Page 78 of The Billionaire's Timed Wife

At the sight of her, the greetings swell, confirming what Amin has already told me: the people are pleased with my choice of wife. Not that it would have affected my decision. There are no laws, if it came to that, that would force me to marry someone I didn’t want.

Suddenly a hush falls, and I know why. Daisy must have stepped out of the aircraft.

Without turning to look at her, I focus on the crowd below. “People of Rheadur, peace be upon you.”

I wait while they return the greeting, and when I judge it enough, I continue: “I left as a prince and return as sheikh. From now on, my life will be devoted to the good and growth of our country. But before I assume power definitively, I want to present my future wife—Her Highness”—I make a point of emphasizing the title so they won’t doubt she deserves as much respect as I do—”Adeela Ghazal. From today, my fiancée’s mother, Daisy Ellis, will live with us in Rheadur as part of my family. She will be respected and protected as such. Any offense against my mother-in-law will be considered an offense against me.”

Chapter 37

Rheadur

Kaled’s Investiture

Three Days Later

I look around the palace’s luxurious hall as if seeing it for the first time. Until now, I’d been here as Princess Jazmina’s guest, the sister I was blessed with, even if we don’t share the same blood.

Today, as I walk across the marble floor in my formal gown, I feel like a princess who’s stepped straight out of a fairy tale.

“Don’t be so nervous,” Jazmina whispers so no one else will hear.

“Easier said than done. I’m shaking so much I’m afraid I’ll trip over my own feet. If only Mom were here.”

The words no sooner leave me than I regret them. It isn’t fair to her. With her health so fragile, she’s already been through enough in a short span: our reunion, the returnto Rheadur—knowing that regardless of what Kaled says, she’s being judged, yes, even if discreetly—and my father’s simmering resentment.

The day we landed, he stood beside former Sheikh Kamran.

Not once did I look at him, but I didn’t lower my head either. Not only because I’m now under my future husband’s protection but because he no longer frightens me the way he once did. I can finally see him as he is: an empty man.

Even with the way I was raised, alone and scorned by him and his wives and daughters, a part of me still hoped that deep down he loved me.

Hearing his conversation with the man he wanted to marry me off to was the final nail in the coffin.

My father can’t hide behind religion or custom for the way he is: the cruelty is in him. What kind of person knows his ex-wife is ill and, even with the means to help her, watches from the sidelines like a mere spectator? Worse, uses the mother’s illness to blackmail his own daughter?

Divorced or not, Mom wasn’t just anyone in his life. They were together for nearly ten years.

For what he did to her, I’ll never forgive him. He can pretend to the entire country that he’s an honorable man, but I know his true face.

“Coming tonight would have been too much for your mother,” Jazmina says, pulling me back to the present. “I think Daisy’s saving her strength for the wedding, because we both know what celebrations are like here in Rheadur.”

I smile, relaxing a little, remembering how, when we were girls, we dreamed of marrying princes. For Jazmina, that was always closer to reality because she was born into nobility—suitors won’t be what she lacks—but for me, it was a fragile illusion I clung to in order to escape my hopeless life.

And yet, soon I’ll marry my real-life prince.

But he doesn’t love you,Reason whispers.

My mother and father were in love when they married and still didn’t get a happy ending. What will be left in a few years of a marriage of convenience, one that won’t even have children to soften the loneliness?

“What are you thinking about so hard?”

“My wedding,” I answer honestly.

“Having second thoughts?”

“No, just afraid.”

“Of what?”