The Sheikh's Son Page 13

  He held up both hands, palms forward. “That will not be necessary. I presently need to prepare for the day.”

  “Are you going to the base?”

  “Not today. Following breakfast, I thought I would take Samuel for a stroll around the grounds as soon as he wakes from his morning nap.”

  “Do you mind if I join you?”

  “That is entirely up to you.”

  The lack of enthusiasm in his response told Piper all she needed to know—she wasn’t welcome, and that stung like a bumblebee. “I’ll let you and Sam have some father-and-son alone time. Besides, I have something I need to do anyway.” Namely begin painting a portrait that would serve as a gift for the prince. A parting gift.

  “That is your prerogative,” he said in a noncommittal tone as he started to the door. “I’ll tell the cook to keep your breakfast warm while you dress.”

  She wasn’t hungry for food, but she was definitely starved for answers. “Before you leave, I have something I need to tell you.”

  Adan paused with his hand on the doorknob and turned to face her. “I’m listening.”

  She drew in a deep breath and prepared for the possibility of having her heart completely torn in two. “I’m in love with you.”

  He looked as if she’d slapped him. “What did you say?”

  “Don’t be obtuse, Adan. I love you. I didn’t plan it. I really didn’t want it. But it happened in spite of my resistance. My question is, how do you feel about me?”

  He lowered his eyes to the floor. “I cannot be the man you need, Piper.”

  “That’s my decision to make, not an answer.”

  His gaze snapped to hers. “You deserve someone who can give you the emotional support you require.”

  Meaning he didn’t return her feelings. Or maybe he refused to admit it. Only one way to find out. “What are you afraid of, Adan?”

  “I’m not afraid, Piper. As I’ve said, I’m pragmatic.”

  “No, you’re not,” she said. “You’re a risk taker, but you’re scared to take a chance on us.”

  “I am only considering your well-being. I do care about you, Piper. Perhaps more than I’ve cared for any woman in my past. But I’ll be damned if I break your heart because I cannot succeed at being faithful to one woman.”

  The surprising revelations took Piper aback. “Did you cheat on Talia during the six years you were together?”

  “No.”

  “Have you cheated on any woman you’ve been with?”

  “No, but—”

  “Then why would you believe you would be unfaithful to me?”

  “Because I could be genetically predisposed to adultery, compliments of my mother.”

  She could no longer allow him to think that his mother had taken a lover who resulted in his birth, in spite of her promise to Elena. Not when their future together could depend on the truth. “Adan, your mother was—”

  The sharp rap suspended Piper’s confession midsentence and caused Adan to mutter a string of Arabic words as he opened the door.

  Piper expected a member of the staff. What she got was Adan’s erstwhile lover, her platinum hair slicked back in a low chignon, her lithe body tightly encased in a blue silk jumpsuit, her makeup applied to perfection and her red painted lips curled into a snarl-like smile.

  “Surprise, you bleedin’ bastard. I’m back!”

  Nine

  The woman in the catsuit looked ready for a catfight, but Piper wasn’t about to bite. “I’ll leave you two with your privacy,” she said as she targeted the door as her means to escape.

  Talia stormed into the room, blocking her escape. “Oh, do stay, chicky. The party is only getting started.”

  Adan stepped to Piper’s side and moved slightly in front of her. “Calm down, Talia. If anyone has cause to be irritated, it should be me. You might have had the courtesy of notifying me of your impending arrival.”

  “And you might have told me you married—” she pointed a finger at Piper “—this wench.”

  “Piper is not a wench,” Adan stated with a touch of venom in his tone. “And your argument is with me, not her. If you will join me in my study, we will discuss our son.”

  Talia smirked. “Here seems fine. After all, you’ve obviously been taking care of the bonking business in the bedroom with her for quite some time, according to the press.”

  And Piper had only thought they’d covered all their media bases. “You can’t believe everything you hear or read, Talia. Adan has done whatever it takes to protect Sam.”

  The woman nailed her with a seething glare. “Our son is not your concern.”

  “But he is my concern,” Adan said. “And I am prepared to offer you a sizable settlement in exchange for retaining full custody of Samuel.”

  Talia flipped a hand in dismissal. “Your attorneys have already worked that out with my attorneys.”

  Adan’s expression was a mixture of confusion and anger. “How is that possible when I have not consulted the palace barrister?”

  “Maybe you should talk to your brother about that,” Talia replied.

  “The king knew you were coming?” Piper chimed in, earning a quelling look from Adan.

  “Yes, he did,” she said. “I had Bridgette call when I arrived back in Paris. Rafiq wouldn’t let me speak to you, the duffer, so I hopped on a plane and came here. He practically met me at the door with the papers. I signed them and then I had to evade the houseboy on my way up here.”

  Piper knew very little British slang, but it didn’t take much to interpret Talia’s words. “Then I assume you’re okay with giving Adan full custody,” she said, sticking her nose in where it obviously didn’t belong.

  Talia screwed up her face in a frown. It wasn’t pretty. “No. I’m giving him to Adan. What would I need with a kid?”

