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a 1001 nights retelling

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NO, IF THEY tried to take her from him, 
he'd rip the world apart with his bare hands.
And for some reason, that didn't terrify him.

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Layla Al-Haydar was never a free woman.
At the age of ten she was forced to be a part of the execution of her mother because of a crime she  committed with no choice. Ever since then, she'd lived a slave to a well known family, but when she reaches the age of nineteen, she is to wed the Sultan of Arabia.

To the eyes of foreigners this might seem as a dream come true.

But to the ones who live in the lands ruled by him, they know it's a sentence to death.

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PROLOGUE I | FROM THE BEGINNING

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FARAH AL-HAYDAR WAS a thief.

It was never of choice though. She believed in all the good in the world. From right to wrong, halal to haram. To those who were asked of her they'd declare that she was a saint, and then she wasn't.

It started with love. Like every tragic love story, she fell. Not only in love, but to her death.

While she had come from a poor family, and was nothing more than a peasant who worked as hard as she could — a maid with one of the lowest ranks a worker could have in the castle for a living, she'd somehow found a way to catch the eye of the Sultan's Personal Guard.

It was never supposed to happen. Anything to happen between them was a sin, for them to be found out would be nothing but a disgrace.

But it was amazing.

That, Farah could never deny. For months, days went by a blur, her nights spend sleepless and filled with giggles, sweet nothings whispered into her ears and a warm feeling growing in her chest with ever touch they shared.

Sadly, her happiness did not last long. Once he found out the knowledge of her pregnancy, her lover pushed her away. Found a way to rid her of her job, making sure she'd never come back anywhere near the castle.

After the birth of her beautiful Layla she could only resort to stealing things as goods, food for her and her daughter, and clothes since for some reason no one would hire her.

Once the case of disappearing goods was found out ten years later, Farah was too late. She couldn't escape what was coming for her nor could she stall it. Her throat to be slit by her ten-year old daughter.

And it was.