“Father, this is a private matter.”
His father turned toward him.
“You made it private when you used that word to hide what you were doing. You made it public when you accepted praise for being a man who protects his family.”
He lifted the document.
“And now it must be addressed.”
The silence became unbearable.
Then he began to explain why he had asked to see me.
And everything I thought I knew about the Al-Mansour family began to unravel.
His father took a breath.
“Six months ago, I found a key in my son’s desk. It opened a room in his house that he had forbidden everyone to enter.”
Khalid went completely still.
I had seen that room.
It was at the end of the upstairs corridor, behind a dark wooden door. Khalid kept it locked and told me it contained business documents. Whenever I asked whether I could store something inside, he refused.
