It's my fault that Rose is here. My fault that she is being exposed like this and exposing my family—

  Before he could finish the thought, he almost ran flat into his mother, who was rounding the corner in a swirl of red and gray silk, her heels tapping authoritatively on the stone.

  “No, I am not joking, Madja, if I see anyone reading that trash or repeating any news of that sort at all, I am withdrawing my support and decrying the committee as a bunch of gossip-mongers and idiots… No, I do not think that is too extreme. I think you are being too soft on them, and as a daughter of—Oh, I'll call you back.”

  She ended her call and looked up at Fahim with an imperious command in her eyes.

  “Well?” she asked. “What are you going to do about all of this?”

  Fahim raised an eyebrow, and she shook her phone at him.

  “I know you have heard about that awful man's declaration,” she said. “I want to know what you plan on doing about all of this business.”

  “Everything I can,” Fahim said. “Mother, please rest assured that he will not get the opportunity to pull this sort of stunt again without repercussions. I am taking this very seriously.”

  “As well you should! Rose is being employed by the palace, and besides being a very sweet young woman having a rather awful time, her reputation is our reputation. I wouldn't allow our most junior maid to be maligned like this, and this is Rose, who works with Jamila and Hasan. Can you imagine!”

  Maryam sounded like she would have liked to go on for some time, but then her phone rang and she was off.

  Fahim smiled at his mother's demands. Things were very simple for Maryam, and he envied her more often than not.

  As he continued on his way, however, her words rang in his ears. Rose's reputation was their reputation, and he had brought Rose in. Rose worked with Jamila and Hasan, the future of the Khalid family, and what did it mean when they could be vulnerable to a man like Bright, when some random musician could upset their lives like this?

  Fahim could feel Bright's proposal weighing over the palace like a dark cloud, like poison waiting to fall on all of them. Bright was a monster, there was no doubt about it, but monsters so often needed to be invited in, and that was what he felt he had done with Rose.

  He shook his head.

  No. He had to be clear thinking going forward. He had no choice at all. For all of their sakes, he had to put his feelings aside and do what was best for all of them.

  17

  Rose had listened to Darius's impassioned proposal in her suite, and she was barely more than halfway through it before she had started to walk, watching the video on her phone as she paced the garden. She had needed to be out of her room. She loved her suite at the palace, but right this moment, the four walls felt like a cage, one where Darius held the key.

  Sitting by the side of the pond, she watched the video in shock and horror, and she couldn't remember what she had been thinking when she spent so much of her twenties with him.

  I know exactly what I was thinking. I thought that was what love felt like, and I thought it was so damn romantic. And then I was just afraid, so damned afraid of being on my own. I didn't run until I had someone to run for, someone who was worth protecting.

  Suddenly terrified, she cupped her free hand over her belly. It felt as if the world were coming for them both, and she couldn't protect either of them.

  Rose nearly dropped the phone when it rang in her hand, and after a moment to reassure herself that it wasn't Darius—she had blocked the number he'd texted from, but she had no doubt that he could get another phone—she answered it.

  “Marya,” she said, wiping her eyes and trying to speak steadily. “This isn't the best time.”

  Rive's drummer was one of her few friends in the world—trusted enough to have her new number—and though she would have gladly talked with her at any other time, right now, she wasn't quite sure she could handle it.

  “Ha, I bet not, hon,” said Marya. It was easy to picture Marya tossing her bright pink hair like an irritated horse, and Rose couldn't help smiling. “I guess you got the news?”

  “That Darius tried to propose to me on a damned stage? Yeah.”

  “Yeah, that was freaking rotten of him. If he had told us beforehand that he was going to do that, believe me, I would have been on the phone with our manager so fast. There's folks there who are not happy with this canceled tour stuff, believe me.”

  “Well, that's good—”

  “Maybe not for you,” Marya said bluntly. “Look, you're safe, right? Got some money saved up, got people in your corner?”

  Rose's mind flashed to Fahim, and regardless of what else had happened, something warm opened up in her.

  “Yes, yes I am.”

  “Good, then maybe you don't need this warning, but I'll give it to you anyway. Darius is going to come after you, babe, and he wants you back really, really bad.”

  “I knew that, Marya, it's fine.”

  “It's really not. I heard him talking about it on the phone a few days ago. He's gearing up for a custody battle, and he's looking for some of the best family-law lawyers in Europe and the States. If you won't marry him, he's going to go after your child.”

  Rose felt as if the color had drained out of the world entirely, as if she had gone utterly numb. Distantly, she heard Marya calling her name to bring her back around, and she took a better grip on her phone, swallowing hard.

  “Yeah, I'm still here,” she said.

  “That's all I wanted to tell you. I hope you're going to be okay. Me, I've had about enough of Bright's crap, and I'm heading home. I'll call you when I'm back in the States, okay?”

  “Okay, girl,” Rose said with a small smile. “Take care.”

  “Of course I will. Good luck, babe.”

  The call ended, and the smile slid from Rose's face.

