A Marriage of Debt and Desperation
At just nineteen, Emma’s life took a turn she had never imagined. Raised in a modest American household, she suddenly became part of an arrangement that was never her choice. To save her family’s struggling vineyard from collapse, she was married to Sheikh Tarik Ibn Rashid, a man more than three times her age. The vineyard was rescued, debts paused, and Emma boarded a flight to Marrakesh with a heavy heart, unsure of what awaited her inside the palace’s towering gates.
Emma told herself this marriage would be nothing more than a contract. She believed that at seventy-five, the sheikh only sought companionship, not a new chapter of passion. Yet, the silence of the lawyers and the coldness of the agreement hinted at something unspoken. The palace halls glimmered with wealth, but to Emma, every golden chandelier seemed to cast longer shadows of doubt.
The Night of Uncertainty
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