Page 190 of Tall, Royal Hater
Who the fuck was this girl ringing him?And why was she asking if he was still with me?
“Hmm,” Shehryar muttered, a slight dip dragging his brows down before they rose again.
“Put me on speaker.” He hesitated, but slowly, reluctantly obliged with her request.
I gritted my teeth as I glanced between him and the phone. “It’s on,” he said.
“Hi, Mariyah,” the girl said, an obvious beam in her voice, and for some reason, she sounded familiar. “It’s me, Ablah. Shehryar’s half-sister! How are you?”
Oh, it’s…wait, Ablah?
A puzzled frown fell over my brows.“Hi,” I said in a daze, making it sound more like a question. “I’m fine, thanks. How…how are you?”
“I’m good, great, actually! Glad to hear you’ve given Shehryar a chance to right his wrong.”
How did she…I directed my attention to Shehryar as he shifted under my lap. “He’s been talking to you about me? Since when?”
“Oh, since Dad and I flew over to meet him and they talked things through. We exchanged numbers after and have kept in contact since.”
I watched Shehryar closely, but he couldn’t quite keep a hold of my gaze, looking down to his phone every few seconds like he was nervous. “You met with your dad?” I asked him.
“Yeah, he did,” Ablah answered enthusiastically. “Didn’t he tell you? The day after Shehryar returned to Jahandar, he emailed Dad, and we met him after we came back. It went well. Dad apologised. Shehryar did too—not for defending himself and you but for what was said after. But they came to an understanding—I mean, they’re not going to be best friends any time soon, but did Shehryar tell you they spoke on the phone the other day? They spoke about you too. Actually, Dad was saying he wanted to meet you again, and Shehryar kind of agreed—well, it was more—”
“Ablah, stop,” Shehryar said, softly cutting her off.
“But—”
“No.” His tone didn’t grow any harsher, but she fell quiet. “I know what you’re doing, and I appreciate it, but Mariyah isn’t going to forgive me just because I spoke to our father. Nor should she.” He kept his gaze trained on his phone. “It’s not that my problem with him has nothing to do with her—she suffered because of it—but earning her forgiveness for what I said to her isn’t part of it, even if they’re still linked. And I’m not doing it for her either. I’m doing it for myself. So, I can’t and won’t use it as a tool to prove myself.”
I heard every word, loud and clear, but I absorbed the meaning of them from his open stare.
“But…but you argued with her because of Dad,” Ablah mumbled in disagreement. “So, Mariyah has a right to know you’re trying to sort things out with him.”
“She does,” he agreed. “But it’s still not an excuse for what I did.”
“Fine,” she grumbled, and immediately perked up. “But Mariyah, please forgive Shehryar. He said something he didn’tmean in the heat of the moment, but he’s not a bad person. He’s actually a really good person and brother, and I’ve only known him for two weeks, but I’d vouch for him, girl to girl. I always would.
“Yes, he was an idiot to you for five years, and a bigger idiot on my birthday, but he regrets it a lot. I’ve seen that he does. I’m not saying forgive him immediately, but—but just give him a chance. Because you didn’t see how he looked at you when you stood up for him, but I did, and it was so obvious that he likes you. A lot. Like a lot, a lot…a lot.”
I huffed out a laughing sound at the extra, laying-it-on-thick“a lot”she added. But Shehryar sat quiet and unblinking like he hadn’t expected the army of words Ablah unleashed in his defence.
“I’ll think about it,” I said quietly.
“Okay. Okay.” Her tone grew happier with each word. “Great. Great! I…that’s kind of all I rang for. But I hope I can see you again soon, Mariyah. I’ll stop eating your ears off now. Bye!”
Ablah cut the call, and silence rang through my apartment.
Shehryar’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he set his phone down on the table. Then he leaned back in his chair, watching me like he was trying to decipher the language of my eyes. But it wasn’t complicated. In fact, there was only one assured and very certain voice in my head.
“Were you going to tell me?” I asked.
“I was,” he answered. “But not to convince you to forgive me.”
I scoffed. “Rest assured, I ain’t forgiving you for working on your Daddy issues, Sheri.” His brows dipped, but his lips hitched the faintest bit. “But…I can say that I’m proud of you for talking it out with him when it probably wasn’t easy.”
His eyes melted and shoulders sunk like the strings keeping them up had been cut. And shit, it did something achy and sharp, gooey and warm to my chest.
Fuck it, my head and heart said at the same time.