  Darius was coming for their baby if she didn't do what he said, and her old habits were strong enough that she wanted to go running back just so he wouldn't make good on his threat. A part of her still believed in some terrible way that Darius controlled her world, but another, larger, newer part had appeared, and it growled To hell with that.

  No. He wasn't getting her. He wasn't getting their baby. She refused.

  She pocketed her phone and started for her suite. Marya had given her information, and she wasn't going to go into the future blind. She needed to fight, and right now, for perhaps the first time in her life, she was ready and equipped to do so.

  Rose had just come around the corner to her suite when she realized that Fahim was standing at her door, knocking hard.

  “I'm here,” she said, sidling up beside him. “You can quit trying to bust your knuckles on my door.”

  Fahim gave her a distracted look, and her first impulse, to throw herself into his arms, melted away.

  “Rose, I'm glad I found you. We need to talk privately.”

  She nodded and let them into her room, locking the door behind her. Once inside, Fahim did not take a seat. Instead, he paced back and forth until it made her dizzy to look at him.

  “I take it you have been apprised of the situation,” he said, and she blinked at his cold wording.

  “You mean that my ex proposed to me at a stadium show?” she asked. “Yes.”

  “Good,” Fahim said, his voice clipped. “Then you know that we need to come up with a strategy for how we are going to move forward.”

  Rose took a careful seat on the couch, and then stood up again awkwardly. Having Fahim look down on her made her feel somewhat horribly as if she were in the principal's office and had done something wrong.

  “Well, I got a call from my bandmate Marya—”

  “Marya, who's that?” asked Fahim, his voice sharp. “I didn't think you were still in contact with anyone from your old life.”

  “Marya's my friend,” Rose said, stung. “It's not like she's some random groupie. I wasn't going to cut her out of my life just because I broke up with Darius.”

  “And you trust her?” asked Fahim with a raised eyebrow. “You are certain that she's not going to betray you as soon as Bright offers her money or an opportunity or—”

  “No!” Rose exclaimed. “I told you, she's my friend. She called to warn me that Darius was going to sue for custody of the baby.”

  Fahim's eyes narrowed, and Rose shivered at how cold he suddenly looked. It was as if she had put something in front of him that he very much did not care for, and he wanted it destroyed.

  She was completely unprepared for Fahim to shake his head, waving it away with a gesture.

  “That's not important right now,” he said. “Right now, I want to focus on Bright and how he's attacking your image and what his real goal might be.”

  “Not important right now?” Rose demanded, staring at Fahim in shock. “Are you saying my having custody of my baby isn't important?”

  Fahim looked startled for a moment, frowning at her as if he had just seen her for the first time.

  “Of course I'm not saying that—”

  “It sure sounds like you are,” Rose said, aware that her voice was spiraling higher. “It sounds like you want to talk about the…the scandal of all of this before you want to talk about my baby.”

  “Rose,” Fahim said calmly, “your child is not in any danger.”

  “That's not what Marya said,” Rose insisted. Suddenly she felt as if she were arguing with Darius again, and all of her arguments were foolish and founded on emotions while his were, of course, founded on facts. She shook her head because this was Fahim, not Darius, and she tried again.

  “Marya said that Darius was going to come after our child if I don’t go back to him,” she said. “It's his baby too, and—”

  “By Yeni law, custody battles cannot start until there is a child,” Fahim said, his voice still calm and level. He might have been giving a speech in front of a judge. “That means that there are months before Bright can even begin the legal proceedings on it. We will be ready, and we will not allow him to take your child from you, I promise.”

  Rose shook when Fahim took her hand in his, looking into her eyes. The sudden surge of warmth that rocked through her wore the hard edge off of her emotions, and she reminded herself again that this was Fahim. It was safe to feel like this with Fahim.

  “Will…will you hold me?” she asked softly. “Please?”

  Wordlessly, Fahim brought her into his arms, and they sat down on the couch again, her head pressed against his chest. She could hear his steady heartbeat, and it was almost as if her own heart responded to it. She felt, not well, but better, less as if the world were ending. In Fahim's arms, she felt safe, and when he reached up to caress her hair, she let out a breath that she hadn't been aware she was holding.

  “Rose?”

  “Hm?” she asked.

  “Have you been talking with Bright?”

  Rose froze then pulled out of Fahim's arms.

  “What are you saying?” she asked, her voice tinny.

  “It wouldn't take a lot,” he mused, not looking at her. “But have you given him any information that he could use? I'm not angry, it would be very easy after he reached out and texted you—”

  “No!” Rose cried. “No, how can you think that? Absolutely not, and even if I had, I would tell you right away. There's nothing that—No, I never want to speak to him again.”

  “You may have to before this is all over,” Fahim said, and she was beginning to hate how very calm he sounded. “It may be necessary to face him in court or over a negotiation table. At the very least, I want you to be prepared to make a statement. We can have the palace publicist work with you on message and presentation.”

  Fahim shook his head, going on before Rose could formulate a response.

  “My family has weathered storms like this before, but this one seems to have captured the public's imagination. There are consequences to everything we do, and of course we have to make sure that we act accordingly. Not only do we have our image to keep up, but we also have to consider how what we do affects Jamila, and what she'll have to deal with.”