  A litany of indictments shot into Piper’s brain, threatening to spill out her mouth. Luckily Sam’s cry filtered through the monitor at that exact moment, supplying an excuse to bail before she blew up. “I’ll take care of him.” She brushed past Talia, resisting the urge to rip the expensive designer bag from her shoulder and stomp on it for good measure.

  She took a few calming breaths as she quickly made her way to the nursery to see about the baby. The minute she walked into the room, Sam’s cries turned into wails, as if he somehow sensed the stressful situation brewing down the hall.

  “What’s wrong, sweetie?” she said as she picked him up from the crib. “Did you have a bad dream or just need some company?”

  His sobs turned to sniffles as she cradled him in her arms, and then she realized he was in dire need of a diaper change. After she saw to that task, she considered instituting Adan’s plan to take the baby for a stroll around the grounds. She discarded that idea when she remembered she was still wearing her robe. Nothing like giving tabloid reporters more fuel for gossip should she get caught on camera. Of course, if any of the bottom-feeders had been hanging around in the past hour, which they had been periodically known to do since she’d arrived in Bajul, they would have a field day with Toxic Talia.

  Her anger came back full throttle when she considered how the woman had agreed to relinquish her child without a second thought. Couldn’t she see what a precious gift she’d been given? Of course she couldn’t. She wasn’t concerned about anything that didn’t promote her personal gain...just like her own mother.

  Piper refused to make this decision easy on the selfish supermodel, and with that goal in mind, she strode back down the hall with Sam in tow. She arrived at the open door to the suite in time to hear Talia say, “Now that everything’s settled, I’ll be on my way.”

  “You’re not going anywhere yet,” Piper said through gritted teeth. “Not until you take a good long look at what you’re giving away.”

/>   Talia spun around and rolled her eyes. “For the last time, this is none of your business, ducky.”

  Undeterred, Piper walked right up to her and turned the baby around in her arms. “Look at him, Talia, and think about what you’re doing. It’s still not too late to change your mind.”

  Adan took a few steps forward. “It’s no use, Piper. She’s made her choice, and she chooses her career. She wants no part in raising him.”

  Ignoring Adan, Piper kept her gaze trained on Talia. “This is a life-altering decision. There’s no turning back if you walk away now. Is that what you really want?”

  A spark of indecision showed in Talia’s eyes. “I can’t raise him,” she said, an almost mournful quality to her voice.

  Piper’s disdain lessened as she witnessed the woman’s defenses began to crumble, one fissure at a time. “Are you absolutely sure?”

  “If I were a different person, perhaps I could. But I’m never going to be good at it, and it would be unfair to him if I tried.” Then she surprisingly reached out and touched Sam’s fisted hand. “So long, little fellow. Be good for your daddy and your new mum.”

  Talia hurried out the door, but not before Piper caught a glimpse of tears in her eyes. “Maybe I misjudged her,” she said as she placed Sam against her shoulder. “Maybe for the first time in her life, she’s doing something unselfish.”

  Adan shoved a hand in his pocket, rubbed his neck with the other and began to pace. “Do you find it odd that all three of us have been betrayed by our mothers?”

  In a way, he was right, but not completely. Piper had intended to tell him the truth before Talia’s interruption. She now recognized she walked a fine line between breaking a promise and bringing him peace. Perhaps she could avoid crossing that line by handing him only a partial truth. “There are some things you don’t know about your mother, and it’s high time you do.”

  He faced her and frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  “You need to ask Elena,” she said. “She holds the answers, and she’s prepared to tell you.”

  At least that was what she hoped.

  * * *

  A few moments later, Adan found himself standing outside Elena’s private office, his mind caught in a maze of confusion. He had no idea what Piper had been talking about, yet he suspected he would soon find out, even if he wasn’t certain he wanted to know.

  When he rapped on the frame surrounding the open door, Elena looked up from her position behind the desk, obviously startled before surprise melted into a smile. “Come in, cara.”

  He entered, pulled back the chair opposite her and sat. “Am I interrupting anything?”

  “Of course not. You are always welcome here.”

  He stretched out his legs in an attempt to affect a casual demeanor, when in truth his nerves were on edge. “Talia stopped by to sign over custody of Samuel.”

  “I heard,” she said. “And I am very sorry that your son will not have the opportunity to know his mother. On the other hand, since I do know his mother’s shortcomings, the decision she made was the best course of action in this case.”

  “Piper suggested it was an uncharacteristically unselfish act on Talia’s part.”

  “Piper is correct, but then she has wisdom beyond her years.”

  The moment had arrived to transition into his real reason for being there. “And continuing on with the subject of motherhood, Piper also informed me you had information about my mother that she’s convinced I should know.”

  Unmistakable panic showed in Elena’s eyes. “I told her I would tell you in due time.”

  “Perhaps that time is now.”

  Elena hesitated for several moments, leading him to believe she might thwart his attempts at garnering information. “I suppose you are right.”

  “Then proceed,” he said as he braced for the possibilities and prepared for the worst.

