Her Older Sheikh (Sheikh Breaks My Heart #9)

Twenty-Three

A grim-faced Nik and worried-looking Daria are already waiting for me on the main deck when I come aboard their yacht with tears still running down my cheeks.

Oh, Lou.

I should've known there was a reason Nik's driver didn't ask me any questions when he heard me bawling in the backseat.

"What happened?"

My heart sinks upon hearing the billionaire's dangerously soft tone. It would have been so much better if he was shouting, since that means I still have a shot at defusing his temper.

But now?

I look at Daria in silent appeal. Help?

Nik's wife gently touches his arm. "Leah will tell us if she's ready."

His jaw clenches. "Just tell me one thing."

My heart threatens to stop beating. Oh God. Is it possible he already knows about Adam and me?

"Does this have anything to do with your headaches?"

Daria looks at him in shock. "What headaches are you talking about?"

But Nik still hasn't taken his gaze off me. "Tell me the truth, Leah. Are you sick? Did Adam tell you—-"

I'm horrified all at once, and I quickly shake my head when I realize where his words are leading. "No, it's nothing like that."

But now I'm also crying harder because I realize too late how wrong I've been all this time, to think I was the only one with fears and worries.

The truth is in Nik's eyes, and a sob rushes out of my throat when I look at Daria, and I see the same thing as well.

Karen was right.

Again.

She told me again and again not to keep things to myself, and if I had just listened to her, then I would have never ended in this mess.

"Nik, Daria, I'm sorry," I choke out. "I'm so, so sorry." I can't believe how blind I've been. All this time, I was so busy trying to hide my own fears, so busy thinking I wasn't normal, that I failed to realize Nik and Daria have been struggling with the same things as well.

They're just as worried as I am about Io's cancer returning, but the difference between us is that Nik and Daria have learned to live with their worries, which is how it should be, while I...

I'm such an idiot that I literally gave myself headaches trying to stop myself from worrying.

Just the biggest idiot ever that I actually thought a fantasy about a conscienceless doctor fucking me would cure me, just so much of an idiot that when it did happen in real life, I even convinced myself it could end well, and that we'd fall in love and—-

"Are you fucking dying?" Nik's tightly voiced question makes his wife pale.

"Why are we t-talking about dying all of a sudden?" Daria stammers. "Isn't this just about Leah having a wild affair with a doctor she doesn't know?"

"What the fuck?" That's Nik.

"Daria!" I cry out at the same time.

"Leah?"

That voice.

Daria, Nik, and I turn towards it, and I almost feel like collapsing in shock when my gaze once again collides with a pair of green eyes.

"What the hell, Adam?" That's Nik again.

" Doctor? " That's also me again, crying out at the same time—-

Wait .

Did Nik just call Dr. Somebody... Adam?

As in...Dr. Adam Al-Masri, my sister's doctor?

The story he told me about his ex flashes in my mind.

She never understood...what my work means to me.

She bribed my assistant...and someone fucking died.

Everything suddenly becomes crystal clear, and even though I've been an idiot for so many times in the past, this is the one time my brain cells actually work to my advantage, and I start crying again because I can already feel the pieces of my heart stitching themselves back together.

"Please."

So that's why he's said all of those hurtful things.

"Will you let me explain?"

He broke my heart...because I had broken his first.

"I thought you were lying to me," he says rawly. "I thought it was the past repeating itself again. I'm so fucking sorry I hurt you—-"

I want to tell him that he has nothing to be sorry about. Want to tell him that I get that everything is just one huge misunderstanding, and what's important is that we never wanted to hurt each other in the first place.

I wish I could say all of those things, but since I'm crying too hard, all I can do is shake my head, and that's when his face whitens.

"Please, little thorn. Just let me explain—-"

I realize too late that he's mistaken my response for rejection.

"I'm sorry, I'm so fucking sor—-"

He stops speaking when I throw myself in his arms, and as I wrap my arms around his neck as tightly as I can...

He finally hears what my lips are unable to say, but my heart has been crying out all this time.

I love you, too.