  Rose took a deep breath and pulled away from Fahim entirely. He looked surprised at her withdrawal, but he didn't follow her, only looking at her with a quizzical expression on his face.

  “Rose?”

  “You have to take care of your family,” she said. Her voice sounded to her as if it were coming from a long way away, or perhaps as if she were speaking from the bottom of a deep cellar. “I understand that. I do. But Fahim, I want you to understand that I have to take care of myself, because I am the only person who is going to be able to look after my child. It's just me here, on my own, and I am not going to fall down on the job of protecting my baby. I cannot afford to fail. I refuse.”

  Fahim reared back as if he had been struck, and suddenly he was the man she had known again, the one who had spirited her away to Tel Aviv and purchased a gorgeous violin simply because he could.

  “Rose, of course I know that,” he said. “I'm telling you, you are not alone, you are—”

  He cut off abruptly as his phone rang. He didn't look away from her, but she could see the new tension in his eyes and the sudden surge of protectiveness, as if he had been called to do battle.

  “You should get that,” Rose said as gently as she could. “It's probably about your family.”

  “This isn't over,” Fahim said as he reached for his phone, but Rose shook her head.

  “It is,” she said, her voice thin but firm. “We're done, Fahim. You have to care for your family, and I have to fight for mine.”

  18

  Fahim had absolutely no time to process the fact that Rose had actually broken up with him before his brother and his mother came looking for him.

  After he left Rose's room, shocked and already on the phone with the libel lawyer, he made his way back to the library in a daze. On one level, he was giving the lawyer directions that he wanted followed, setting the stage for the layer of legal protections that would surround the entire family if the press decided to have a field day with things.

  On another level, he wanted to throw the phone straight out the window and return to Rose, to tell her that of course he would defend her, that she wasn't alone. He wanted to tell her to dare to have faith in him the same way he had faith in her strength and in her ability to withstand the storm, and at the same time, he couldn't think about how to protect her without endangering his family, without putting them at a kind of risk he couldn't tolerate.

  Even as he was thinking all of these things, even as he was doing what he knew needed to be done, Fahim's heart seemed to beat in rhythm to three words: you lost her.

  You lost her.

  You lost her.

  Everything he was doing, everything he was making happen right now, could not escape the shadow of those words, could not in any way outrun them or surmount them. He knew in his head that losing Rose was not the most important thing, not the end of the world, but his heart refused to believe it.

  Finally, Fahim managed to get off the phone with the lawyer, and just when he thought he was going to be able to rein things in, to sort through things clearly and to make sure he could conduct himself in a calm fashion, the door to the library opened and his mother and his elder brother came in.

  “Fahim, I wanted to make sure that you were—”

  “Fahim, would you just look—”

  The iron control Fahim had been nurturing since he was a child snapped like a twig, and he slammed his hand down on the desk with a ferocious thump. The noise froze Maryam and Ziad in their tracks, and he glared at them with a fury that he had never felt before.

  “I am handling it,” he snarled. “I am handling every last part of it, and you can have some faith in me that this matter is not going to go any further. It is under control, it is being handled, I have looked over and over at the information in front of me, and all it has cost me is my relationship with Rose and everything that goes with it. She may lose her reputation, she may lose her child, but our family—”

  “Wait.”

  As angry as Fahim was, Ziad's tone commanded heads of state and military men. Fahim halted as Ziad held up his hand.

  “Wait, what is this about Rose losing her child?”

  “It seems as if Bright is going to preemptively sue for custody, unless Rose goes back to him,” Fahim said grimly. “In a ploy to get Rose to return, he is willing to use their child as a chain and drag her.”

  A dark cloud came over Ziad's face. For all his clumsiness at love and for all the troubles he’d had in the beginning relating to Jamila and Hasan, he loved his children with all his heart, and he would never suffer them to be taken away from him.

  “No,” he growled. “Bright will not be doing that. I had no idea he would sink that low. I had only seen the gossip sites talking about the marriage proposal.”

  Fahim nodded, and a certain tightness in his chest loosened at his elder brother's worlds. Maryam was gazing at him with concern.

  “What do you mean, you lost Rose?” she asked, and Fahim shrugged.

  “She knows that I can't divide up my care between her and this family,” he said, unsure of how well he was hiding his bitterness. “I can't be there for her while I'm trying to handle all of this.”

  “Well, of course you can,” Maryam said calmly, and he stared at her.

  “What do you think I have done every day as sheikha?” she asked. “What do you think Ziad has done with Laura and with his children? Of course you can.”

  Fahim blinked at her, and she shook her head.

  “You work so hard,” she said quietly. “We have perhaps made a mistake in allowing you to do so. But no one—not me, not Ziad, not this country—wants you to put everything aside to be a lawyer. Rose is doing what she knows best. She is protecting her child. She put in her request for leave just an hour ago.”

  “She—”

  Maryam nodded at Fahim's shock.

  “I signed off on it. She needs people around her who care about her. She said she was going home to her parents.”