Page 172 of Tall, Royal Hater
“They’re part of them.”
“So am I, Shehryar,” Mariyah snapped, squaring up to me.
A beat of silence passed by, and not a single noise echoed in the entire lobby.
Mariyah straightened with a lazy shrug. “If you really want to get down to the technicalities, my parents are multimillionaires, Shehryar. Does that then make me like everyone else in that room?” She cocked her chin. “Isn’t that why you always thought I was a spoilt, fucking rich kid?”
I should’ve kept my mouth shut, suppressed my anger, tried to calm myself down, but I was running on some hyper-fight-or-flight mode, unable to stop or think of what the consequences of my next words were.
“I don’t know,” I uttered. “But right now, you’re acting just like them.”
“Wow.” She swung away and chuckled, but it was cold and empty. “Just wow.” Then she stared right at me. “You mean that?”
Take it back. Shehryar, take it back now!
I didn’t. I didn’t say anything.
The anger in her eyes wavered for the slightest second before she stepped up close. “Fuck you, Shehryar,” she spat. “And fuck your Daddy issues. We’re done.”
She shoved past me, but I caught her by the elbow. “Where are you going?”
“Oh, don’t worry, I’m not leaving without you.” She shook her head. “I’m going to sit in the back of the car and you’re going to drive me back to the palace like a chauffeur.” She grinned wide and bitter. “Because I’m just a spoilt, little rich kid like everyone else up in that room, aren’t I?”
Chapter 41
Shehryar
Iwoke up the next morning with a splitting headache, having barely slept more than two hours. Not because Mariyah and I had returned late; I just hadn’t been able to fall asleep.
I tossed and turned, threw myself out of bed, and paced my room. I replayed everything that happened, questioned everything that led up to the moment I’d punched Johnny.
Regretted everything I’d said after to Mariyah.
On a hundred separate moments, I’d wanted to cross the corridor between us and apologise, take it all back. But I’d stopped myself every time I’d stared at her closed door in theopen threshold of my own. The locked access hadn’t been the issue, a locked Mariyah, though, had.
When Mariyah didn’t want to listen, there was nothing anyone could do to make her hear them. And after she’d sat in the back of the car and ignored me even when I’d threatened to drag her to the front seat, I’d known barging in to apologise would have driven her further from me.
That would’ve solidified the very real possibility of losing her when I’d only just gotten her, and I couldn’t do that. I didn’t want to lose her.She was mine.My little menace. When I’d said she was stuck with me, I’d meant it. She was stuck with me for a very long time if I could convince her of it.
But as night turned to day, that possibility felt minute, and between frustrated thoughts and planning an apology, I’d dipped in and out of a broken sleep until morning.
My eyes felt dry and heavy even after I showered and changed into the only shirt, V-neck jumper, and suit trousers I’d left out. All my other clothes were packed back into my suitcase, ready for mine and Esmeralda’s flight back to Jahandar in the afternoon.
I left my room, hoping I had enough time to convince Mariyah to consider forgiving me before she left for her morning flight to Raven. The idea of her going back when I had yet to fix things didn’t sit right with me, but I had no other choice. We both had lives and work in different states. Though it didn’t matter. Because I’d still do everything to work it out with her.
I released a slow breath, trying to tame my agitation, before lifting my fist to her door and rapping gently. “Mariyah.”
Nothing, of course.
I knocked again. “Mariyah, please. Let me in. Let me…let me apologise.”
Silence. But it was too quiet. Unnervingly so.
I wasn’t sure what made me do it, but I tested the doorhandle.
To my surprise, it was unlocked, and her door eased open.
But that surprise was replaced by dread when I was faced with the empty stillness of her room. Bed made. Curtains pulled back.Suitcases gone.
