32

July 2015, Arabian Nation Of Zidra.

"You lied to me?? You ungrateful bitch." Zayed watched in horror as his beloved Great Aunt Sabine, who doted on Aveline, screamed at her.

"I had no other choice. I wanted to protect Zayed from whatever you were planning." Aveline said as she backed up against the wall.

"Zayed!" Great Aunt Sabine spat in fury. The older woman always doted on Zayed since childhood. Being the youngest one of her generation, Sabine had given birth to her only son at the same time Zayed was born.
Unfortunately, the little boy died when he was just five. He had drowned while playing with Zayed.


"He killed my son. So he owes me a child." The older woman sounded psychotic. Zayed never knew that his great aunt had blamed him for her son's death.

"It was an accident. Mom told me about it," Aveline defended her husband.

"It should have been Zayed who drowned that day. He should have gone to get the ball. Not my little boy," Sabine screamed and marched towards Aveline and tried to strangle her.

Zayed rushed towards them and pulled the older woman away from Aveline.

Aveline broke into bouts of cough.

"Zayed. She was lying to us. She was not pregnant. She lied to all of us," Great aunt Sabine said, her eyes throwing lasers at Aveline.

Zayed gulped hard to contain his emotions.

He had grown to love a baby that didn't even exist. And the woman whom he had kept on a pedestal all his life, was plotting against him all along. Two betrayals together.

His life is one full of betrayals and it never ceases to happen.

Revelations were made and Aunt Sabine was soon admitted to a mental institute.

They never talked about the baby matter after that. Zayed realised that she had lied about the pregnancy to provide a false security for Great Aunt Sabine and find time to bring out her truth in front of everyone.


****
London 2021

Maxwell Industries was still humming with gossip and wonder at the knowledge that the The Arabian Prince, Sheikh Zayed Ahmed al Zidra is married and is a father to a set of triplets.

A picture of the triplets with Basim Ahmed hugging them from behind had gone viral overnight after he uploaded the picture on a social media platform with the caption 'with the little Ahmeds'.

There was no question as to who the little Ahmeds share their DNA with as it is pasted all over the triplets' face that they have Zayed Ahmed's genes all over them.

Zayed had already informed Ameya that he would reach office only by afternoon as he is visiting a construction site along with Aveline.

Ameya Patel walked into the cafe during the lunch hour to see many of the employees surrounding a laptop on the centre table of the cafe.

And what she heard was..

'Hello Mr Armani. Who are you? How dare you call me a fool. Do you know who I am?' That voice sounded so much like Ava's to Ameya's ears.

"What is going on here?" Ameya asked and the people looked up at her and gestured to her to come forward.

"These are some videos a boy called Arthur, from Barely village of France uploaded on YouTube. These were uploaded around seven years ago. The boy didn't even have 1000 followers until yesterday and overnight he has over 1 million followers," the guy with the laptop said.

"What videos?" Ameya asked, frowning.

"Last night Sheikh Basim updated the picture of the triplets on social media, which had gone viral and some paparazzi had dug out these old videos."

"You are still not telling me what videos they are?" Ameya asked again.


And the guy played the video where Ava was seen throwing kebabs in the air and catching it with her mouth and an argument between Zayed and Ava followed.

"Look at that fire in her eyes. No wonder Mr Ahmed is crazy over her," another guy said with male admiration evident in his eyes.

"There is another video, and the caption says, 'Our Ava can do anything' " And he played another video where Ava is eating some other snack by throwing it in the air.

"OMG! How did she do that??" A girl exclaimed in horror.

"Do you remember Mr Ahmed saying something about her kebab stunt that would some day give him a heart attack?? He might have been talking about this. And we all wondered what he is talking about," another guy said remembering the incident which happened a few days ago

"Look, it's their wedding video," the guy said and played a video which shows Zayed simply declaring that Ava is his wife in front of a crowd of people.

"Is this how people get married in Zidra?" A girl asked in horror.

"Not all Zidrans. Only the royal family members. It is an age-old custom of Zidra. No one practises it anymore. Well, I guess no one other than Sheikh Zayed did," another guy said.

"There was an article in the tabloid regarding some Marquis Adolf Clermont who was forcing Ava's hand in marriage and how Sheikh Zayed swooped in and saved her and declared the wedding in front of the villagers." A girl said, showing the tabloid article in her phone.

"Does that happen in real life? It sounds like a fairy tale. Prince Charming coming to save the damsel from the demon." Cassandra said in her usual bitchy tone.

"There is no point in getting jealous, Cassandra. You saw how Zayed reacted to insulting Ava. It would be better for you if you keep that in mind," Ameya warned Cassandra.

"There is a more recent video of the same kids from the village," the guy said and played the video.

"Ava. Where are you? We are missing you like crazy. We don't know whether this video will reach you or not. If you are watching this, please come back to us." The guy said.

And that was what Ava heard when she entered the office cafe that afternoon.

They all looked up to see Zayed and Aveline entering the cafe together.

Ava walked towards the laptop and played the video again.

"Artie," She whispered with tears in her eyes.

"You know him?" Zayed asked.

"This is Artie. This one is Jean. The girls are Chole and Esme. You don't remember them? They were with me when we first met," she continued, pointing out all the people in the video and her excitement was evident in her voice.

"How did you find this video?" Zayed asked, failing to recall the faces of the kids. He remembers there were few kids with Aveline when he first met her. But he couldn't recall their faces.

And they explained everything about the picture of triplets going viral and the follow up of that.

"Damn you Bass!" Zayed murmured.