Chapter 7 - Laila’s Secret
Khalid showed Laila the message.
Her face went gray.
Maya saw it immediately.
“You know what this means.”
Laila backed away.
“Khalid—”
“Why didn’t you come tonight?”
“I told you.”
“No. You gave me an excuse.”
Laila glanced at Maya.
“This isn’t the place.”
Khalid laughed without humor.
“We’ve had bullets through a door. I think we’re past manners.”
Rafiq approached.
“We need to move everyone to the secure wing.”
Khalid looked at him.
“You go ahead.”
“Khalid—”
“That was an order.”
Rafiq hesitated.
Then left.
Laila waited until the hall was empty.
“I received a package this afternoon.”
“From whom?”
“No name.”
“What was inside?”
“A photograph.”
She opened her phone.
The image showed Maya leaving the staff entrance three days earlier.
Maya stared.
“Someone followed me?”
Laila swiped.
A second picture appeared.
Maya walking through a market.
A third.
Maya sitting beside her mother’s grave.
A fourth.
A close-up of the pendant in Maya’s hand.
Maya felt sick.
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
Khalid’s voice turned hard.
“What else was in the package?”
“A note.”
“What did it say?”
Laila looked at Maya.
“It said, ‘The dead princess is coming home.’”
Maya’s chest tightened.
Khalid took the phone.
“And you told nobody?”
“I went to Noura.”
“Why?”
“She knew about the old symbols.”
Khalid stared at her.
“You received evidence that someone was stalking a palace employee and your first instinct was to run to the woman my mother warned me about?”
Laila flinched.
“She told me Maya was part of a blackmail attempt.”
Maya laughed bitterly.
“I polish silver for a living. That’s a strange way to blackmail a royal family.”
“I know that now.”
“Do you?”
Laila looked ashamed.
“I thought you had been planted.”
“By whom?”
“She didn’t say.”
Khalid held up the memory card.
“Then we find out what you copied.”
They entered Khalid’s private office.
He removed the laptop from the palace network before inserting the card.
Folders appeared.
Bank records.
Property transfers.
Encrypted messages.
Payments stretching back twenty-seven years.
Samir had been right.
Humanitarian funds had been stolen in enormous amounts.
Khalid scrolled.
“Twenty-eight million.”
Laila shook her head.
“That’s only one account.”
Maya stood behind them.
Then she noticed a file labeled MARIAM.
“Open that.”
Khalid clicked.
Inside were scanned documents.
Security logs.
Medical records.
Photos.
One image showed Princess Mariam entering a private clinic.
Another showed Amina Rahman carrying a baby from a rear entrance.
Maya covered her mouth.
The timestamp was twenty-six years earlier.
Laila whispered, “My God.”
Khalid clicked the next file.
A payment order.
Five hundred thousand dollars.
Recipient: Dr. Farid Nasser.
The note beside it read:
RELOCATION COMPLETE. CHILD UNRECOVERED.
Maya sank into a chair.
“Child?”
Khalid opened another document.
A handwritten memo from Kareem.
SEARCH AMINA’S RELATIVES. DO NOT APPROACH THE BOY.
The boy.
Khalid.
Maya looked at him.
“They were looking for me.”
“For years.”
He searched later records.
Then stopped.
A payment from eight years ago.
Recipient: Amina Rahman.
Maya stood.
“No.”
Khalid looked at her.
“Amina received money from Kareem.”
“That’s not possible.”
“It’s here.”
“How much?”
“One hundred thousand.”
Maya laughed in disbelief.
“My mother died owing three months of rent.”
Laila leaned closer.
“The transfer was reversed the next day.”
Maya pointed.
“Open the attached note.”
Khalid did.
One sentence.
SHE REFUSED AGAIN.
Maya closed her eyes.
Amina had not betrayed her.
Khalid continued.
“There are more.”
Threat reports.
Surveillance photographs.
Amina moving from city to city.
Changing apartments.
Changing schools.
Changing jobs.
Protecting Maya for nearly two decades.
Maya’s eyes filled.
“She never told me.”
“She was keeping you alive,” Khalid said.
The screen suddenly went black.
A warning appeared.
REMOTE ACCESS DETECTED.
Khalid yanked out the card.
Too late.
Files began disappearing.
Laila shouted, “Someone’s wiping it!”
Maya grabbed her phone.
“Take pictures!”
They photographed the screen as quickly as they could.
Folder after folder vanished.
Then a final video file opened by itself.
Minister Kareem appeared on screen.
Older.
Current.
He was seated inside an unknown room.
“Khalid.”
The three of them froze.
The video was live.
Kareem smiled.
“If you are watching this, then the maid found Mariam’s little toy.”
Khalid leaned toward the screen.
“Where are you?”
Kareem ignored him.
“Maya, your mother was more stubborn than I expected.”
Maya clenched her fists.
“What did you do to her?”
Kareem smiled.
“Not enough.”
Khalid slammed his palm on the desk.
“You’re a dead man.”
“No.”
Kareem leaned forward.
“I’m the man who kept your throne standing while your family lied to you.”
Khalid’s voice went cold.
“My mother.”
Kareem’s smile disappeared.
“She made a choice.”
“Did you kill her?”
The video froze for a second.
Then returned.
Kareem said:
“Ask Samir who was driving the second car that night.”
Khalid stared.
“What second car?”
But Kareem had already disconnected.
Maya whispered, “Samir knows more.”
Khalid grabbed his jacket.
Then his phone rang.
The medical wing.
He answered.
His face changed immediately.
“What do you mean he’s gone?”
Maya stepped closer.
Khalid lowered the phone.
“Samir disappeared from his hospital room.”
“Disappeared?”
“There was blood on the bed.”
Maya felt ice run down her spine.
May you like
Khalid continued.
“And the two guards outside his room are unconscious.”
