Page 83 of The Billionaire's Timed Wife

There’s been an unprecedented wave of press business-visa requests to visit Rheadur, and all have been duly denied.

The last thing I want is for this to touch Adeela, especially after the scare with her mother a few days ago.

I intended to implement changes gradually in my country—restoring women’s rights to as they were when my father ruled—but after a conversation with Jazmina and my fiancée, I heard straight from the source how disrespected they felt under Naim’s government.

We have always been a liberal emirate, so it was a shock, especially for the younger generation of girls, to lose free access to the internet and be forced to wear the chador when before, covering one’s head was a choice and only required in official ceremonies or during religious observances.

Jazmina proposed creating a women’s committee to discuss issues long treated as unquestionable, such as the right of a woman to file for divorce. In Rheadur, that prerogative belongs exclusively to men.

As I finish dressing, I think of my Adeela’s smile when we talked about reinstating women’s rights, and I make a decision: I will approve the committee, provided they present me with an action plan.

Chapter 39

Wedding Day

I finally managed to get a little time to myself after days of being trailed by a cheerful entourage of women eager to cater to even my smallest whim.

With a shy personality, I’d have preferred to skip a few traditions and be only with my mother—who has been remarkably well since the new German doctor arrived—and with Jazmina.

Still, I knew it would have been rude not to let the women prepare me for the henna ceremony[36], even though only the unmarried ones were allowed to paint my hands and feet.

Besides, if I hadn’t agreed to the ritual, I wouldn’t have had the chance to see Faiza again. I put her on the list of those who would help get me ready for the most important day of my life.

She and my mother sat watching the girls paint me and, little by little, started talking like in the old days. My mother didn’t seem surprised that my former nanny had become my father’s wife, taking a place that once was hers.

In her own way, after my mother left, Faiza was a good stepmother to me.

The daughters she had with my father, of course, followed in my other stepmothers’ footsteps, just like my half-sisters, mistreating and insulting me, but Faiza didn’t.

Being with her was the only time I could breathe, and because she did me good and I was almost happy at her side, my father separated us, sending me to live in the house of his second wife, a woman who always hated me.

I had to convince Kaled to allow Faiza to take part in my wedding preparations, but he strictly forbade any of my father’s other wives and daughters.

He told me he’d put my whole family under surveillance after the attempt on my mother’s life, but he hasn’t talked to me about how the investigation is going.

I noticed the number of bodyguards has increased, and I also saw some men, whom he explained were forensic specialists, examining my mother’s rooms in search of clues as to who put the scorpion there. If they found anything, I wasn’t told.

I know every member of my family will be at our wedding, even though Kaled decreed we would skip certain traditions, like me going to my father’s house after the ceremony. He swore I would never set foot there unless I insisted.

I won’t. I haven’t been alone with my father since I returned, nor do I want to be. If he really had that scorpion planted to kill my mother, our relationship is finished for good.

To be honest, even before that, I no longer wanted him in my life. He, his wives, and his daughters were never my family, only my tormentors.

One thing I’ve learned about my future husband is that while he is faithful to certain traditions, like performing salat, the obligatory prayers, five times a day, he makes his own law.

But even though I often sense him split between two worlds—the one he was born into and the more liberal one he lived in from adolescence on—the longer he’s in Rheadur, the more I see how much he loves our country and our people.

I always get emotional when I hear him speak. I feel that he speaks from the heart. He’s the kind of man who has so much charisma he could persuade a crowd to do whatever he wished, and it’s a blessing he’s a good leader and not toxic like his brother.

We’re in the middle of a media storm because of the reports about Naim, even more so now that internet access has been restored.

I wonder when the press will forget the ex-sheikh’s name. Our people don’t deserve such shame because of that degenerate.

The things women say they suffered at his hands turn my stomach, but I shove the thought away.

This is the start of my new life, and I don’t want to stain my memories with so much evil.

Yesterday was a joyful day, with the women pampering me and tending to my body and hair to make me beautiful for the wedding.