PROLOGUE
Dubai present day
Grace Peters lay still, her hands trembling as she gripped onto her son, little Darcy. Gently holding her hand over his mouth in the darkness of the hidden void under the bed.
She swallowed the bile to the back of her throat and held her breath. She couldn’t hear Captain Lincoln, but the smell of his cigar smoke reassured her that he was near.
Her legs were numb, curled with her knees bent in the small space as her son lay still between them, but that was the least of her troubles.
A loud helicopter hovered over the sailboat. The team of coast guards’ boots thumped as they boarded the deck from their military vessel.
“Where is the boy?” a uniformed Emirate guard asked in broken English.
Captain Lincoln stared at him. Wiping his grey hair from his wrinkled sun-drenched face with his cigar in his fingers.
“What boy?” he asked in his calm Californian accent.
He’d successfully smuggled many innocents out of Dubai.
*******************************
Chapter One
Grace Peters sat at her desk at the London law firm. Signing corporate documents ready for the impatient courier to deliver to her new client.
As irritating as he was, he provided the distraction she needed to keep her mind of the following day’s visit to her wife’s family home in Dubai.
Her wife, Nadia Aktoum, hadn’t had any contact with her parents for seven years, since she and Grace had both graduated at Oxford.
Her parents had planned for her to marry her cousin. A customary arrangement since they were children.
Nadia had initially accepted her intended fate to appease her parents and adhere to family tradition, but once she had arrived at Oxford and met Grace, she refused.
Nadia’s mother Fatima remained bitter and outraged, until recently when her health deteriorated and she invited them over together to settle family differences and meet Nadia and Grace’s son Darcy.
Grace sympathised knowing that her wife would never be truly happy until her maternal mother accepted her for who she was. Just as her own caring family had.
Grace pushed the bundle of documents into a large brown envelope and shoved them into the courier’s hand.
The tube train home was packed in rush hour. She stood tall in her smart black professional suit and held onto the overhead bar. Her black leather briefcase in one hand and her matching shoulder bag slung over her right shoulder as it tugged at her long blonde flawless hair.
As he entered a compartment, a man tripped and almost pushed her over, without an apology.
I won’t miss tube journeys, when I’m holidaying in Dubai. She thought.
The train halted at Hackney Station. Outside in the cold she picked up her pace, rain drizzled on her without an umbrella.
She smiled to herself, looking forward to being home and helping Nadia pack for their trip.
She turned into their pathway and saw Nadia already in the bedroom upstairs. Nadia was too excited to wait and had already started packing without waiting for her.
The weight of the preparation for the last day before a holiday lifted as she opened their newly renovated yellow Victorian door, slipped off her shiny black heels, bag and jacket, and placed her briefcase down in the hallway.
She walked into the kitchen and poured them both a glass of red wine. Inhaling the aroma of their delicious dinner cooking in the oven, Grace made her way upstairs.
“You’re early!” Nadia smiled as she took the wineand sipped it after Grace kissed her.
Grace reciprocated the kiss and smile. “I’m on time.” She sipped her wine.
“How was your last day at the office?” Grace asked.
“I managed to finalise the Devlins’ divorce, without further insults from Mr Devlin. That’s a bonus for me.”
They high-fived.
“How was your last day?” Nadia enquired.
“Better now it’s over. I can concentrate on you two for two whole weeks.” Grace smiled again, not wanting to bore herself or Nadia with her corporate clients’demands after hours.
“Darcy is getting dropped home soon from his violin lesson. Jonesy kindly offered as he knows we’re busy packing. I bet he’ll be relieved to get a break from the violin for a couple of weeks.” Nadia laughed while tying her long black hair up into a scraggy ponytail.
“Mom insisted she got him lessons whilst he’s young, to appreciate musical instruments.” Grace mimicked her mother’s voice, the broad Birmingham pronunciation of ‘mom’ rather than the standard ‘mum’ used in other areas of England.
“You know it isn’t my idea to burden the poor boy so early.” Grace sipped her wine.
When the packing was done, they moved downstairs to finish off cooking dinner.
Darcy arrived home looking worn out after a long day at school and the music lesson. He was just in time to sit and eat their last dinner together for two weeks before his bedtime.
“What’s the first thing you’re going to say to Grandma Fatima?” Nadia asked Darcy while serving him chocolate ice cream.
“I don’t know,” Darcy replied with a yawn.
“We’ve gone over this a few times, sweetheart. When you meet her, say ‘marhabaan alijida’. It means ‘hello Grandma’ in Arabic.
She’ll fall instantly in love with you.” Nadia smiled at the idea of the introduction she had been wishing for to finally come true.
“I’m very excited to meet her and Grandpa.”
They both put Darcy to bed exhausted without his usual bedtime story, before they cleaned up the kitchen and retired early to bed themselves ready for their early morning flight from Heathrow to Dubai International Airport.
**************************************
Chapter Two
They boarded the flight with ease. Sitting together in a row of three, each with their own television screens in the back of the seats in front.
During take-off they held hands and closed their eyes whilst giggling with excitement.
Darcy watched cartoons as the food was served and his parents ate theirs without wine. Nadia didn’t want to arrive stinking of alcohol. Her parents were Muslim and wouldn’t approve.
“Let’s go over things again, things we can and can’t say or do when we arrive,” Nadia suggested.
“Not again. Stop fretting. I know the drill.” Grace knew Nadia was nervous and why they’d gone over the rules, countless times.
