The Sheikh's Baby Bet Read online

  He had never brought up her mother’s death, ever. She had gleaned bits and pieces from the kitchen staff as a child, but Jasmina had never really known how her mother had met her untimely fate, just months after she was born. The Sheikh sat on a nearby chaise, patting the spot next to him, and Jasmina obediently took a seat beside him.

  “Your mother was an adventurer, always looking toward the horizon. Before we met, she had visited almost every country in the world. It was part of what attracted me to her in the first place—she was so exotic and daring. She was unlike anyone I ever met.”

  He opened his palm, and Jasmina placed her hand into his, squeezing tight. She couldn’t tell if she wanted him to stop his story or continue. She knew how it ended, after all. She’d been motherless her entire life.

  “About six months after you were born, she became so restless,” the Sheikh continued. “She felt as though she needed to find herself again, if only for a moment. She traveled to Gabon, taking a week-long safari trip while Asha looked after you, and I was dealing with a particularly tricky military situation along the southern border. As soon as she came back, I could tell something was wrong.”

  He lowered his head, and Jasmina stared out into space, trying to imagine the face she had seen in a million photographs leaving her behind to go on an adventure.

  “The illness spread quickly. There was nothing the doctors could do—they’d never seen anything like it before. Two days after she returned, she was gone, and you and I were left here, alone.”

  He looked up then, searching his daughter’s eyes for a hint of understanding.

  “So you see now why letting you go will be one of the hardest things I have to do. When she left, I never saw her again. Not the way she was before. If anything were to happen to you Jasmina, I don’t know what I would do.”

  Jasmina squeezed his hand again.

  “Papa, I am not my mother. Not everyone who leaves this place will come back broken. I promise you I will return better than I am now, and I will even bring you presents.”

  She grinned, hoping that she would lighten his mood. When he continued to glower, her small smile faded.

  “One has to make sacrifices as a royal, Jasmina. You have a duty to your people. If you do not honor duty, you will never have their respect.”

  “And that duty means that I must never leave?”

  “I’m not saying that…”

  “I think that’s exactly what you’re saying,” Jasmina said, releasing his hand and rising.

  “You have kept me here all these years because you were scared that I would meet the same fate as my mother. What you don’t understand is that I have my own life to lead. I am not her. When I come back, you will understand that.”

  “Why do you think I never remarried?”

  It was an unexpected question, and Jasmina stepped a little closer toward the door. They had already covered ground she did not want to think about that day. Why would her father’s love life come up in this conversation at all?

  “Because you never found the right person?” Jasmina hedged, and the Sheikh shook his head.

  “I never remarried because I never wanted to pitch another heir to fight with you for the throne. I wanted it to be yours and yours alone. Another woman would have wanted a child, and I refused. I gave that up because I believe that duty to our country comes first. Now what do you have to say?”

  “You’re trying to make me guilty for decisions that you made, and I won’t be manipulated in such a way. You could have remarried, and I would have been fine either way. I am allowed to leave this country, and I will be fine. I do not wish to quarrel with you any longer. I leave for the States in the morning, and I wanted to give you a nice farewell before I do. Will you give me that?”

  The Sheikh turned away from her, and Jasmina’s heart broke into a thousand pieces.

  “You disappoint me, Jasmina. I thought you were ready to rule this nation when I am gone. Clearly I am wrong.”

  The room filled with loaded silence as Jasmina fought back a rush of tears at his words. Swallowing them, she took a breath.

  “I guess that’s that, then. Perhaps I will show you just what kind of leader I can be when I return.”

  The Sheikh said nothing, his back still turned.

  “Goodbye, Papa.”

  With that, Jasmina turned and walked out of the room. True to her word, she left for college the very next morning, flying halfway across the world to New York to attend school. She never told anyone there about her status, wanting to be treated like everyone else.

  Her whole world had opened up at college, just as she’d imagined it would, and she experienced four of the best years of her life. She’d written to her father often, and from time to time she would get a curt response. She comforted herself by thinking that she would prove to him that she would be a great Sheikha one day—an even better one for living abroad and seeing the world with new eyes.

  Then the phone rang in the middle of that terrible night.

  “Jasmina?”

  Her father’s most trusted advisor, Javir, sounded shaken and frightened. Jasmina bolted upright in her bed, her dark eyes filled with fear.

  “What is it, Javir? Why are you calling?”

  There was a heavy pause before he broke the news.

  “It’s your father. He’s had a heart attack and is in critical condition. We need you to return to El Jayiah immediately. There might not be much time.”

  Jasmina’s heart fluttered, her stomach twisting into knots as she pulled back her comforter and began to get dressed.

  “I’ll be on the next plane.”

  “Thank you, Jasmina. I hope…” he choked on his sentence, and Jasmina moved faster.

  “I’ll be there soon. Please…tell my father to hold on.”

  She tossed a few items into a small suitcase, hesitating for a moment as she stared at her petition to graduate.

