away. But then, when I finally did understand her words, I couldn’t help the joy and the relief that consumed my heart at the sound of them.
“Oh, my God!” I gushed. “Are you serious?”
“Shhhh!” Janna hushed me, looking behind her where the closed door was. “Yes, I’m serious, if everything goes as planned, you’ll be on the jet that will get you to the States within two hours. If not–” she paused, “I don’t even want to think about it.”
Huh!
“Two hours from now? That soon?” It was really beyond my expectations that Janna would find me the way out, just twenty-four hours after I’d told her I craved one. I thought it’d take months or at least weeks, but one day? Yes, I wasn’t hardly able to believe it myself, as all of the relief and excitement to be back in my own country again filled my heart and mind.
“Today is the perfect day. I’ve planned everything, don’t worry about it,” she assured me. “You’re getting on the jet that’s supposed to take me to the US. You’ll be wearing a niqab–” at the frown on my face she explained, “A face cover.” Oh! “So anyone who sees you will think you are me. We just need to be very smart about everything we do starting now, and a hell lot of luck.”
Head spinning and heartbeats speeding up. “I’ll go back to my country?” Disbelief laced my voice.
“Yes, Marie, you will,” Janna smiled reassuringly, her eyes gray with all of the troubles that were filling them. She reached for my hand, squeezing it, as if to emphasize the security her words wanted me to feel.
I nodded, paused for a second or two while looking at the floor, and when I looked up at her again, I had to ask, “What about Joseph?”
Her smile was gone the second his name left my mouth, and her eyes shone with what I knew to be unshed tears–it was such a sad sight to watch. “Yoseph made it to New York hours ago, Marie,” she replied.
My throat tightened and I had to swallow a few times. “He did?” came my whispered question.
He left?
He left me?
“Yes, he did. He went in your private jet. I was supposed to go with him, but I told him I needed a day by myself and that I’d be right behind him. It wasn’t an easy task–my step-mother and all–but...I managed.”
He left…
That jet was still in the airport for me. It was supposed to take me back home three days after the wedding like I had planned from the start. I wanted to correct her, but I couldn’t find the heart to do so. My heart was too hurt by the fact that my brother actually did leave me in the kingdom, despite everything.
I slowly nodded, finding it unnecessary to keep obsessing over the broken, hurt side. It wouldn’t be right to dwell on the fact that my brother was a complete jerk now. It was not wise. I had far more important things to think about. Things that needed my full attention and needed it now.
“Okay,” I said, more quietly than I would’ve liked. “I guess I have to dress quickly.”
“Yes,” Janna said. “But I need you to stay calm. Don’t let anyone sense that something is going on. You’ll have to contain yourself very well in front of Mazen: he’s too smart and will notice if anything seems off.”
Mazen…
The tightening in my throat got a companion in the ache in my heart when I heard his name. The realization of what would happen when I leave the kingdom–the fact that I’d be leaving him as well–hit me hard on the chest and started hurting everywhere I could ever feel the hurt.
Maybe my thoughts had affected my looks, maybe my face changed, or my expression told of the worry and odd feelings that decided to visit me when I was finally aware that I’d be leaving the prince for good in just a short time, possibly a little over an hour, because Janna asked, “Hey, are you okay?”
I had to be okay. Of course I was okay. I was finally getting what I had wanted more than anything over the past few days. I was finally getting my freedom. Of course I was okay. So, I told her just that, “Yes. Yes, of course.”
Once again, Mona chose that moment to come in with two glasses of juice on a small tray in her hands, then she asked where