The hands withdrew, and the world swam, everything swelling and distorting, inside and out.

At last she heard herself rasp, “Who are my real parents? Do you even know them?”

Anna only hiccupped a great sob, shook her head again.

And Farah wailed, “Oh, God…I’m nobody’s.”

Shehab had to stop Farah. Had to stem her agony before it killed them both.

But before he could dash to contain her, she was careening to the door, her beloved face shuddering, her eyes gushing tears that looked as if they were blood-tinged.

He lunged with the surge of fright, caught her arms, examined her tears frantically, his fingers dipping in them, rubbing at their texture, almost sagged with relief to find it all in his abused mind.

She shook her head and tried to squirm out of his hold, refusing to meet his eyes. “I’m s-sorry…for all the time and effort you wasted on me. But you now h-have the woman who’ll solve your problem a-and you’ll never hear from m-me again…”

He knelt down before her again, collapsed. “Er-ruhmuh ya Farah…mercy. If you don’t want to kill me, even though I deserve whatever you do to me, I beg you, stop. Stop tormenting yourself. None of this, none of us, especially not me, is worth one of your precious tears.”

She stared down at him, her tears running faster instead as a shaking hand flailed down his cheek before whipping away as if he’d burned her. She looked at it in stupefaction. It was wet.

And he realized it-he was weeping, too. He’d shed tears only at his mother’s deathbed. Not only for her loss, but for what she’d endured before death had spared her the suffering. His father’s death had been so sudden, yet somehow expected. Shehab hadn’t been able to feel real grief when he’d felt his father had gotten his heart’s desire, rushing after his wife.

Now he wept, for the grief he’d caused the woman who’d become the one thing he wanted from life. The woman who deserved to be cherished by all, who now felt that she never had or would ever have anyone.

He’d set her straight, once and forever. “It’s not true you’re nobody’s. Even if it were, it wouldn’t matter. You’re mine. As I’m yours.”

Everything stopped. Her tears, her breaths. His heartbeats. But he knew he wouldn’t convince her that easily. He must…

“You must stop this at once, Shehab.” That was King Atef, agitated now, severity entering his voice. “I will do everything in my power to compensate Farah, but you have a duty.”

Shehab only took Farah around her hips, hugged her as she swayed, supporting her as he turned his head to the king. “Yes, I have a duty…” He turned his face back up to her. “To the woman I love. I beg you, ya farah galbi, joy of my heart, marry me.”

Farah jerked in his hold, gasped, her tears flowing again, splashing all over his upturned face, mixing with his.

He hugged her more fiercely, buried his face in her bosom, begged, “Marry me, let me live my life filling yours with security and fulfillment.” He raised his eyes, seeking evidence of her starting appeasement and healing. “I want only you, no agendas, just need, just love, for you, and nothing but you.”

Her hands swept over his head, his face, as disbelief warred with creeping elation and hesitant belief on her expressive face.

He hurried the latter. “Yes, believe me and in me again, I beg you, ya maboodati. It’s true, every word and touch and pledge were true, and all for you.”

She still shook her head. “But you can’t…I’m not…”

“And I’m ecstatic that you’re not. As long as you were the king’s daughter, you would always have thought marrying you served my original purpose. I was about to let you go, would have moved heaven and earth to have peace without the need for our marriage, would have begged to remain your lover, to become your husband only when you believed that I wanted you for yourself. But now it’s better than what I didn’t dare imagine. Now you’re only Farah. Mashoogati. You’ll be sure that every minute from now till the end of my life is for you, and nothing and no one but you.”

“Enough, Shehab,” King Atef roared. “Don’t be cruel, don’t go promising the child what you will not be able to fulfill. As Judar’s future king…”

“As Judar’s future king I have to pay the price of not pledging myself to Farah.” Shehab cut across the king’s righteous wrath, rose to his feet, cleaving her to his side. “And since that’s an impossibility, then I gladly abdicate.”

The world had stood still so many times since she’d laid eyes on Shehab. This time it streaked, as if to skip his declaration, unable to actually record it.

But nothing could lessen its impact. Or stop it from storming through her.

He wanted to abdicate. For her.

He’d been telling her the truth. He felt the same.

He felt the same.

He hugged her off the ground, burying his face in her neck where his still-wet face singed her skin with the concept and reality of his tears. His tears.

And she couldn’t bear it, wouldn’t have it, that she’d be the reason for his pain, his loss, for discord.

She clung to him, took his face in her hands. “If you’re doing this so I’ll believe you, you don’t need to. I do believe you. I believe you, my love. But you can’t walk away from your duty.”

