Lyla"You hungry at all, Lyla?"I tore my eyes away from the television, still swollen and irritated from how hard I'd been crying after Rashid had brought me up to bed. He'd laid with me for a while, comforting me to sleep until I succumbed to my dreamless void.When I'd come to, Melanie had replaced him.I shook my head at her, turning back to watch the TV, my mind empty and barely able to follow whatever was on. I felt numb like I was out of my own body and a figure looking in from an outside perspective. I was disconnected from all my emotions, removed from even the slightest bit of worry, joy, or happiness.It was nothing but a black hole.Next to me, Melanie sighed. "I think you should eat something. I don't mind making you a sandwich or maybe a bowl of soup?"Nothing sounded appealing. All I really wanted to do was crawl into bed and forget about existing for a while. Let the world move on without me and have everyone leave me be. I didn't w
Lyla"This is really beautiful," Melanie told me, handing back the tablet. I looked down at it, the last sentence I'd written—no, plea—staring back at me. I had no idea how long we'd been sitting here, but it was well into the late afternoon and early evening given how far the sun had set outside the big windows framing the front of the living room.My finger hovered over the screen, the little save icon up in the corner pulsating with the reminder. Was I done? Was everything I needed to say in this… letter-manifesto? It seemed hard to believe that twenty-two paragraphs were going to be enough to convince millions of people of my innocence.Then again, a single headline had completely toppled my life to begin with. So maybe it was all about perspective at this point."I think what you have is perfect, Lyla." Melanie leaned her shoulder into me. "I know you're worried but you have a beautiful way with words and this reads like you telling them what happen
LylaI stared at my screen, unblinking. Another message popped up: 'hello?'And then another: 'omg did you mean to go live?'I was frozen in my chair, staring at the screen as more and more messages filtered onto it. Down at the bottom of the screen, where the button to record used to be, was a pulsated dot that read 'live' in colorful letters.My mouth dropped open.Oh god.No.No, no no no.More comments filtered in.'you good?''lol i don't think she meant to go live''YO ARE YOU THE GIRL THAT FUCKED THAT PRINCE???''omg she's actually kind of pretty wtf''lol whore''HAHAHAHAHAHA''is someone recording this lol''eyyyyy does that prince have brothers? hook me upppp girl!!''is she still preggo?''HELLOOOO FROM NJ!!!!'Hearts appeared along the side of the screen, dozens of them along with the little arrow button. What the fuck did I just do?!"Lyla? You okay?" Rashid a
Lyla"I'm not really sure if I'm going to post this, but… fuck it. I guess I'll just say what I wanted to say on that live."I breathed out slowly, letting my shoulders relax before continuing."A lot of you may know me as the mistress of the prince of Dubai, or a gold-digging whore, or maybe even the person who seduced a royal and got knocked up. But… actually, my name is Lyla Arden." It felt so weird saying my own name. "I've been seeing a lot of speculation as to what happened at the beginning of our relationship and what's been going on now, and I wanted to come on here and tell you the truth. My truth."My throat constricted, forcing me to close my mouth. I stared wordlessly at my image, seeing my eyes slowly become teary. I smiled while my bottom lip trembled."Sorry… it's hard for me to talk about." I sniffled and wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. "When I met Rashid… I had no intention of ever falling for him. I… we… me and my best friend travel
RashidIt was nice to see my wife finally waking up with a smile on her face.I'd been so worried over the past few weeks that she'd never get back to her old happy self, and yet here I was, rolling over to see her staring at me with the only expression that I ever wanted to see grace her features.She was so beautiful that I still couldn't believe how lucky I was to have her. To finally call her mine. It had been the worst kind of agony being separated from her and once I had her, all hell broke loose.But today it seemed like things were looking up."Can we do something today?"I reached over and caressed her face. "Of course, my love. What?""Can we stay off social media and just have a day to relax? I'd love to have a movie marathon with Melanie and Zayed if they're up for it."I chuckled, she was so cute. "I'm sure they'd love that."Her smile widened. "You think so?"I leaned over to press my lips to hers. "I do. Why don't I go
RashidI pulled the phone away from my ear and put it on speaker. If they had anything they needed to say to me, then they could say it to all of us. I was done trying to cover for them and pacify their words when they'd never given me the courtesy of doing so themselves."About what?" I asked.She didn't say anything for a long moment. Whatever it was, it was clearly eating up her pride to do so. I couldn't imagine she'd called to apologize or anything like that. My mother wasn't one to admit her faults, even if they were staring her right in the face. In fact, she'd rather go to her grave than admit she was wrong about anything.It had been a frequent fight in our household in getting her to relent when she'd been misguided while raising us. She ruled with as much of an iron fist as my father, but at least my father could set aside his pride every once in a while and admit that he was human.There was never an apology though, from either of them. It
