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Chapter 57 The Place Called Sohar
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DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 58 Why I Am Here?
And up. And up.Aaliyah knew where she was going. She’d dutifully looked at the images while flying over the Gulf Countries. The Hermitage had been built centuries ago to honor a Sohoian king. It had been carved into the mountain itself and still stood proudly, famous for the lights that beamed out from this otherwise restricted island when a royal was in residence, like a beacon over the archipelago.Or like the ego of the man she knew waited within.But there was no point in worrying about him just yet, Alliyah told herself. First, there was living through this hike.The wind picked up as she trudged up the path, doing her best to huddle against the side of the mountain without seeming to do exactly that. She did still have her pride, after all. Pride that was hard-won and well deserved—and she was keenly aware that every step she took drew her closer and closer to one of the major reasons she’d had to fight so hard in the first place.She didn’t like to think about those last few w
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 59 He Was There
Inside, she blinked as she looked around, because she was still outside, if beneath the outcropping above. She’d walked into what looked like some kind of castle keep and realized that what she’d taken for an ornate window between one floor and the next was actually a perfect place to pace around, staring down at the world far below. On clear days, Hannah Ynnah Russo’s assistant had informed her on the plane, it was possible to see the entire sweep of Sohar from the hallowed heights of the Hermitage. Aaliyah hadn’t cared much about that while flying. But now that she was up here, she found herself almost wishing that it was clear today. Because she imagined the view must be spectacular enough to almost make even her forced march worth it.And that was when some faint little movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention. So she turned her head, and there he was.Her breath caught.Seeing him, it turned out, was significantly worse than imagining seeing him had been all these y
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 60 Omar Farouq Abu Bakir
A thousand possible responses to that flooded her. There was outrage and insult aplenty. She couldn’t deny that. And maybe, buried way down beneath it, some kind of hurt, too.Because she certainly remembered him. Every single day, whether she liked it or not.But in all of this, it had never occurred to her that he would fail to remember her in turn.She wasn’t sure she believed him. Even so, she wanted to remind him exactly who she was and who she’d been to him, if briefly. So much that she ached with all the things she didn’t say. She wanted to give him dates and times and even produce the one photograph she had of the two of them together, but she didn’t.Because if he didn’t remember her, Aaliyah couldn’t influence him one way or the other, and that was her entire reason for being here.And if she couldn’t influence him, if she didn’t have the leverage on him that Hannah Russo had imagined she would, Aaliyah might as well turn right around and leave.There was a different kind of
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 61 First Meeting With Omar
Omar Farouq Abu Bakir had never imagined he would see Aaliyah again, and that had suited him fine. He had imagined that she was off having a gleaming little life, telling stories of her glory days. He had made sure his glory claimed a prominent place on every tabloid going, lest she imagine for a second that he had even noticed her departure.He had been halfway to forgetting her before his parents died.And now he couldn’t think of anything that mattered less. But he knew this was not the time for self-loathing—or, rather, anymore self-loathing than he already indulged in regularly. There were things to be done and a whole lifetime that yawned out before him with ample opportunity to hate him as he deserved.“Wait,” he ordered her.Because Omar Farouq Abu Bakir could admit that he was faintly intrigued that a woman like her had turned to go in the first place. And it only grew when she didn’t stop walking. When she didn’t turn to stone or fawn all over herself while awaiting his next
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 62 Aaliyah, daughter of Sheikh Omer Ibrahim
Omar Farouq did not react to that. Not outwardly. For his treacherous, murderous cousin Khalid Abu Bakir would take that throne over Omar Farouq Abu Bakir’s dead body.Something his cousin would no doubt take great pleasure in producing for the country, but Omar Farouq was ready for Khalid Abu Bakir and his machinations. He had done nothing these last two years but prepare for the day he would come down from this mountain and clean up the mess Khalid had made.“The throne is not in jeopardy,” he said now. “I’ve told Hannah and all the rest of my ministers this myself. The Hermitage might look ancient, but I assure you, it is sufficiently wired to carry the concerns of my country to my ears at all times of the day and night. Sohar is not running itself. I am removed from the palace, but I have not abdicated my responsibilities.”Only after he said that did he realize that he...was justifying himself to Aaliyah Ibrahim, who had already walked away from him twice. As if he was not the Sh
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 63 Omar, Son Of Abdullah Abu Bakir
Until now, Omar Farouq had been grateful for all of these things. He found he resented this woman for awakening all the other parts of him that he’d cast aside when he’d come here, broken and grieving and determined to fix what had happened the only way he could.“Aaliyah,” she offered. Eventually. But she didn’t sound agreeable or obedient. Her gaze darkened as she glared back at him, as if she resented him right back. As if she dared that, too. She cleared her throat. “Aaliyah Ibrahim.”And her name in her own voice rang in him. Like a scrap of a forgotten song. A lyric, maybe, though the melody was lost. Though he told himself he was no singer, and he knew no good could come of recalling that long-ago night in a Cambridge pub, he said, “I know that name.”“My last name is Ibrahim.” Her tone was as suspiciously bland as her gaze was a storm cloud. “People do tend to recognize it. What with it being common as dirt and all.”“Was that an attempt to be scathing?” he asked, and then he
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 64 Aaliyah's Son
He turned then and strode back across the courtyard without as much as a glance over his shoulder to see if she might follow.And Aaliyah had the same internal battle all over again. She could turn on her heel now that he’d walked off. She could run back out that door and then charge down the side of the mountain. She assumed that Hannah still waited there, but whether she did or didn’t, there was no way to know how she might react to anything Aaliyah might do. She might not allow Aaliyah back in the vehicle. She might order her to turn around and head right back up to the Hermitage until she’d accomplished whatever it was the older woman imagined Aaliyah could accomplish here.There was no safe space. Not here on this island, plunked down in the middle of an uncaring ocean. Maybe not anywhere. The only safe space Aaliyah had known since she’d run out of that house in Cambridge was back in Tahoe, there in the little house tucked away in the woods that she shared with her aunt and her
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 65 A Dominant King
Something in her had died on that landing as surely as if one of the guards had struck her down. She had never been the same, even in those strange months she’d moved through her old life like a ghost, unaware that there was a new life inside of her.As if the dawning of that hideous understanding of what she and Omar Farouq really were to each other—no matter how deeply she had loved him—really had killed her where she stood.“So you mean to tell me that it was pettiness, nothing more.” His voice was a black ribbon of sound, and it hurt to hear. “The wounded feelings of a jilted lover. This, you felt, was sufficient reason to hide from me the existence of a son for five years.”Aaliyah felt small and ashamed—but then, nothing she had ever felt about this man was petty. Her hands curled into fists, but she made herself carry on.“I didn’t know I was pregnant until I was in the third trimester,” she told him quietly, choosing every word with care. “Maybe I didn’t want to know.” Or mayb
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