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She was showing him.
Showing him all she could have been.
Showing him what now he could never, ever have.
‘It has been a wonderful night!’ Kalila smiled warmly to Effie as the royals prepared to make their exit to the cars.
‘Really?’ Aarif rolled his eyes. ‘I am looking forward to eating. What about you, Zakari?’
‘We won’t be coming to the yacht.’
‘But you’re expected!’ Aarif said.
‘My wife is not feeling well!’ Zakari snapped, taking a smiling Effie’s hand. Tonight he was grateful for his status as it allowed him to exit first, because Effie was like the firecracker again now—ready to explode. ‘She has a headache.’
There was a recklessness to her; he could feel it coursing through her fingers as he held them, could taste it in the very air that he breathed, heard it as for the first time she challenged him publicly.
‘Do I?’ The giggle that followed had a slightly manic ring to it. ‘Well, if you say I have a headache then I guess I must!’
The car ride home was appalling.
The silence thick with tension, both spilling out of the car and practically running inside, Zakari throwing his jacket to a waiting maid, then taking the steps two, three at a time, then turning to face her as she entered his room.
Angry with her, furious with her, yet wanting her.
‘Our troubles are not to enter the public arena. You are never to speak like that to me in public again!’
‘I won’t!’ Effie responded, her lips curling with suppressed anger. ‘Because we will never be seen in public together again, Zakari.’
He had known this was coming, not just because of the marriage certificate Effie had produced tonight, but from the moment he had told her his truth on the balcony, he had known this moment would come—and he was loath to face it, but for different reasons now. ‘Effie, I know there are things to discuss.’
‘So you’re suddenly interested in what I have to say, now that I’m not Aegeus’s bastard child, now my opinion counts!’
‘I told you as soon as I came home that we needed to talk. I have been thinking about you, about us, all day.’
‘Really?’ Wide-eyed with disbelief, she challenged him, stood tall so he might see what he never, ever would have. That was supposed to be her pleasure, only the rush of satisfaction she had been expecting never came. ‘Well, I’ve been thinking too—I am leaving you, Zakari. I am taking the stone that is rightfully mine and leaving tonight for Aristo. I am quite sure you will try and fight me,’ Effie added before he could. ‘After all, I signed the stone over to you, but at the time of signing I didn’t know its worth… Now, as Queen, I will get the best legal advice on Aristo.’
‘You will destroy two islands with our fighting,’ Zakari pointed out.
‘It didn’t stop you…’ For a second she faltered, his words hitting their mark, but she dismissed them with a shake of her head. ‘You don’t care about the people of Aristo. It is all about power to you.’
‘It was!’ Zakari caught her wrist as she made to leave. ‘As I said, Effie, all day I have thought of you. All day with Queen Tia I have been thinking of you and wanting to say that I am truly sorry for what I did to you—for my deceit. I now finally understand just how much I hurt you…’
‘Oh, you understand now, do you?’
‘Effie.’ He took her tense hands in his and held them, stared into her eyes as he said the words he had been longing to say the whole wretched night. ‘I realise that I love you…’
‘Bastard!’ She spat, spat at his face again, and yet still he didn’t flinch. ‘Now you decide that you love me. Now, when I take away your power, you suddenly decide that you love me after all. Do you think I am so stupid, Zakari?’ She thumped his chest, but still he didn’t flinch. ‘Do you think I might fall for your empty words again, that you could humiliate me all over again and I would just take it?’
‘From the day Anya told me her truth, I have hated Aegeus.’ Zakari stood tall and proud as she raged around him, as she paced the floor, deflecting his words, refusing to let him in. ‘I have hated Aegeus with a depth that was as ferocious as it was dangerous. I realise now the damage that hatred has caused, but at the time I thought I had reason.’
‘Because Aegeus ruled Aristo, because you craved power—’
‘No.’ Zakari shook his head, real honesty just a breath away, and he knew it was time to reveal, knew he could no longer hold the black secret inside—knew that time was over. ‘Aegeus and Anya were half brother and sister. Christos doted on Anya, yet male primogeniture meant that Aegeus would be King.’
