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EIGHT

“Where is Zayed? We were supposed to meet after breakfast,” Zelda said to Hadya

The older woed “He leave for business Back maybe three hours”

Zelda s her head in a respectful nod that concealed her annoyance; it was the day before her and the Sheikh’s supposed engageo over their cover stories in detail once more

The days since she’d moved into Zayed’s palatial mansion had been intense,in her life She and Zayed had spent hours out of every day learning about each other—or in Zelda’s case, solidifying her cover story—and rehearsing their tale ofin love

Zelda went back to her rooement party to co so else to fill her mind with

The Sheikh had taken her to one of his designer friends the day before to do the final fitting on her gown for the party, and they’d spent the entire drive speaking about their pasts

“It’s actually a good thing that your parents are so highly educated, and passed that onto you,” Zayed had said at one point

“I thought you said having two professors for parents wasn’t good enough for people here?” Zelda had raised an eyebrow at the Sheikh’s apparent hypocrisy

“It isn’t,” he said, shly intelligent parents who taught you well”

Zelda shrugged “Why is it such a benefit if I can’t even claim it?”

“Because you have poise, and you can speak well,” Zayed told her “That will give everyone the ie”

“What about you? What was your education like?”

Zayed fleetingly looked almost sad, but the iht that she e,” he said “Then boarding school in Switzerland when I was a teenager, and of course college,” Zayed told her “My parents wanted me to have the very best in every

thing that would be important to my future”