screamed, tears streaming down my face. “Let go of me, you animal, I’ll never be yours, never! Over my dead body!”
The prince’s eyes widened even more at the sound of my words. It took him a few moments as he kept staring into my eyes, bright green into clear blue, confusion-filled into anger-consumed, before his other hand let go of my hand that he’d been holding all along. He yanked the broken piece out of my hand that he was gripping strongly, and threw it away then let go of both of my hands.
“Why did you agree to the marriage?” he said in a low-but-firm voice.
“I never agreed to this, my brother forced me, don’t you get it? I’d rather be dead and buried than be touched by your filthy Arabian hands!”
I thought anger would be the thing I’d see in his eyes when he heard what I’d said, but anger didn’t come until later. It was hurt that filled his eyes. Hurt.
I felt a slight tingle in my chest, right where my heart beat and my blood pumped out to my body. Something stung inside me when I saw him looking so wounded in front of me. I had no idea what that feeling was. I had no idea why would I feel that way for a perfect stranger, someone I would never like to even be seen with, at that.
The prince walked away from me, leaving me standing right in front of the bed, and then he sat down in one of the arm chairs across from me.
I watched him as he dropped his head and buried it in his hands, his form screaming: broken. I hated that he looked like that. I hated that I was the reason for it. I hated that I hated it. I knew I shouldn’t care, but I did.
A few minutes later, I sat down on the edge of the bed again, watching him as he sat with his shoulders hunched and his head bent down. I would’ve given up an arm to know what he was thinking at that moment.
I didn’t know what would I do from there, or what the prince would do after learning I didn’t want him, and it was – scary.
Minutes passed, and stretched into hours, hours passed as we sat like that, hardly ever moving. The music silenced at some point during the night, and the darkness faded and turned into the bright light of the morning shinning from the side window.
It was a knock on the door that made me aware of how scared I was, because I gasped loudly when I heard it, even though it wasn’t that strong of a knock, but a very soft one.
The prince stood up and went to the door, saying a word in Arabic that I didn’t understand. Mona replied with her name then he asked her something that she responded to in a quiet voice. His head turned in my direction and I saw anger flashing in his eyes as his nostrils flared, then he replied to her without moving his eyes away from mine.
The next thing I knew, he was taking off the thing on his head and setting it on the armchair. For a moment, I was mesmerized by his hair that I was seeing for the first time, a dark brown mess of locks that went in every direction when he released it from under that cover, locks that appeared to be so soft that my fingertips stupidly wanted to touch.
I woke up from my dazzled mind when he started unbuttoning the thawb he was wearing. Fear consumed me and filled every cell of my body as I saw him take it off and throw it to the floor as he took a step closer.
Wearing only a white wife-beater and white pants, he made his way to a huge serving dish of fruits that was placed beside a vase of roses on a round table in the middle of the room.
My eyes widened as I saw him take the knife that lay beside the fruit dish on the table. He took the few steps to where I was now standing by the edge of the bed, anger coming off of him in strong waves.
He’s going to kill me!
Oh, my God! I’m going to die. I’m going to die.
“No, no!” I shook my head frantically. “Please, don’t! No!” I begged.
When he was only an inch away I gripped his hand that held the knife, wanting