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Tears welled in my eyes.
As if sensing what was missing, we sobered and looked at each other.
“He would only want you to do this if it was your choice, cara.”Mama spoke through the pain that had yet to ease.“You can still change your mind.”
“Don’t I have a responsibility to the family? This is what Papa expected of me.”
“No.”Mama shook her head.“You stop that thought now. Have you not suffered enough in the name of this family?”
“I can’t let anything fall on the girls.”
“Do you think you are the only one who gets to sacrifice everything for this family?” Ariana jumped up and cocked a hand on her hip. “Pass it to me. I’ll fuck a motherfucker up if they even dared to touch me.”
I rolled my eyes. “Sit down and shut up. You’re going to college. That is what you want, so that is what will happen.”
“What about the plan you worked on with your friends?” Fiona asked.
Immediately, my gaze went to the library doors, and my heartbeat accelerated. “I changed my mind.”
“So I don’t get to change my mind?” Ariana argued. “What if I want to take up the mantle? You don’t get to decide for me.”
“Is that truly what you want?”
“Would you give it to me if it was?” She challenged me, with her blue eyes boring into mine as if daring me to lie to her.
Sighing, I shook my head. “No, I will never put that kind of pressure on you. There are too many things to take on that I won’t have you carry.”
Ariana cocked a hand on her hip. “And now we’ve circled back to the core of the situation. It’s not a matter of whether we want something but what you are willing to give us. Do you want freedom from this life or Papa’s seat? Tell us the truth.”
I’d been adamant about my choice for so long.
All I cared about was my freedom, my escape, a life away from the hell I lived in, the obligations, the family.
Then all the things Theo and Xander had said soaked in, and maybe some of the lessons from Lilly did as well. Where Devani coordinated my escape plan, Lilly constantly taught me skills based on the scenario where I stayed to run the empire.
“My choice is Papa’s seat. However,” I added, “this meeting is to make the final decision.”
“Are you saying—” Christina paused and then shifted in her seat. “Are you saying that you want us to make the call? If we say we want to go through with the plan to leave, it will happen?”
I nodded. “Everything is ready. All my friends were waiting on was for one of Andraius’s rivals to play on his territory to put things in motion. Now, they only need the go-ahead from me.”
“Won’t they be upset if you change your mind and decide to stay? These people you call friends”—Ariana air-quoted the last word—“are dangerous, and they spent a lot of time and money putting everything together.”
“They account for all scenarios, and money isn’t a big problem for them.”
“Who the fuck are you involved with, Nerine?” Ariana’s voice was high-pitched and worried, which wasn’t her usual way of handling things.
“Are you really that dense?” Fiona asked in exasperation. “Those women she sent to our villa to debug our house and give us the phones were spies or killers or something. Didn’t you notice how they scanned everything and monitored the property? Seriously, they were armed at all times, with something or the other, guns, knives, you name it, they probably had it somewhere on their body. How did you not see that?”
“I had bigger things to worry about at the time, like finishing school.” Ariana shot Fiona a scowl.
“I swear, you two are so oblivious. Mama, were they oxygen-deprived during labor? How are the two of you so book smart when you’re oblivious to what’s under your nose?”
“Fi, enough,”Mama commanded.
“Yes, Mama.”
I rubbed my temples and stood, stalking over to my desk, opening a drawer, and pulling out a roll of masking tape. “No more talking from anyone, or I will tape your mouths shut.”
