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‘I aently as he led her off the terrace ‘May I call you Polly? Or is it Zariyah?’

With difficulty, Polly recalled her randh to understand it was n and outlandish and she refused to use it, so she gave me the name Polly instead’

‘That is a great pity but perhaps in time that could be remedied,’ Hakim re to talk to reat importance to tell you…’

CHAPTER FOUR

HAKIM ESCORTED HER to a room that he described as his office but which more closely resembled an old library

Polly sank down in a coain, eyes ith astonishrandfather

‘But how could you possibly know that?’ she whispered unevenly

‘Myblonde woman ‘My son, your father…’

Polly peered down in wonder at the photo of the attractive dark-eyed young raph ‘Is his name Zahir Basara?’

Hakiretfully informed her of her father’s death when the palace had been overrun twenty-odd years earlier Tears stung Polly’s eyes as he broke that nehile frankly ad that he and his only child had been at odds at the time of his demise

‘He wanted to marry your mother,’ he explained ‘But I refused to support hihter of a Swedish ether they were not happy My prejudice blinded me towards the woman my son loved—’

‘I can understand that…but are you really sure that your son was , but—’

Tears dampened Polly’s cheeks as her euilty for doubting that nar

andmother’s bitterness colour her own attitude towards her , nor had she been unsure of who had fathered her first child Her late mother had told her the truth

‘There can be no doubt because we did a DNA test A sample was taken froravely ‘DNA samples of the dead were conserved after the coup that killed our King’s family and many others at the palace I am very sorry that we ordered the test to be done without your awareness—’