“Just once more please! My parents will accept you, but there are a few things that we must respect in their home. I know it’s difficult for you but I really need this and it’s only two weeks. Afterwards, we can get back to our normal lives, with me happy that Darcy has met his estranged grandparents.
“Firstly, we’ll have to sleep in separate rooms. I’ll take Darcy in with me because I gave birth to him and my mother will expect that.
Secondly, we can’t drink any alcohol.
Thirdly, absolutely no touching or kissing.
It’s forbidden in public for anyone to kiss on the lips anyway, but we can’t even kiss on the cheek in front of my family.
It’s got to be perfect for them and I know you understand that.
Finally, no mention of you not going to church anymore. I’ve told them you’re practising still and that’s enough for them to digest.”
“I know, I know. I promise to be on my best behaviour. I’m happy they no longer wish to disown you.
I remember when I first met your mother, how she loved the idea that your best friend was the daughter of a British diplomat.
We got on so well back then. I can’t forget the sadness in her eyes when she discovered we were lovers.”
“My parents aren’t just religious they’re extremely conservative. They’re also parents who see theirchildren as a reflection of themselves.
I’ve already told you how Mother is more extreme than my father, she has an antiquated way of believing how I should live my life and has found it impossible until now, it seems, to accept the one I have chosen to marry.
I know it’s difficult for you to understand how they’ve ignored me for years, but all I want is for them to accept Darcy and you. It’s really important to me and I’m prepared to bite my lip for their blessing and our happiness.”
They both settled into a movie. Grace was keen to arrive and get the greetings over with, so she could enjoy Nadia’s contentment upon her reunion with her family.
At Dubai International hundreds of passengers lined up for security checks. Grace had booked the tickets and spent extra on express checkout. She knew Darcy would be tired after a seven-hour !ight and he would be too excited to nap on the plane.
Swiftly through customs they were greeted by the family driver, Ahmed, who was waiting for them as they exited customs, holding up a sign for Nadia Aktoum.
After pleasant introductions upon first meeting Nadia, he led them swiftly outside into a waft of thirty-six-degree heat and high humidity. It was late afternoon and too hot to be outside anywhere.
They followed Ahmed to a white Hummer SUV, an unapologetically boxy and impossibly wide vehicle.
He placed their bags into the boot and gave them all a bottle of chilled water from the small cooler, after they had clicked their seatbelts inside the spacious and luxurious military vehicle.
Darcy was still sweating, even after he’d removed his hoodie. The cool airconditioning was an instant relief.
Ahmed manoeuvred the car out of the airport traffic to reach the highway. He’d been the family driver for just over five years. Selected and recruited by Nadia’s father Mohammed, who’d preferred a local Emirati driver, paying handsomely for his services to the family, over other nationalities that most families employed, thus avoiding costly salaries of experienced high-salaried locals.
“Wow! The architecture, it’s so diverse. The tall shiny new buildings look very glamorous and glitzy,” Grace remarked.
“A lot’s changed since I was here. There are definitely more buildings along the Sheikh Zayed Road than before. They’ve filled the gaps in between the old buildings to build new taller ones." She paused.
"My parents have moved to Emirates’ Hills. That wasn’t built when I lived here. We used to live in Al Barsha in a villa near to here.” She pointed as they drove past.
Ahmed turned into the road towards Emirates’ Hills.
“That was where I first became your family’s driver. So much has changed around here and throughout the whole of Dubai. The development is non-stop. Whole new neighbourhoods have been built with new shopping malls and hotels everywhere. It’s unrecognisable now.”
He was met at the security barriers where a guard greeted him with acknowledgement and checked on the passengers before lifting the barrier to allow them to enter the private luxury complex.
Trees of palms lined along the pavements facinggated private mansions. Each had their owncontemporary or Arabesque design. Ahmed stopped and waited for their large gold-sprayed cast iron decorative gates to slowly open.
Nadia squeezed Grace’s hand in anticipation. As the car pulled up outside their cream mansion, she held her breath at the sight of its magnitude and spectacular architectural beauty.
Her parents were standing outside the front doorway to greet them. The butterflies in her stomach fluttered. She was so overwhelmed, tears welled up in her dark eyes and poured down her olive cheeks.
Grace turned round to embrace her but stopped herself and instead squeezed her hand in recognition.
Nadia jumped out of the car and ran to her parents. After a long embrace she introduced Grace first and then Darcy, they invited them inside.
Grace felt strangely uneasy. She hadn’t expected any embrace herself but felt sickened that Darcy, the Aktoums’ grandson, didn’t receive one.
Ahmed the driver was left outside to carry their suitcases and organise them with the maids into their respective rooms.
“Dinner is almost ready, come into the day room for pre-dinner drinks,” Fatima Aktoum suggested.
A maid arrived immediately with a tray full of soft drinks. Nadia sat contented between her parents on a large floral sofa. Grace held Darcy’s hand on another matching sofa facing theirs.
“What do you want to say to Grandma, Darcy?” Grace asked, feeling his dismay at the unique situation he had been placed in.
“Marhabaan alijida,” he shyly whispered holding his head down.
They all laughed as Grandpa Mohammad reached out to shake his tiny hand.
Fatima still hadn’t hugged her grandson. Nadia seemed too overwhelmed to notice but Grace was feeling more uneasy than she had done when they’d arrived.
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