Page 94 of Tall, Royal and Grumpy

Shehryar and Prince Arsh’s heads flew around to Mama Katiya at the same time, someone choked next to me, and my jaw collapsed to the floor.

“You’re…what?” Shehryar croaked.

“You said you hadn’t decided yet,” Prince Arsh said in quiet surprise.

“Yes, well, I’ve decided now,” Mama Katiya stated firmly. “And I want to marry you.”

“You can’t—you can’t marry him.” Shehryar shifted to face her. “You don’t even know him.”

From the side of him, I saw his mother slip her hand into Prince Arsh’s. “I do.”

I winced as Shehryar shifted back from them. It was as if the realisation he felt settled over the entire room. “How long?”

“Shit,” Fay whispered, and I numbly felt Kai shift behind me.

“How long has this been going on?” Shehryar asked again when neither of them answered.

“Four years,” Mama Katiya said.

Dead silence echoed like a piercing ring through the room.

“So what?” Shehryar rasped. “He’s just been stringing you along for four years? And now you suddenly believe him when he says he wants to marry you?”

His mother’s shoulders fell, her beautiful, elegant features softening as she shook her head. “No, Sher. Arsh isn’t the one stringing me along. I’m the one who asked him to wait, because I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t ready. And because I knew you were going to struggle to accept it.”

“You think I’m struggling to accept it?” Shehryar grunted mockingly. “And what about the rest of the world? You’re a maid with a bastard son!” He spat out the word so bitterly, I flinched.

“Don’t call yourself—”

“There is a law in every state forbidding your marriage to a prince, Mum, and that hasn’t changed in hundreds of years. No one has wanted to change it, so what makes you think they suddenly will now?”

“Because,” Prince Arsh said, “I have written up a proposal for its change. And Rami, as well as King Kareem, are backing my proposal. And if they are, then the others will too. Because you’re right, Shehryar—it is an outdated law we need to scrap, and I will fight to get rid of it.”

Mama Katiya gave Prince Arsh a soft smile, and if that wasn’t what I felt for Kai in Prince Arsh’s eyes for her, then I had no idea what it was. He loved her. And she loved him too.

“You can’t believe what he says.” Shehryar shook his head in disbelief. “Mum, you can’t believe what he says—tell me you don’t believe him.”

She sighed. “I can’t tell you that. Because I do believe him. I trust him completely.”

“What?” he said viciously. “The same way you believed Dad’s empty promises too?”

Silence. Shocked, hurt, angry silence.

I couldn’t believe he’d just said that. This wasn’t Shehryar. He wasn’t normally so cruel and vindictive. But anger and shock did bitter things to people, and he wasn’t immune to their effect.

Mama Katiya blinked away her pale expression and stiffened her shoulders. “I’ve moved on from what your father did, Sher,” she said calmly. “It’s about time you did too.”

The silence that followed was heavy before Shehryar spun around and charged towards us, raking both his hands through his hair. I was so stunned, I couldn’t move, but Kai tugged me back against his chest in time to take me out of Shehryar’s destructive path on his way out.

I glanced at the empty doorway then to Mama Katiya. Her sad gaze was filled with tears that wrecked my heart. “I’ll go talk to him,” I croaked.

“No, my dear. Let him go. He wouldn’t have left if he wanted to talk.”

It was fair to say playing the new game was entirely forgotten after that.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

ESMERALDA

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