LylaI couldn't believe how strong Rashid was.Telling off his mother had been a long time coming and not something I ever thought he'd be able to do. Of course, this was never something I'd ever blame him for, seeing as how I'd grown up in a similar situation with my parents, and my only solution to getting them off my back was temporarily blocking them every so often for my own sanity.It took serious guts to actually tell a parent to fuck off—even with Rashid doing it as eloquently as he had.I wished there was a way that we could go out and celebrate. It might not have seemed like a momentous occasion but that's sure what it felt like. Now we weren't the only ones backed into a corner. In fact, we were starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Something I never thought was possible even a few days ago.My video had made its rotations on social media quite a few times, with the mass majority of people praising me for my 'raw and unfiltered' vers
Lyla"All right.... All right, thank you. You too." I looked over to Rashid as he pulled his phone away from his ear, reveling in the excited energy that poured off him the moment he stood and walked over to me."So, Anton Wright will be here tomorrow to do our exclusive. The network is going to be sending over a crew to help us set up a good spot for us to do the interview and walk us through what they're going to be doing."I nodded. "When are they coming over?""Some time today, I believe."I rubbed my hand over my belly, it was kind of my comfort as of late to feel our baby moving under my hand. I couldn't wait to meet him and his squirmy little self.Rashid and I had joked many times over the past few weeks that he was going to be some kind of soccer player with the way he liked to kick at everything, including my poor ribs and bladder."Should we make them food?"He laughed. "I think they'll be all right. But, maybe a snack or some
RashidThree Months Later…"Rashid! Can you come grab the milk out of the microwave!" Lyla called out through the house.I looked up from the laptop resting in my lap, my eyes readjusting from looking at the screen for too long and watering slightly. "I got it," my sister said, pulling herself up from the floor."Thanks." I stretched my arms over my head, feeling my shoulders crack as I did so. Who knew trying to find accommodations for a former princess was going to be this much of a hassle?Salama and I had been working on finding her a place to live on her own while Lyla and I's house was being built. After her breakup with Javier, my parents had disowned her as well, cutting her off before she had a chance to explain that he'd masterminded an entire campaign into trying to steal my wife away to Spain with him.According to our parents, Salama was just as much of a failure as I was and since she'd gotten back into contact with me and come ov
LylaJavier smiled at me. "I told you that. Remember?"I shook my head at him, trying to move backward but was only met with the hard bodies of the guards surrounding me. In my arms, Nasir began to cry. The sound made my heart ache. It fucking sucks that my newborn child has been put into this situation. It's not fair. "What is going on!" Salama tried to jerk away from the guards surrounding her too. "Javier, what are you doing!"He sighed. "I'm sorry to tell you, but I have to break off our engagement. Don't worry, I won't make it look like you were at fault.""I don't care about that!" she snapped back. "You're not actually taking her back to Spain with you, right?""I am, actually."I shook my head. "I'm not going anywhere with you, Javier. You know that."He frowned at me. "Lyla, we had a deal. I help you get your baby back and you come with me to Spain. You agreed to that.""I got my own baby back! No thanks to you!" I cried, holding m
RashidI wasn't completely familiar with the palace but I had a general sense of where things were from the copious amount of times my father had gone into great detail about the intricacies of how this palace had been rebuilt after he'd become king.Why my father had been so obsessed with discussing architecture with me was beyond my comprehension at the time, but today I was grateful for it. Thankful even. Maybe I'd send the old bastard a thank you card after this was all said and done.After we'd closed Hafsa inside the nursery, we hurried down the hallway on the opposite side of where we'd come up from the staircase. I remembered there being a door to the outside toward the back of the palace, used for any of the waitstaff that came and went as they needed to.I didn't have any worries getting past them. By the time any of them realized who we were and what we were doing in order to call someone, we'd be long gone in a car to my jet sitting in the hangar w
