A Secret Birthright(58)
When the introduction between child and grandfather seemed concluded, and they seemed to have come to an understanding, Ryan made his wish to be held by Fareed clear.
Fareed took him, feeling as if he was returning his own heart to his chest.
Silence reigned for endless moments.
His father finally let out a shuddering exhalation. “I have been more than half-mad since I lost my Kareemah.” He looked at Fareed. “You might now realize how it was for me.”
Fareed grudgingly had to concede that. If he lost Gwen…
He couldn’t even think of it.
“Is that your excuse for what you did to her son and yours?”
“I thought I was honoring her memory, making her son my heir. But I wasn’t sane most of the time. Not when it came to Hesham. He had too much of her, inspired in me the same overwhelming emotions.” Suddenly his father seemed to let go of the invincibility he cloaked himself in, seemed to age twenty years over his sixty-five. “Now it’s too late to right my wrongs. I’m the reason he’s lost.”
Gwen took an urgent step toward him, her eyes anxious, adamant. “You may be the reason for many things, but not that, Your Majesty. Never blame yourself for that. The accident that cost you your son, cost Fareed his brother and me my sister, was an act of blind fate. But I want you to know Hesham and Lyn didn’t live in fear. While Hesham took hiding to unbelievable lengths, he and Lyn soon approached it all as an adventure, one they included me in. I never saw anyone more in love or delighted with every second they had together. The shadow of separation only made them appreciate every breath they had of each other. So in a way, you were to thank for the extraordinary relationship they had.”
His father swayed and reached for the nearest chair, only to collapse in it, dropping his head into his hands.
Fareed stood frozen, watching this unprecedented sign that his father was human.
He finally raised reddened eyes, looking at Gwen. “I wish I could have met your mother, ya bnayti.” Gwen started at hearing him call her “my daughter.” “She must have been a remarkable woman to raise not only you, a woman who possesses such generosity, you’d offer me this absolution, this solace, after the injustices I dealt you and yours, but to raise two women who had my most fastidious sons think their lives are a small price to pay to have them. That was the kind of woman my Kareemah was. I hope she had a man worship her as she deserved, as I worshiped my Kareemah.”
Gwen shook her head, her eyes as red. “Regretfully, no. Our father took off while she was still pregnant with Marilyn. She raised us alone until an accident in the factory she worked in left her paralyzed from the waist down. She died from the complications of a spinal surgery years later, with only me and Marilyn with her. We changed our names to McNeal, her maiden name, because she was our only parent, our whole family.”
Those were more shocking revelations to Fareed. More insights illuminating Gwen’s life and character and choices.
“Your father had better be dead, too, or I will avenge her,” his father rumbled as he rose.
Gwen started in alarm. “Oh, no. He’s not worth it.” Then she gave him a tremulous smile. “And then Mom always said it was the best thing that happened to all of us that he walked. She was happy without him. We were happy together. What happened afterward…blind fate was again to blame.”
Fareed hugged her into him, unable to bear her losses, the gratitude that she’d survived it all, that he’d found her.
His father approached, his steps not completely steady. “I was only stating facts when I mentioned your pending adoption.…”
Fareed cut him off. “Adoption or not, I will fight you, and I will win.”
His father looked at Gwen. “Will you hold your dragon of a husband back?”
Gwen stared at him. Fareed did, too. A shaken king was unbelievable enough. An indulgent one had to be a hallucination.
His father exhaled. “I came here to negotiate, and that’s why Emad let me come. But I won’t now. Not because I believe you would triumph over me in any fight, Fareed. And not because I’ve learned a lesson I’ll never recover from with Hesham. It’s because seeing you together, talking to Gwen and meeting Ryan has changed everything. Gwen has given me a reason to live again with her forgiveness, on her own behalf and that of Hesham and her sister. I’m not losing this reason or more of my flesh and blood to the demands of duty and pride.” He placed a hand on each of their shoulders. “You are Ryan’s mother, Gwen. I will swear to that to the world, starting with the Aal Durrah. Ryan will be your heir, Fareed. While I only want to remain part of your lives, if you would have me.”