  She picked up a stack of papers and moved them aside before folding her hands atop the desk. “First of all, I must clarify an incorrect assumption you have long held regarding your parents. Your mother always remained true to her husband during their marriage, and they both grew to love each other. Most important, Aahil Mehdi was your biological father, not some unknown man.”

  He had waited all his life for confirmation or a denial of his theory, yet something didn’t quite ring true. “If that is a fact, then why was I the only son not raised and schooled here at the palace? Why was I the only brother sent away during my formative years?”

  “To protect you, Adan.”

  “From what?”

  “The chance someone could learn your true parentage, and you would suffer the consequences from being labeled the child of a concubine.”

  Anger began brewing immediately beneath the surface of his feigned calm. “Then you are saying my father was the adulterer and I am the product of his affair with a servant?”

  “No. Your father was a good man, but you were the reminder of his failure to make his queen happy by giving her the baby she was not able to conceive.” She sent him a wistful smile. “Yet you were the greatest joy in my life from the moment you came into this world.”

  Awareness barreled down on him with the force of a hundred wild horses. “You gave birth to me?”

  “Yes, cara, as a favor to the king, and during the process of conception, your father and I fell in love. And as you already know, that love continued until his death, but I assure you we did not act on it until the queen’s demise.”

  Questions continued to bombard his brain. He chose the one that took precedence over all. “Why did you wait to tell me this?”

  “I promised your father I would never reveal the truth to anyone, even you.”

  Once the initial shock subsided, ire took its place. “He had no right to ask that of you, and you had no right to keep this from me all these years.”

  “I realize that now,” she said. “And had Piper not come to me and then pressed me to reveal the truth to you, I might have carried the secret to my grave.”

  Adan was torn between gratitude and resentment aimed toward both Elena and Piper. “How long has she known about this secret?”

  “For a while.”

  One more betrayal in a long line of many. “She should have told me immediately.”

  “Do not blame Piper for not saying anything, Adan. I begged her to allow me to tell you.”

  “She should not have come to you in the first place.”

  “She did so because she loves you, Adan. She only wants what is best for you, and she believes with this information you’ll find some peace.”

  Piper’s declaration of love intruded into his thoughts, but he pushed it aside. “If that is so, then why would she subject me to this confession knowing it would cause such turmoil?”

  “I suspect she recognizes that lies have the capacity to destroy relationships.”

  And so could the truth. His relationship with Piper had been fraught with lies from the beginning, and he wasn’t certain he could trust her now.

  Bent on a confrontation, he shoved the chair back and stood. “We will discuss this further after I have had time to digest this information.”

  Tears filled Elena’s eyes. “Please tell me you do not hate me, Adan.”

  How could he hate the woman who had been the only mother he had ever known? In reality, his real mother. “I could never hate you, Elena.”

  “But you might never forgive me,” she said, resignation in her tone.

  “I will try, and that is all I can promise at this moment,” he said before he turned to leave.

  “Where are you going, Adan?” Elena called after him.

  “To have a serious conversation with my alleged wife.”

  * * *

  “What possessed you to
interfere in my life?”

  Piper put down the art book she’d attempted to read in the common sitting area, moved to the edge of the uncomfortable chair and faced Adan’s wrath head-on. “I assume Elena told you everything.”

  He released a caustic laugh. “You would be correct in that assumption, and you have yet to answer my question.”

  “Okay. You see it as interference, and I see it as making an effort to find the answers you’ve always longed for.”

  “I never sought those answers for a reason.”

  “And that reason is?”

  “I knew nothing good would come of them, and nothing has.”

  She couldn’t believe his attitude or his misdirected anger. “What’s not good about finally knowing the identity of your real mother? Believe me, Sunny and I unsuccessfully tried to find our father, but we could only narrow it down to three prospects. One was in prison for insider trading, one was a money-hungry gigolo and the last was married with four children. With that field of prospects, we decided it wasn’t worth pursuing. At least you now know you have a wonderful mother.”

  He ran a fast hand over his jaw. “I am not you, Piper. I had no desire to learn the truth. And now that I do know, I have been shown that even the most trustworthy person is capable of the ultimate betrayal.”

  She felt as if he’d placed her in that category, along with his biological mother. “Look, Adan, I don’t agree with Elena concealing the truth for such a lengthy period of time, but on some level I did understand why she was afraid to reveal it. Seeing your reaction only validated her fears.”

  He paced back and forth like a caged animal before pausing before her. “How would you wish me to react, Piper? Should I be celebrating the lies I’ve been told my entire life? Or the fact that you knew the truth and concealed it?”

  “Believe me, keeping it from you wasn’t easy.” A colossal understatement. “But it wasn’t my place to tell you, although I would have before I left if Elena hadn’t.”

  He narrowed his eyes into a hard glare. “It wasn’t your place to go on a bloody fact-finding mission, either.”

  No matter how hard she tried to see it from his point of view, his condemnation hurt like the devil. Time to fight fire with fire. “Sometimes it’s necessary to set a lie into motion to protect those you love, just like you’re protecting Samuel by lying about our marriage.”