The Sheikh's Collection. Оливия Гейтс

would be too painful for him, and would serve no purpose at this point in time.”

      She wasn’t getting through to the woman, which meant she would have to play the guilt card. “Have you ever asked Adan if he would prefer to be kept in the dark? I personally think he wouldn’t.”

      “And you, Ms. McAdams, have not known him all that long.”

      Touché. “True, but we have spoken at length about his father. Even though he’s reluctant to admit it, Adan has a lot of emotional scars, thanks to the king’s careless disregard for his youngest son’s needs.”

      She saw the first real hint of anger in Elena’s topaz eyes. “Aahil...the king loved Adan. He gave him the very best of everything money could buy, and the opportunity to do what he loved the most. Fly jets.”

      A perfect lead-in to confront the crux of the matter, yet asking hard questions could be to her detriment. But if Adan could finally put his concerns to rest, it would be worth the risk. “I personally believe he failed to give Adan the one thing he needed most, and that would be a father who paid more attention to him, instead of shipping him far from his home. For that reason, Adan honestly believes the king isn’t his biological father.”

      Elena glanced away, a very telling sign she could be skirting facts. “That is a wrongful assumption.”

      Piper wasn’t ready to give up just yet. “Are you being absolutely honest with me, Elena? And before you speak, keep in mind Adan deserves to know so he could put that part of his past to rest.”

      “I swear on my papa’s grave that the king was very much Adan’s biological father.”

      Even though Elena sounded resolute, Piper couldn’t quite help but believe the woman still had something to hide. “Then you need to tell him that, Elena. And you’ll have to work hard to convince him, because he’s certain something isn’t right when it comes to his heritage.”

      Elena gave her a surprisingly meaningful look. “Do you care for Adan, Ms. McAdams?”

      It was her turn to be shocked. “It’s Piper, and yes, as one would care for a very good friend.” Now she was the one hiding the truth.

      “Then I suggest you not worry about things that do not concern you for Adan’s sake.”

      Piper’s frustration began to build. “But in some ways they do concern me. I want to see Adan happy and at peace. He can’t do that when he knows full well people are protecting secrets from the past. And no offense, but I believe you’re bent on protecting the king and his secrets.”

      “Are you not protecting Adan and Samuel by masquerading as his wife?”

      She had her there. “That’s true, but this pretense isn’t causing either one of them pain.”

      “Give it time, Piper,” Elena said in a gentler tone. “I can see in Adan’s eyes that he cares for you, as well. Perhaps much more than he realizes at this point. But when the fantasy ends and you leave him, reality will be a bitter pill for both of you to swallow. Adan is not the kind of man to commit to one woman, or so he believes.”

      If Adan did care for her, but he could never be more than her lover, that would possibly shatter her heart completely. But she could still foolishly hope that the man she was dangerously close to loving might change his mind. All the more reason to give him the gift of knowledge, whether he came around or not. “Elena, if you ever cared for Adan at all, I’m imploring you to please consider telling him what you know. Isn’t it time to put an end to the mystery and his misery?”

      Elena sighed and stared off into space for a few moments before regarding Piper again. “This truth you are seeking will forever change him. He might never accept the mistakes the people in his life have made, even if those mistakes resulted in his very existence.”

      Finally they were getting somewhere. “Then it’s true the queen had an extramarital affair that resulted in Adan’s birth.”

      “No, that is not the case, but you are on the correct path.”

      Reality suddenly dawned on Piper. “The king had an indiscretion?”

      She shook her head. “He had the desire to give the queen what she could not have. A third child. That decision required involving another woman.”

      “He used a surrogate?” Piper asked, unable to keep the shock from her voice.

      “Yes. In a manner of speaking.”

      “And you know the mother,” she said in a simple statement of fact.

      Elena knitted her hands together and glanced away. “Very well.”

      She doubted she would get an answer, but she still had to ask. “Who is she, Elena?”

      The woman turned a weary gaze to her and sighed. “I am.”

       Eight

      Piper’s brief time in Bajul had been fraught with misunderstanding and mysteries and more than a few surprises. But this bombshell trumped every last one of them. “Who else knows about this?” she asked when she’d finally recovered her voice.

      Elena pushed slowly out of the rocker and walked to the window to peer outside. “No one else until now.”

      All these years, Adan had been living under the assumption that he was another man’s child. A supposition that had caused him a great deal of pain, though he had downplayed his burden. But Piper had witnessed it firsthand, and now she wanted nothing more than to finally give him the answers he’d been silently seeking for years. “You have to tell him, Elena.”

      She turned from the window, a despondent look on her face. “I have pondered that for many years. I still am not certain it would be wise.”

      Wise? Surely the former nanny wasn’t serious. “Adan deserves to know the truth from the woman who gave him life.”

      “And he will hate me for withholding that truth for his entire life.”

      “Why did you withhold it?”

      Elena reclaimed the chair and perched on the edge of the cushioned seat. “The king requested that Adan’s parentage remain a secret, for both my sake and his.”

      “You mean for the king’s sake, don’t you?” She hadn’t been able to tamp down the obvious anger in her tone, but she was angry. Livid, in fact.

      “For all our sakes,” Elena replied. “And for the benefit of the queen, who was already suffering from the decision Aahil made to give her another child.”

      “But I thought she wanted another baby.”

      “She did, yet after Adan was born, she could not hold him. In fact, she wanted nothing to do with him. What was meant to give her solace only drove her deeper into depression.”

      Piper was about to step out on a limb, even knowing it could break the revelations wide-open. “When Adan was conceived, was it through artificial means?”

      Elena shook her head. “That process would have included medical staff, and we could not risk involving anyone who might reveal the truth.”

      “Then Adan was conceived—”

      “Through natural means.” Once again her gaze drifted away. “And after all was said and done, I am somewhat ashamed to say Aahil and I fell in love during the process, though he continued to be true to the queen until her demise. We remained devoted to each other until his death, and until last year, I kept our relationship a secret.”

      That meant the king had slept with the governess for the sake of procreation to please his queen, resulting in a decades-long affair. A twisted fairy tale that needed to be untangled. “You said ‘until last year.’ Does that mean Adan knows you were involved