Alone in his private office, Malik stared unseeingly out at the domes, spires and flat roofs of Teruk’s old city. He had a son—a child he’d never, ever been aware of.

      A shudder escaped him and he turned from the window. He could hardly believe his grandfather had kept something so monumental from him…even as he acknowledged that Asad’s actions, their innate coldness and cruelty, would never surprise him.

      And what of Gracie? For a moment he allowed himself to picture her—the tumbling brown hair, the glinting golden gaze, the wide, ready smile. Then he closed his mind to her and all the what-ifs that had ended a decade ago. He could not think of Gracie that way now. He would not. No matter what Asad had done, she had wilfully kept his child from him. The only purpose or role in his life for her now was as the mother of his child...and as his convenient wife.