and why should she? This is ridiculous. My father will not support my children. It is my responsibility and my right. You have meddled, Lina. You have ruined everything.”
“Actually, you did that all yourself. Kayleen is a wonderful woman. She adored you and would have made you very happy. She was yours to lose and you did. But don’t worry. She’ll find someone else. I’m a little more worried about you.”
He wanted to rant and yell. He wanted to throw her antique desk through the large window. He wanted to crush her teapot with his bare hands.
“None of this is acceptable,” he growled.
“I’m sorry you see it that way, but I think it’s for the best. Kayleen deserves a man who will love her. Or don’t you agree?”
He glared at his aunt. “You seek to trap me with your words.”
“I seek to make you understand that you don’t deserve a woman like Kayleen.”
Her words cut him in a way no words had before. He stared at her for a long moment as the truth settled into the wound. She was right—he did not deserve Kayleen. All this time he had assumed he was doing her a favor when, in truth, the situation was reversed.
He left Lina’s office and retreated to his own. He told Neil he would not be disturbed. Then he stood alone in the silence and wondered what had gone wrong.
* * *
TWO DAYS LATER he understood the real meaning of the words living in hell. Only there was no living for him, only reminders of what he had lost.
He had always enjoyed life in the palace, but now every room, every corridor, was a reminder of what was missing. He turned, expecting to see one of the girls. But they weren’t there. He thought of a thousand things he should tell Kayleen, but she wasn’t around to listen. He ached to hold her, touch her, kiss her, and there was no one.
She had left him. Willingly, easily. She had walked away and not come back. She, who had claimed to love him.
While he knew in his heart her affection for him had not had time to fade, in his mind he grew angry. But she was not there to fight with.
He spent the night in her rooms, wandering, sitting, waiting, remembering. He arranged to go to Paris to forget her, then canceled his plans. He, who had never allowed himself to care, to need, to love, had been broken. Prince As’ad of El Deharia reduced to a shell of a man because his woman had left.
He hated that. Hated to be weak. Hated to need.
He hurried to see his father, walking in on the king without knocking. His father looked up from his morning paper. “As’ad, what is wrong? You do not look well.”
“I am fine. Kayleen has left.”
“Yes, I know.”
“You must not give her permission to leave the country, or take the girls with her. Those are my children. The law is clearly on my side.”
His father frowned. “Kayleen said you did not love the girls. That they would be better off with her. Was she wrong? What do you wish?”
Love. Why did it always come back to that? As’ad walked to the window and stared out at the horizon.
What did he wish?
“I want her back,” he said quietly. “I want her here, with me. I want the girls to return. I want...”
He wanted Kayleen smiling at him, laughing with him, close to him. He wanted to see her stomach swell with their baby, he wanted to ease her discomfort when she was sick. He wanted to see the girls grow and learn and prepare for college. He wanted to walk each of them down the aisle, only after terrifying any young man who would claim one of them as he had claimed Kayleen.
What if Dana was in a love with a man who did not love her back? What would he do?
Kill him, he told himself. He would kill the suitor in question, then take his daughter home where she belonged. He would insist she not be with anyone who did not love her desperately. Because that was what she deserved. What they all deserved. He could not let them go under any other circumstances.
Didn’t Kayleen deserve the same?
He already knew the answer. He believed it. But if it was true, then shouldn’t he let her go to find such a man?
No!
The roar came from deep within him. He faced his father. “No. She is