The Sheikh's Surprise Twins (Qadir Sheikhs Book 1) by Leslie North

Author:Leslie North [North, Leslie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-02-23T16:00:00+00:00

10

Her throat was tight enough to choke off all the available oxygen, her eyes hot with tears, and Holly was desperate for a door to close behind her.

She walked quickly through the halls of the palace, nodding automatically at the people who passed by. Most of them were uniformed staff. Every nod took a bit more out of her, but she wouldn’t give in to the urge to stare at her feet and hunch her shoulders. Her father hadn’t raised her to be the kind of person who bent under a struggle, even if it broke her heart.

Holly couldn’t figure out why her heart was breaking into such tiny pieces. All of it was understandable. Malik’s mother’s will wasn’t something she could argue against. And it made sense that the considerations he’d need to make when it came to selecting a wife took her out of the running. How would a woman like Holly carry on Qadir’s traditions? She’d done plenty of research as part of putting together the development proposal, but Malik would need a wife who had those traditions running in her blood.

Holly didn’t have that, and she couldn’t fake it.

Her child, yes. Her child would be part of Qadir’s history, because she—he?—was Malik’s child. That didn’t make her qualified to take over an important part of Malik’s mother’s legacy.

She swallowed a hard lump in her throat. It must be the pregnancy hormones making her so emotionally devastated by Malik’s rejection.

Holly reached the door of her suite in the guest wing of the palace and pushed it open with a gasp that turned into a sob. She stumbled into the room and, with infinite care, closed the door behind her.

The moment it clicked shut, she leaned back against it and covered her mouth with her hands.

Her instinct was to shut down these emotions, to push them to the back of her mind and put on a brave face. But one tear fell, then another. Holly had never been the type to wail and make a scene. Even behind closed doors, it felt strange to break down like this.

It was only that Malik’s words had hit home. Part of her had been afraid that it would come to this once she told him about the baby. Holly hadn’t been prepared for the news to arrive early. Now, it seemed painfully obvious that they couldn’t end up together. Not if he wanted to protect his family’s legacy—especially the oasis. It was no small thing for him. Holly knew by the expression on his face when he talked about it. Pride and pain and love were always written there. Who was she to interfere?

She also wasn’t the type to assume that other people would step in and save her from her circumstances. Holly never thought of herself as needing much more than her own two hands and her mind. She was independent.

So why did it scare her so much to contemplate her options now?

Holly dropped her hands and laughed at herself out loud.

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