nodded.
“I know that name.”
“He was the royal physician.”
“He died years ago.”
Samir looked at him.
“So you were told.”
Silence.
Khalid stared.
“What does that mean?”
“After Mariam’s death, Dr. Nasser disappeared.”
Maya gripped the edge of the table.
“You said the baby disappeared the same night.”
“Yes.”
“Amina took her?”
“Yes.”
“Because Princess Mariam told her to?”
“I believe so.”
“You believe?”
Samir’s voice broke.
“I arrived too late.”
He removed his glasses.
“That night, Mariam called me. She said she had evidence and feared someone was coming for both children.”
Khalid’s eyes narrowed.
“Both children?”
“She believed your death would be too obvious. But an infant could disappear easily.”
Maya felt sick.
“She gave the baby to Amina?”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“Her car went off the mountain.”
Khalid turned away.
Maya saw his hands curl into fists.
“Was my father involved?”
“No.”
Samir answered immediately.
“Your father was destroyed by her death.”
Khalid looked back.
“He remarried eleven months later.”
“For political stability.”
“To Laila’s mother.”
“Yes.”
Maya looked down at the red dress she was wearing.
The entire evening suddenly felt grotesque.
Khalid had placed a maid in his absent wife’s dress to avoid embarrassment.
Instead, he may have placed his own sister beside him.
Khalid seemed to realize the same thing.
He looked away.
Maya whispered, “How do we prove any of this?”
Samir pointed toward the cassette tape.
Khalid picked it up.
There was handwriting on the label.
MARIAM - AUGUST 14.
The day before the crash.
The old archive still had a tape player.
Khalid inserted it.
Static filled the room.
Then a woman’s voice.
Soft.
Clear.
Alive across twenty-six years.
“If you’re hearing this, something has happened to me.”
Khalid closed his eyes.
Maya felt tears sting hers.
The recording continued.
“My son Khalid must be protected.”
A pause.
“And my daughter, Yasmin, must never return to the palace until the people responsible are exposed.”
Maya stopped breathing.
Yasmin.
The voice continued.
“Amina knows where to take her.”
Then Princess Mariam said something that made Samir stand so quickly his chair fell backward.
“The person I fear most is not Noura.”
Khalid leaned toward the machine.
Mariam’s voice trembled.
“It is the man standing closest to my husband.”
The tape clicked.
Static.
Then silence.
Khalid frowned.
“Who?”
Samir whispered, “There was only one man your father trusted more than anyone.”
Maya looked at him.
“Who?”
Samir’s face drained of color.
Before he could answer, Khalid’s phone rang.
He glanced at the screen.
Security Chief Rafiq.
Khalid answered.
“What?”
A pause.
His expression changed.
“When?”
Another pause.
Khalid looked at Maya.
“We have a problem.”
“What happened?”
He lowered the phone.
“Princess Laila is back.”
Maya looked down at Laila’s red dress.
May you like
Khalid continued.
“And she’s demanding to know why a palace maid spent the evening pretending to be her.”
