IT HAD BEEN a long time since she’d been home. Jeena’s heart beat triple time as the relief plane that was carrying medical supplies and her team of doctors and nurses approached the island kingdom of Kalyana.
She took a deep calming breath as the cloud cover evaporated and the jewel of an island set against the Indian Ocean came into view.
Her home.
Only Kalyana hadn’t been her home. Not for a long time. Not since that night ten years ago when her father had woken her up and told her they were leaving Kalyana.
They were all leaving because they were in danger.
She hadn’t wanted to go and didn’t know where they were going, but her parents needed her and she needed them. So she’d left Kalyana for Canada.
She hadn’t regretted it. It had been for the best. Still, she’d never thought she’d see Kalyana again.
She glanced down at her Canadian passport gripped tightly in her hand and hoped she’d be allowed in.
Her father had made it clear they couldn’t go back. They should never go back. They hadn’t been banished, but her father had said they weren’t welcome in Kalyana. Because of her indiscretion, they would be judged. Harshly.
Jeena still found that hard to believe in this day in age, but her father had been adamant. He wanted to protect her and her unborn child.
The Canadian consulate had assured her that the visa had been cleared. That there shouldn’t be any issues.
There shouldn’t be a risk of someone waiting to pounce on her to ask her about her son and pry into her private life. She knew deep down there was nothing to fear. She hadn’t done anything wrong.
All she’d done was become pregnant and decide to have her child. A lot of women were single mothers so there was no reason she would have to watch her back, but still those old anxieties were creeping into the back of her mind. The night her father had insisted they leave. He’d been so scared. He’d thought they were in danger and Jeena knew that someone had made him think that.
And it was all because of who her son’s father was. If it had been someone else, they probably wouldn’t have left...
“Why do we have to leave?” she asked.
“Lady Meleena said that the King will take your child!” her father said. “We have to go to keep our family together. Your child would be looked down upon. Do you really want that?”
“No.” She shook her head. “But we can’t afford to leave.”
“Lady Meleena will help us. She just asks that we never come back. That we never contact anyone and keep your pregnancy secret. I promised her that for your safety.”
“How does Lady Meleena know?” Jeena asked, confused. “No one but Mother and you know. Did you tell someone?”
“Of course not!” her father exclaimed. “Someone at the clinic told her.”
“Why would someone at the clinic tell her?”
“Because people know about who you were seen with and it wasn’t long before Lady Meleena put two and two together. Meleena’s father invests in my plantation. There would be scandal for all of us, and Lady Meleena wanted to take care of us.”
“I’m pregnant. I didn’t commit a crime!”
Her father hugged her. “Of course you didn’t, but Lady Meleena knows first-hand how an illegitimate child with a parent in the aristocracy can be treated. Look at her half-brother Kamal. He was treated so poorly by his peers and then he died in that terrible accident.”
“But—”
“No buts!” her father snapped. “We’re leaving. It’s the best thing for you and the baby. It will protect our family’s name and avert scandal for all concerned.”
Guilt coursed through her. “Yes, Father. You’re right.”
Jeena shook the memory away and clenched her Canadian passport tighter in her fist.
The consulate might say that she was cleared to return and work in Kalyana, but was Lady Meleena, soon-to-be royal bride, okay with it?
They’d left ten years ago to save face and her father was indebted to Lady Meleena for her assistance, but then three years ago Lady Meleena had become engaged to the father of Jeena’s unborn baby and a little part of Jeena couldn’t help but wonder if Meleena had had her eyes set on a certain prize right from the start.
It had bothered her for years that Lady Meleena had taken such an interest in her.
Does it matter? He wouldn’t have married you anyway. He couldn’t. His family would have chosen his bride, and they wouldn’t have chosen a farmer’s daughter.
Her stomach twisted and she tried to relax on the last little bit of the long trip from Canada to Kalyana, only she knew she wouldn’t feel at ease until they landed and she was cleared by customs. She was breaking her father’s promise to Lady Meleena about never returning.
You didn’t promise.
Jeena relaxed then. She was different now. She wasn’t such a pushover.
This had been her home, whether Lady Meleena liked it or not. She was going to do her job here. She had no wish to interfere in Meleena or Maazin’s life.
Even then, she wasn’t sure she could relax, visa or not. She glanced out the window again and a lump formed in her throat, tears stinging her eyes as she saw the island get closer.
Home.
This was where her family had lived and thrived on the same vanilla plantation for generations and it was all her fault that it no longer belonged to her family. All because she’d got involved with and fallen in love with the wrong person.
“You okay?”
Jeena glanced at Teresa, one of the other doctors who had come to help with the relief efforts.
“Yeah, fine.” Jeena forced herself to smile brightly. “Just missing my son.”
Which wasn’t a complete lie. She did miss her son. She’d never really been apart from him for this long and with this much of a distance between them.
He was safe in Canada with her parents. His competitive junior hockey team was in the finals and they were playing at Scotiabank Saddledome, which was a huge deal. He’d gone on and on about it for months. As had her father.
Syman was the reason her parents had taken