‘I know all that.’ Effie shook her head.
‘There was always jealousy, always there was rivalry between them, but when Christos decided the islands would be split…it became worse.’
‘I know all that,’ Effie repeated through clenched teeth, sitting on the bed, scrunching her hair in her hands, unsure of his tactics, unsure what lies would be delivered to convince her to stay.
‘Anya fell pregnant to a groundkeeper…’
Effie felt her heart still. She knew how highly Zakari thought of his stepmother, was sure, almost sure that he would never shame her memory with such a lie, but this was Zakari she was dealing with, Effie reminded herself, a ruthless, maverick man who would say anything, do anything to reach his goals, and she wouldn’t forget that for a moment.
‘Aegeus was furious, furious at the shame she would bring to the family, there was a fight—Aegeus struck her, she stumbled backwards and fell, and lost the baby…’ Effie could feel the make-up sliding down her cheeks as it mingled with her tears, reminding herself that even if he was telling the truth, it didn’t right his wrongs. ‘Anya was the most wonderful stepmother, yet she would have given anything to be a mother to her own child. She told me that, told me how my father and his children filled her soul with happiness, how proud she was that we were her heirs, yet she also told me of her pain—that because of what Aegeus did, she could not bear children of her own. I saw her pain and her sadness and I swore revenge. Since that day it is all I have craved and in my quest for that I have destroyed people. I have destroyed and broken you—you, the woman I love, and now Tia. When she finds out the truth…’ Zakari closed his eyes in dread at what the news would do to that proud, dignified woman he had spent the day with today. ‘I am no better than Aegeus…’
‘You almost had me convinced!’ Effie stood up, wiped the tears from her face with shaking hands, her mouth twisted in pain and bitterness. ‘You almost had me convinced, but not quite. You don’t learn, do you?’ She jabbed a finger at his chest. ‘Had you told me it was the diamond you wanted, had you told me it was a marriage of convenience, I could have accepted it. Even now, when you tell me about Anya and Aegeus, I can understand what drives you, why you have found it so impossible to forgive him, but to again say you love me…’ The sob that escaped from her lips came from somewhere so deep, and was so raw, so loaded with pain, that only now did Zakari flinch, his hand moving to comfort her, but she flicked it off.
‘I loved you so much.’ Effie sobbed her humiliation, almost vomited it out at his feet. ‘So much that I could even have accepted that you didn’t love me. When we made love that first night, I accepted the terms, I was happy with that, but then you lied, then—you—let—me—think—that—you—loved—me—too…’ She spat each word out, because she burnt, just burnt with shame and humiliation as she remembered taking him in her mouth and writhing in his hands. She remembered accepting his endearments, ashamed, just bitterly, bitterly ashamed that she had actually thought for that slice of time that she was, to him, beautiful. ‘And now you lie again… Now, when you have so much to lose, suddenly you decide that you love me…’
‘I do,’ Zakari insisted. ‘Effie, today I realised, as much as I loathed him, Aegeus and I are the same, we are no different.’
‘You mean you both have a penchant for palace maids!’ Effie scoffed.
‘No.’ Zakari shook his head, implored her with his eyes to just believe. ‘He loved the mother, I love the daughter.’
‘And you both hurt the women you say that you loved,’ Effie sobbed. ‘Some wounds cannot heal, Zakari.’
‘They might—with time.’
‘No.’ She shook her head, tears pooling in her eyes as Zakari surveyed the damage he had done, the pain he had inflicted, as the woman he loved turned to leave. ‘I will have my things sent for.’
‘You’re leaving now?’ Panic gripped him. If he could just tell her again, just have one night to convince her, then maybe, maybe… He grabbed at her arm, tried to halt her progress. ‘It is too late.’
‘Much, much too late,’ Effie retorted, shaking him off, her beautiful features now twisted in bitterness. ‘A servant who has two masters is lying to one of them!’ She watched his face pale as she jeered him with the old Arabic proverb. ‘It’s all just a power trip to you! How did you think you could serve the people of Aristo, when your heart belongs to Calista? When all you want from them is your revenge!’