  She was only a month shy of earning her degree, with high honors. Jasmina’s face crunched with emotion as she turned away from her school books, knowing she would not be graduating if her father needed her to stay. The flight back to El Jayiah was one of the longest of her life, her nails chewed down to the cuticles, the jagged edges bleeding by the time the plane touched down in her tiny homeland.

  When Jasmina stepped onto the tarmac, there was a small gathering of men in black suits waiting for her in front of a black car. The sky was inky black, which was fitting, as Jasmina stared into somber faces—eyes that refused to quite meet her gaze.

  Javir stepped forward with clasped hands.

  “Your Highness,” he said, bowing before her.

  She stared in shock as all of the men around him followed suit, bowing before her.

  “Javir…” she said, barely trusting the sound of her voice.

  When he looked back up, she saw true sorrow in his eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Your Highness. You are too late. The Sheikh has passed away. You are the new ruler of El Jayiah.”

  A sob tore from Jasmina’s throat as she collapsed on the ground, weeping in agony. She had told her father that she would come back and prove to him that she could be so much more than he imagined. He wasn’t supposed to die before she could get back! What was she going to do?

  Painful memories rushed through her head as Asha gently shook her back to the horrible, surreal present.

  “It’s time, my love. The procession will begin in a few moments.”

  Jasmina met her gaze in the mirror again, and she steeled herself for what was to come.

  Duty to our country comes first.

  That was what he had said.

  Jasmina hoped that she would make him proud on such a terrible day.

  Chapter Two

  The streets of the capital were eerily silent as Jasmina led the procession behind her father’s casket. Behind her veil she knew she could cry unseen, but she refused to allow herself to. The weight of El Jayiah rested on her shoulders, and she marched in sto
ic silence as sniffles from either side of her met her ears.

  The ceremony was a blur, ending with her father being laid to rest in the family plot at the top of the hill overlooking the capital, Tyra. Jasmina stared down at the masses of people dressed in black, mourning her father. She had known since his death that she was the ruling monarch of her nation, but until she gazed down upon them, every face turned up in her direction, it really hadn’t hit home.

  Now she felt completely, utterly alone.

  “Your Highness, you will want to take some time to grieve before managing affairs of the state I imagine,” Javir was at her side, his hand gently guiding her toward a car.

  Feeling numb, Jasmina nodded, not willing to take on her father’s role so soon after laying him to rest. She allowed herself to be led to the back of a car. The door closed her in, the silence resonating across her entire world.

  She was convinced that she would never know joy again. And the last conversation she had had with her father was one filled with disdain and sorrow. She would never forgive herself for leaving El Jayiah as long as she lived.

  The car drove stealthily along the empty roads, the city of Tyra unusually silent for a Sunday evening. When the car pulled up to the palace, Jasmina waited for her door to be opened. When it was, she stepped out, thanking the driver absently before stepping up gold-laced stairs. The doors opened for her as she walked through, unable to think of anything but her own bed.

  Asha entered the hallway as she strode onward, absently removing her black veil for her, releasing a cascade of brown tresses. Her head ached. Her heart ached. Her whole world was filled with the black of night.

  “Come, my dear. You need to eat.”

  Jasmina shook her head.

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “You will need your strength for the obstacles that lie ahead.”

  She froze, then, mulling over Asha’s words. She turned and looked down into the old woman’s kind eyes.

  “I will find my own strength. You can trust in that. Good night, Asha.”

  When Jasmina closed the door behind her, she finally allowed her tears to flow freely as she crumpled into a ball on the ground. For the rest of the night she cried the last tears she would allow. After that, her country would need her to stand up and take her father’s place as their ruler.

  Strength was one thing she hardly believed she had.

  “Presenting upon you this day, the royal crown of El Jayiah. May our Sheikha live a long and glorious life, and may she rule with the justice of her ancestors. I now present to you, Jasmina Bel Hasnawi, Sheikha of El Jayiah!”

  Cheers roared in her ears as Jasmina faced her people, her smile tempered by the fact that she would not be in that position had her father not died so unexpectedly, so suddenly. Her people didn’t seem to share her grief as they continued to cheer and chant her name. Feeling a small boost of confidence from their support, she raised a hand and was rewarded with more cheering.

  “Your Highness, might we adjourn to the cabinet chambers to discuss the state of our nation?”

  An older, balding man bowed slightly to Jasmina, and she realized that she had completely forgotten his name. She hoped there would be name plates on the table when they met, so she wouldn’t be caught paying zero attention to her country while she was away. She hadn’t planned on being the ruler of El Jayiah for many more years, and she hadn’t devoted much time to learning about her father’s latest slew of advisors.

  That was clearly her first mistake. Likely one of many.

  She wondered in that moment how her friends at school were faring with finals approaching. To think that her biggest problem only a few weeks before had been how to get the best grade on a test. Life had been so much simpler then.

  Nodding to the thin-haired man, Jasmina followed after him down the palace hallway, passing door after door until they reached the one Jasmina had rarely bothered to enter.

