37

Zayed rushed into the palace and saw Aveline, crying her heart out.

He saw that his sister in law Camille, had her arms wrapped around Aveline.

"Zayed," he could hear the relief in his sister in law's voice as soon as she spotted him.

He hurried towards them and pulled a crying Aveline into his arms. For once, she didn't protest.

"Aveline, don't panic, love. We will find them," Zayed vowed.

"I want to see them. Now. Please Zayed. Take me to my babies," Aveline begged.

"I will love." He promised and saw his brothers hurrying towards them.

Salim summoned the security team head.

"Hyder. Speak," Salim commanded and the security team head started telling them what he found so far.

"From what we could find so far, the kids were taken to the east wing exit side. That part of the palace is always deserted." Hyder said.

"And?" Zayed prompted.

"Nilofer Abdullah belongs to the Bedouin tribe. She is a part of Her Highness Suhara's entourage. She wasn't even supposed to be on the team assigned for the kids," Hyder said.

"Then how come she got the responsibility to look after the kids?" Basim asked.

"She came to me. She told me that she is assigned to look after the children. I didn't have any reason to mistrust her. It's all my fault. I put my babies' life at risk," Aveline cried.

"No no darling. It's not your fault. Your intentions were right. You wanted them to have a normal life. We will find who did this and I will make them pay. I promise," Zayed promised.

"What about the security cameras? Have you found anything?" Salim asked.

"The security cameras of the east wing are hacked and disconnected. We found a shoe of the little princess on the desert sand outside the palace compound. And it is impossible to find tire marks in the desert sand. So we don't know much about any vehicle movement." Hyder briefed everything to them.

"Find them Hyder. Move heaven and earth. I don't care. I want my kids back here." Zayed commanded.

"We are on it, Your Highness." Hyder said.

"Hyder said Nilofer belonged to the Bedouin tribal group?" Camille asked.

"Yes,"

"Why don't you ask your mother for help. They are her people right?" Camille asked her husband.

Suhara Naseeruddin is the daughter of the Bedouin tribal leader. She was betrothed to Karim when she was a young girl.

But by the time she turned into the age of marriage and the wedding talks had begun, Karim met Rosaline when he was in the UK for some business purposes.

It was love at first sight for them.

And against all the odds, Karim stood strong on his decision to call off his betrothal and got married to Rosaline.

A war was about to break out between the mainland and the Bedouin tribe.

But Suhara stepped up. She declared that she would marry the younger son of the royal family to maintain the peace.

And thus, Suhara Naseerudheen became Suhara Ahmed, getting married to Khalil Ahmed.

Though a war was avoided, the Bedouin tribe still held grudges against Karim for shaming their daughter.
The shame was lessened by the fact that Suhara gave birth to the first Ahmed heir, before Rosaline.

On one hand the Bedouins celebrated their bloodline coming into rule. And on the other hand, the relationship between Karim and Rosaline dwindled.

Karim couldn't handle the fact that his brother's blood line would be ruling.

And Bedouins took great pains to point out that ever since.

So, they couldn't completely discard the intuition that the Bedouins had something to do with the kidnapping of the triplets.
They wouldn't want Karim's blood line to rule ever.

"Mother would be appalled to know the involvement of her family in this," Salim said, feeling pity for his mother who got caught between the Ahmeds and the Bedouins.

"Talk to her. Tell her to talk to her people," Basim said.


****
Arabian Nation Of Zidra - Bedouin deserts.


Zahir opened his eyes and found that he was in some unknown place.

He looked around and found that his siblings were also with him.

He sighed in relief seeing the other two.

They were both sleeping and the room was dark, except for the small bulb in the centre of the room.

They were locked in the room.

He felt thrilled. It felt like those movies in which the kids are kidnapped and asked for ransom.

His father had told him that he is a little Prince.

So maybe they had kidnapped him because he is a prince.

How cool is that.. he thought.

He shook his siblings awake.

Zada started crying as soon as she woke up.

"Why are you crying? We are in a game," Zahir said excitedly.

"Really?" Zian asked doubtfully?

"Yes yes. Or maybe we are starring in a movie. Zada, don't cry. Your nose will look red on the television screen," Zahir said, scrunching up his nose.

Zada immediately stopped crying and wiped her tears away.

"I don't want everyone to see my nose red," Zada said.

"Where are the cameras?" Zian frowned, because he couldn't find anyone shooting the scenes.

Zahir frowned for a moment and then shrugged.

"They might have gone to buy new cameras. As we are princes and princess," Zahir said proudly.

"I didn't see my tiara yet. Aunt Camille said I get to have a tiara soon. I want to wear it when they shoot us," Zada said, pouting.

"We can ask them when they come," Zahir said.

And then they heard the door opening and the Nilofer lady, who was acting as the bad woman, came inside with food.

"When are you going to shoot us?" Zahir asked.

The woman's eyes widened in horror hearing that. She mistook him to be asking about gun shooting rather than movie shooting.
"Shoo- shooting? Who told you?" Nilofer asked, stammering.


"We know everything," Zahir said smugly.

Nilofer blinked seeing the little tyke standing bravely in front of her knowing that they were going to shoot them.

She didn’t want to be involved in harming the children, but she didn't get a choice. Her family is indebted to their tribal leader and she had to do as told.

"Eat your food first," Nilofer said.

"I want my tiara before shooting me," Zada demanded and Nilofer sucked in a sharp breath.

"Eat," she demanded and placed three plates of food in front of them and hurriedly left the room after locking it.


She just couldn't look at them anymore.

Zahir's shoulders slumped realising that they are not going to begin the shooting soon.

"They will be back soon," he told his siblings.

"I want to see momma."