Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 66062 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66062 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
But now some things finally made sense. Now he understood what Zain had meant when he’d told him that his religious education had been spotty and that children learned by example. His father had been a very poor example who had forced his son to take care of his shit rather than the other way around. This man had effectively raised himself, without any real moral compass or religious guidance. Whatever code he possessed, he’d fashioned it on his own, for better or for worse.
“You had to grow up very fast.”
Zain gave a clipped nod. “The only good thing that came out of my father’s whoring phase was Gadiel. My father knocked up a British expat, so he had to marry her. That seemed to have shaken him enough to get a grip. But by then, it was too late. Our fortune was mostly gone, and it didn’t help that out of misguided pride, my father had been hiding our financial situation for years by keeping up a luxurious lifestyle that we couldn’t really afford. He told me that we were on the brink of bankruptcy when I was seventeen.”
Aiden was confused. “And? What does that have to do with you not being able to get Gadiel out of the country?”
“My father’s solution to our situation was a business venture that required an insane amount of investment—investment the Emir of Abu Dhabi was willing to make as long as we became a family through marriage.”
Oh. Aiden could see where this was going.
Zain’s lips pursed. “My father and Al Sharabi created a joint business on the assumption that it’d be kept in the family. It was initially funded by Al Sharabi and it brings billions annually.” Zain sighed, his expression becoming tight with frustration. “If the marriage doesn’t happen, things will get very messy. In the years since the deal, Al Sharabi has become even more powerful—he’s now the President of the UAE on top of being the Emir of Abu Dhabi. Not only will Al Sharabi be able to take the company away, he can take all the assets of our family as compensation. And that would be the least of our problems. Al Sharabi isn’t a man who will let go of a public insult easily—and neither is my father, for that matter. They might literally kill Gadiel if he escapes the country to be gay in the West. They certainly have the money to track him down, no matter where he is in the world.”
“Damn,” Aiden said, pulling a face. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Why haven’t you been married off if arranged marriage is still a thing here?”
“That’s none of—”
“My business?” Aiden finished with an eyeroll, giving him a crooked smile. “Come on, tell me. You already told me a lot. So what difference does it make?”
Zain just looked at him for a moment, his expression rather tight. He brought his hand to Aiden’s face. His knuckles pushed against the side of Aiden’s cheek where Aiden knew his dimple was, as if he were attempting to erase it. What a weirdo.
“It’s hard to make me do something I don’t want to do,” Zain said. “My father learned that when he attempted to arrange a marriage between me and Gadiel’s bride.”
Aiden blinked. “You were supposed to be the one to marry her?”
Zain shook his head. “Since Omar was already married at the time, my father wanted to arrange the match for me. When I refused, he arranged it for Gadiel. Al Sharabi never knew that a match with me was a possibility, or he wouldn’t have settled for Gadiel.”
“You said it happened when you were seventeen. And your dad just accepted your refusal? He doesn’t seem like the type.”
Something flickered through Zain’s eyes. “He didn’t at first,” he said. “He had to give up when none of his… methods worked and I threatened to publicly humiliate him with disobedience.”
Seeing his carefully blank face, Aiden had the sudden urge to cradle it with his hands and kiss him gently.
“It doesn’t seem like much of a threat,” Aiden said, quashing the ridiculous urge. It was one thing to want to kiss the man because he was in lust with him, and it was completely another to kiss him because he wanted to—what, comfort him? This man wouldn’t want comfort from him anyway.
“You wouldn’t understand,” Zain said with a wry smile. “Our cultures are too different. Disrespecting one’s father in public is much more unthinkable here than it is in the West. Disrespecting him in private was bad enough of an offense for my father to cut me off financially. He would have publicly disowned me too if he could get away with it—it is considered haram for a father to disown his children. Our relationship has been very strained ever since. It pisses him off that I didn’t need his support to become successful.”