  Opening the portal, the balding man stepped inside, walking toward a round, wooden table. When he reached a seat, Jasmina took a look and felt a rush of relief when she saw name plates. His name was Kalim Al-Adir. She would have to remember that, along with the others. There was so much she would have to remember.

  I wish you were here, Papa, she thought desperately.

  Squaring her shoulders, she stepped forward in her coronation gown and took a seat at the table. She was met with a grouping of gloomy gazes. Attempting charm, she parted her lips in a gracious smile.

  “Gentlemen. I’ve never seen a more melancholy group. Surely the state of affairs must not be that terrible? My father was exceptional at economics, and he was quite the statesman.”

  She was met with a wall of silence as eyes darted around the room, and Jasmina realized in that moment that there was more to the situation than met the eye.

  “All right, who is brave enough to deliver the bad news?” she asked, feigning confidence.

  The truth was, she was shaking in her ceremonial boots, but to let them know that was to lose their faith that she could be a strong leader. It was the last thing she wanted to do so soon into her reign. Kalim cleared his throat.

  “I’m afraid things are not as well as they may appear, Your Highness,” he said.

  “Please, if we are to work together, I would like it if all of you called me Jasmina.”

  He nodded, and the rest of the men did the same.

  “Very well, Jasmina. Before your father died, it was discovered that a small group of his advisors were pilfering from the national coffers. In fact, he learned shortly before his death that they had taken almost everything we have and left the country with it. El Jayiah is destitute, Jasmina.”

  Jasmina blinked as she absorbed that information. Her eyes darted to Adir, another council member, whose expression was beyond morose. When he met her gaze, he nodded.

  “It is true, I’m afraid. We were all of us deceived by those…those…” he struggled to find a word that wouldn’t be offensive, and Jasmina cut him off to save him the trouble.

  “All right, so my father was betrayed. How do I know I can trust any of you?”

  Her accusation was met with stunned silence as the men gawked at her. Finally, Adir spoke.

  “We were the ones leading the investigation, Jasmina. Something didn’t seem right about expenditures, and your father couldn’t wrap his head around it. You know that’s saying something, because he was quite skilled with finances. Once they knew they had been discovered, their exit was hasty and well covered. While we have a team searching for them, it could be years before we are able to track them down, and we simply do not have that much time.”

  Jasmina’s heart sank as she took in this piece of information. Her country was bankrupt? Her father betrayed to the point that it might have caused a fatal heart attack? She found herself grateful to be sitting down, for she wanted to crawl into a ball on the floor again and hide from the world forever. Instead, she cleared her throat.

  “And do we have any options left to us that we can tolerate?”

  Kalim nodded.

  “About a month ago we received word that there is a yet untapped supply of lithium just outside the city. That mineral could be our salvation. If we could get a buyer in to mine it, we could produce enough jobs to give the economy a good boost and get back to where we were before, perhaps even better.”

  Jasmina nodded.

  “That’s good news. Now how exactly are we going to go about it?”

  Pulling a few papers from a file on the table, Kalim slid them across the table for Jasmina to look at.

  “An American company has offered to purchase the lithium mines for an exceptional price—and that’s before hiring our local workers to get the job done. They have already agreed to use only local workers, and they have offered us the highest price for the land. We will not likely get a better offer than this.”

  “What is this company, that they can invest so much money into such a project and be fine not benefitting their
own workforce?”

  She gazed down at the papers before her, seeing the company title in bold.

  Jenson Black Technologies

  “Smartphones, I’m guessing?”

  Adir nodded.

  “The CEO is deeply interested in this deal due to lithium being essential to the manufacturing process. From what we can tell, his terms are beyond generous, and no one else has come close to offering what they have.”

  Jasmina continued to read, but something made her pause and look up with a question in her eye.

  “There is information missing from these terms; are they not fully laid out?”

  Another man—Hami, going by his name plate—cleared his throat uncomfortably.

  “That’s the tricky part… The CEO says that he will not close a deal until he has discussed the terms in full with you…privately.”

  “Privately? Who is this man?”

  “His name is Jenson Black,” Hami said dully.

  “Is he difficult to work with?” Jasmina asked.

  Another loaded silence filled the room. Jasmina wondered just how long it would take for her to earn the trust of her cabinet, that they may be open and honest with her when discussing matters of state. She let out a frustrated sigh.

  “It doesn’t matter. If this is the deal that will save our country, I will meet with him as soon as possible so that we can strike a bargain. The lives of our people depend on this discussion, and I won’t postpone it, no matter what the man is like. Adir, can you work to set up this meeting?”

  Adir nodded.

  “I’d be happy to, Jasmina. I think that should be enough for today. We can delve into other matters tomorrow, say eight in the morning?”

  There was a general rumble of agreement before the meeting was adjourned, and Jasmina was complimented on her decisive action so soon after taking over the crown. She nodded gracefully at the compliments, waiting until the last man exited before closing the door and staring around her at the chamber.

  She wasn’t ready for this. Jasmina felt completely at the will of her council, and if what they said was true, that kind of trust had destroyed her father.