That was tamer than she’d expected. “Just for me? I’m honored.” Leila swallowed, suddenly realizing what this meant. Her mother had said those chains had been used for her twenty-two years ago. Her mother had lied.
Faris placed a hand on Aisha’s shoulder and turned her toward him. “Habibti, don’t you think it’s time to tell her the truth?”
Aisha wet her lips and nodded, her gaze falling to the ground.
“The truth?” Leila’s heart thudded painfully. “What’s he talking about?”
Aisha stepped away from Faris, stopped a few feet in front of Leila, and took in a long breath, her eyes glistening. “I’ve been seeing Faris for three months… ever since he got out of prison.”
Leila’s mouth dropped. So that’s what her mother had wanted to tell her at the café. “Why would you…” Leila whispered but couldn’t finish.
“I didn’t want to say anything before your wedding,” Aisha went on, breathlessly. “I didn’t want you to shut me out of your life. But I can’t help going back to him. You don’t have to be afraid of him. He’s not going to hurt you or anyone else. All he wants is what’s best for me and Sami.” She turned, slowly waving an arm at the villa. “Just look at this place. He built it for me. For us.”
Leila shook her head. She didn’t give a flying hoot about the remote island villa. “He’s lying to you.”
Aisha turned back to Leila, her eyes solemn. Her voice shook as she spoke. “I’ve been lying to you. Twenty-two years ago, when I disappeared from the boat on the Nile? It was all my idea. I wasn’t kidnapped. The truth is… I ran away. I left.”
Leila’s chest tightened, the need to breathe suddenly forgotten. Was she hearing this correctly?
“I left your father.” Aisha covered her face with her hands. “I left you.”
“No,” Leila croaked. Suddenly, she couldn’t see anything but a blur of colors. Her throat tightened painfully, refusing to let air through.
“Faris kept writing and calling, even after I’d left Egypt and married your dad. He never gave up on me,” Aisha went on, lowering her hands from her face. She stared ahead blankly. “If Landon noticed, I acted as if Faris was stalking me. In truth, I’d fallen for him. I wanted him more than anything. By the time Landon and I brought you to Egypt to meet my family, I already had a plan. I paid witnesses to say I fell into the river. Landon knew I couldn’t swim, so that story seemed like the perfect cover-up. I got them to believe they were helping a desperate woman escape an abusive husband, and they agreed to help. I waited until you and your father were asleep, then I walked off the boat, down the pier, and got into a car where Faris waited for me.”
Leila’s knees shook and she fought to stand upright. She stumbled and grabbed the back of her chair.
“You’re lying,” she managed to gasp. Her lungs hurt so bad; she couldn’t breathe. It couldn’t be true. This must be another one of Faris’s lies he’d brainwashed her mother into believing. Her mother had looked so scared in the café when Leila had confronted her. Something must have changed since then.
Aisha shook her head, tears rolling down her cheeks. “It’s the truth.”
Then it hit Leila. Aisha hadn’t been afraid of Faris, Aisha had been afraid of her.
“Why?” Leila shouted.
“I couldn’t face it. I couldn’t bring myself to ask your dad for a divorce. I thought it would be better if you both thought I was dead. Then you could both move on and forget about me.”
“What part of that makes it better? I grew up without a mother!” Not to mention the fact that her dad grieved and spent years trying to find her, only for Amir to murder him before he could succeed.
“I know,” Aisha said softly as she walked up to Leila and placed her hands on her arms. “I couldn’t take you from Landon. You were everything to him.”
“And I wasn’t to you?”
“That’s not what I meant.” Her mother’s eyes were full of sadness, yet Leila wondered if that was a lie, too. “I loved you. I missed you. And when you arrived at the villa in Egypt, I couldn’t bring myself to admit what I’d done. I was afraid you’d hate me and wouldn’t want anything to do with me. So I tried to hide everything. Then the charade grew and spiraled out of control. I know I never should have lied to you. I regret it in so many ways.”
“You regret it?” Leila hated the way her cracked voice betrayed how much this hurt. Hated the way her mother made her feel so small and unwanted. They had struggled the last two years to build a relationship with each other. There had always been some sort of resistance on Aisha’s side, like she wanted to keep a distance. Leila could never put a finger on it, not until now. Her hands curled into fists, and she stepped away from her mother’s touch.
“I love you. Believe me, I do,” Aisha pleaded, her voice a whisper. “I shouldn’t have done what I did. But I want both you and him in my life. Please don’t make me choose between you and him. I don’t want to lose you again.”
Leila’s face warmed. “You already made your choice, you coward. You chose twenty-two years ago when you walked off that boat.”
Aisha flinched, then turned her head.
Faris walked forward, coming to a stop next to Aisha, and laid a hand on her shoulder.
“She talked about bringing you to Egypt all the time,” he said, running the back of his fingers down Aisha’s cheek. “I dissuaded her. It really was for the best.”
Leila rounded on him, her body trembling. “You monster,” she growled. “You were behind this. You started it. You encouraged it. You helped. You broke up a family. You took a child’s mother away from her. Why? Because you’re a psychotic, selfish scumbag.”
“Leila,” Aisha huffed. “Don’t talk like that. He’s not a—”
“Where’s the gun?” Leila demanded, ignoring her mother.
Faris watched her with a steady gaze, his arms crossed.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Aisha said firmly. “He doesn’t have a gun.”
“Yes, he does. He threatened me with it. He’s going to kill me. He’s completely unhinged. He’s the one who blew up the museum. He even has a cell phone ready to trigger another bomb.”
“What are you talking about?” Aisha whispered, disbelief creasing her brow. “That’s not true.”
“He’s made it look like Professor Soliman did it, and the authorities fell for it. Faris has been lying to you and brainwashing you. And he’s going to keep doing it and you’re just going to keep believing every word he says instead of doing something about it.”
“I’m not brainwashed,” Aisha insisted. “Faris is my husband. I’m with him because I want to be with him. I love him.”
Her mother’s words from the museum came back to Leila in a haunting echo. Everyone deserves to be loved, Leila. Even the worst people. Her body grew hot, rage boiling in her veins. If her mother were sane, she’d betrayed her daughter in the worst way possible. It stabbed at Leila’s heart as if she’d stuck a knife in her chest. How could her mother love this man? After everything he’d done, how could she put him above everything? Above her own child.
“Why?” she screamed. “He’s ruined everything!” She turned to the object closest to her—the table—then grabbed the sides and flipped it. Food went flying. Glass and porcelain shattered across the patio. But that wasn’t enough. The ring of shattering glass only fed her anger.
