“One month turned into two,” Cala said. “I knew I was pregnant, but I didn’t want to tell him because I didn’t want him to leave.” She glanced at Sabrina and smiled, despite the tears sparkling in her eyes. “It turns out he knew, but didn’t want to say anything because he’d fallen in love as well.”
Cala sighed and returned to her chair. “When we finally confessed all, I was so happy. Givon loved me and would never leave me. Because I was young I could convince myself that it would work out. I didn’t think of his kingdom, his wife or his sons. I only thought of the man who was the light of my world.”
“But he left,” Sabrina said. “What happened?”
Cala fingered the slender bracelet again. “His wife arrived. She brought with her his newborn son and placed the child in his arms. ‘Will you abandon us all?’ she asked. I was standing in an alcove of the foyer and I heard her words. I saw the indecision in Givon’s eyes and I saw the moment he chose.” She glanced at Sabrina. “He didn’t pick me.”
Cala pressed her hands together. “I raged at him. I accused him of toying with me, of tricking me, of never loving me. I’m not proud of my behavior. My only excuse is that I was very young and in love for the first time in my life. I told him if he left I never wanted to see him again. He crushed the last piece of my heart when he agreed that would be best. Neither of us would be comfortable with an ongoing affair.”
She curled her feet under her and closed her eyes. “In a final attempt to punish him, I told him I would forbid him to see his son. That the heir to the city would be raised by me and my father. Givon was not to approach the child ever. I made him swear.”
Cala opened her eyes and looked at Sabrina. “So you see, I have many sins to atone for. I have kept Givon and Kardal apart all these years. I nearly destroyed a king and I did serious damage to his marriage. So what, after all this time, am I supposed to say?”
Sabrina had no easy answer. “There were circumstances you couldn’t control,” she told Cala. “You didn’t seduce him from his marriage. Your father arranged it and Givon agreed. Aren’t you the innocent party in all this?”
“Perhaps I was once, but not anymore. What about Kardal? He hates his father. How am I supposed to explain the truth?”
Sabrina bit her lower lip. She had thought her situation was complicated and difficult, but Cala’s had been much worse.
“Do you want me to speak with him and try to explain?” she asked.
Cala nodded. “I’ll admit I’m willing to take the coward’s way out of this. I don’t want to see the hate in my son’s eyes when he finds out it was my fault he never knew his father.”
Sabrina didn’t think Kardal was going to hate his mother when he found out the truth, but he wasn’t going to be happy with the information. She wondered if it would change his attitude toward Givon. She wondered if her impossible story was going to have as unhappy an ending.
“So you see,” Sabrina said that evening when she and Kardal had finished dinner. “It’s not all Givon’s fault. Cala made him swear he wouldn’t contact you.”
Kardal stared into his coffee, but didn’t speak.
Sabrina shifted on the cushions in front of the low table. “Don’t you believe me?”
His dark gaze settled on her. “I don’t question that you are repeating the story as it was told. However, that does not make it the truth. Givon had a choice in the matter. He could have come to see me when I was at school. He could have invited me to visit him in El Bahar.”
“But he’d given his word!”
Kardal raised his eyebrows. “He had given his word to his wife, yet he bedded another woman.”
“That’s not the same thing at all. His being with Cala was a matter of state.”
She could tell that Kardal was not impressed by her argument. She wanted to reach across the table and shake him. Didn’t he understand how important this was to her?
“What are you thinking?” he asked suddenly.
“Nothing.” She stared at the napkin draped across her lap.
“Sabrina?”
She slowly raised her gaze. “I don’t understand why you’re being so difficult,” she admitted. “I’m not saying that Givon wasn’t wrong, but there might have been mitigating circumstances. I think you should talk to your mother about this. Hear her side of the story.”
“No.” He rose to his feet. “I do not wish to discuss this anymore.”
She stood, also. “Maybe that’s not your choice. You said you wanted my help in this matter. You can’t pick and choose when you want me to participate. Either we each have an equal voice in this matter or there isn’t any matter between us.”