LylaI instantly wanted to cry.All of my emotions over the past few days that I'd bottled down in favor of trying to remain headstrong were finally coming up to the surface at the mere thought of finally being able to see my child again. Was this it? Was this really it?"Is he…?" Rashid asked from across the room.Before I actually broke down though, I reached over the side of the crib and gently folded my hands under the bundle lying there, lifting him gently until I had him out of the crib and tucked into my chest. He made a small noise as he readjusted himself, pressing his face into my neck and sighing softly against my skin.Oh my god.Finally.My hand came up to curl around the back of his head, my entire body folding around him to protect him from everything. Like I was his own personal human meat shield. My baby. My son.Finally, back in my arms.I rocked him gently, feeling that familiar weight I remembered on my chest
LylaDucking and weaving around corners to remain hidden was more annoying than I thought it would be.With Salama guiding us through the palace, she was constantly grabbing my arm and yanking me into a dark room, the sounds of others passing by or even the remnants of someone moving down a corridor had us both spooked beyond belief.I wasn't sure as to why Salama's parents wanted her back just as badly as they wanted Rashid, but I tried to stop understanding them a long time ago. It was easier to just assume the worst at this point.We wandered around what felt like every single damn hallway we could find. Having no clue as to how we were supposed to get out of here, or where to find Rashid in all of this as well as where Hafsa had run off to. Both of us were slowly growing more frustrated with each hallway we stumbled upon."This place is so horribly mapped," she spat as she dragged me down another corridor. "Who in their right mind would design a palace like
LylaI had no idea how long I sat there on the floor before I remembered I had my phone still tucked into my jeans pocket.Sometimes past-me really had future-me's back. That was for sure. I had no idea who the hell I was going to call, but I had to try someone.Pulling my phone out, I dialed Melanie first. Her groggy voice answered me only a moment later."Mmm… Lyla?"I gasped into the phone. "They have me locked in a room!""What?" There was rustling on the other end. I sobbed into the phone, my entire body shaking as I spoke. "They locked me in a room! They took Salama away too! Javier's going to take me to Spain with him and I'm never going to get to see my baby again!""Hold on, I can't—hold on." There was a groan on the other end from Zayed before Melanie came back on the phone. "Lyla, where are you?""The palace in Abu Dhabi," I choked out. "They… I don't know, had this plan to give me to Javier to take back to Spain. I don't k
LylaI pushed past Salama to get into the room, a gasp leaving me the moment I laid my eyes on the scene in front of me.My heart pounded so wildly in my chest that I was afraid it was going to split my ribcage open and jump out. It felt like a dream to see what was in front of me—to finally lay my eyes on the one person who'd completely ruined my life and the one that had completely changed it too.There was Hafsa, seated in a large round chair with her arms cradling a small bundle. She smiled down at it, rocking slightly as she murmured something softly. The scene was so domestic and sweet looking that for a moment I felt delusional. There was no way that someone looking that content with life could have done all of this.But as soon as I heard a soft cooing sound, my dream-like state crumbled, forcing me back into the reality that was and not the one that my brain wanted me to believe in.I stumbled forward toward her, a hand quickly jerking me back from the
RashidWe followed the attendant to an unmarked room away from the waiting room we'd been kept in for a little over half an hour. I wasn't surprised they were all taking their time. It was normal for officials to draw these kinds of things out, either for their own benefit by starving their clients, or making them too aggravated to think properly.And while normally it had the potential to work, both Javier and I were above falling for such things. We'd been trained in it, after all.Although, I am becoming a little jittering having to wait for so long. Because I know that if all goes well with this meeting, I'll be one step closer to getting my son back and holding him in my arms, and witnessing Lyla be a wonderful mother to him like it's second nature and she was born to do it.We're missing out on so many firsts with our newborn baby all because of that selfish fucking woman. The thought of Hafsa with Nasir caring for him like Lyla and I should be at this t
Lyla Waking up the next day to Rashid's grave face sent me into a small panic attack that I ended up locking myself inside of my bathroom to deal with it while he got the rest of our stuff ready to head out.I didn't want to bother him with more of my head-shit, having seen him stressed way too much about the other things on his plate he had very little control over. It wasn't fair of me to monopolize him with all of my problems when he had his own to sort out too. Dumping everything onto him, especially right before we were going to be heading out, was a shitty thing to do.Finally, after what felt like an hour, I gathered myself and splashed some water on my face before finally leaving the bathroom and heading out to join the rest of our group in the living room. Surprisingly enough, they all looked just as stressed as I felt, even Salama who I'd suspected only came on this trip to supervise her fiance looked like she'd barely slept all night. I didn't know whet