“I can…” he turned his lips to one of her hands, then the other “…and I will.” He suddenly threw back his head and laughed, the most marvelous sight and sound to ever occur on the planet. “Do you know who I love almost as much as I love you at this moment? Kamal. I’m ecstatic to have him for a younger brother. I now understand how relieved Farooq was to have me next in line, to pass the throne and its attached wife to.”

“You mean…? But you…and he couldn’t be…” Her stuttering came to a halt before she burst out. “I can’t let you do this, not for me. You may regret giving up so much, and I can’t-”

“It’s giving you up that would have been giving up my very life. Kamal will be the future king. He is probably more suited for the role than I am. And he’s unattached, so marrying Aliyah should be no problem for him. I and Farooq will still be princes, second and third in line, and we’ll go on as before, ensuring Judar’s greatness and the region’s stability.”

At her continuing objections he placed a finger on her lips. “I’ll never regret my decision, ya mashoogati. My only regret is and will remain ever hurting you, losing your faith, if even temporarily. It almost killed me, to see you in such pain, pain I inflicted, to feel you breaking up inside, drifting away from me where I felt I may never reach you again. You’re the one I was born to love, the one my heart was made to beat for. You awakened me to a world I never dreamed existed, you saved me, ya farah rohi, joy of my soul, and you own me.”

She threw herself at him, murmuring incoherencies, covering him in kisses and reciprocations. And he stood, taking it all, showered, taken, blessed.

Then it was time to let in the outside world. Only because he believed she needed it to complete her healing.

He turned to the others who’d been watching them all along.

“This will work out for the best,” he said to the troubled but clearly resigned king. “Kamal is a far better statesman than I am.”

The king gave a harsh bark. “You’re letting your brother, the region’s most uncontainable force, enter a union with my nie…my daughter, the region’s most volatile entity, and you’re promising me the best results? If there’s anyone who can make the Aal Shalaans rue their machinations and the Aal Masoods regret succumbing to them, it’s those two.”

Shehab laughed, dropped a kiss on Farah’s alarmed mouth. “Maybe they’ll be exactly what the region needs.”

“Don’t you mean what it deserves?” the king scoffed, before approaching, bringing with him the still-weeping Anna and his highly moved sister.

“My daughter, forgive me for opposing Shehab’s pledges, but I was unaware of the depth of your involvement. I have to say I was alarmed when I saw this would lead to settling on the last Aal Masood brother…” He winced, as if settling on the devil would have been preferable in his opinion. “But now I’m only grateful Shehab has a spare heir, even if it is Kamal, so he can give you what you deserve, the best this life has to offer. In the time I thought of you as my daughter, I truly came to care for you. I hope now you’ll be my daughter’s selfah-sister-in-law-and by virtue of sharing a mother, her sister, that I’ll be in your heart as you are in mine.”

Farah gave a strangled sound and catapulted from Shehab’s hold to throw herself at King Atef, hugging him around the waist and sobbing, “I would have loved having you for a father. I k-know you’ll be in my heart…” She raised hesitant eyes to his. “And in my life?”

The stunned king groaned, hugged her back. “B’Ellahi, it would be a privilege and an honor, ya bnayti.”

At this point, Shehab feared Anna would collapse, or worse. He turned to her. “And I hope you’ll feel as enthusiastic about having me in yours, ya sayedati.”

The woman’s color became dangerous, her eyes never leaving Farah’s face as she stuttered. “Yes…yes, of course…”

He tugged at Farah, who’d stepped away from the king, murmured in her ear, for her ears only, “Make peace with the mother who loved you so much, she didn’t know how to love you. Guide her, ya habibati, like you guided me, in how to love, then take all the love that’s due to you.”

The flare of love and gratitude in her eyes was so pure, it was more bittersweet torment, his Farah’s specialty.

Then without further recriminations his magnanimous Farah swept her mother into her embrace. “I always wanted to make you proud and happy, Mom. I love you. You shouldn’t have struggled alone-you should have let me help you. And I will, from now on.” Anna burst into another weeping jag, and Farah soothed her, kissed her cheeks, hugged her more securely. “Don’t feel bad, Mom. It’s over. As for all the things I said, look how wrong I was. If not for you keeping silent, I wouldn’t have found Shehab, wouldn’t be happier than a human being has a right to be now. And I didn’t mean it, about Aliyah-uh, or I did only because I thought Shehab would marry her, not because she’s your real daughter. I hope she lets you, and me, be part of her life. I’d love nothing more than to have a sister.”