AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“If he is anything like Cairo, then he absolutely knows what he wants. He’s already decided. And woe to the rest of us.”
“Yes. I believe that to be true in terms of what he wants to possess. But whether or not he has any idea what he feels? Or if it’s all just... Well. Stockholm syndrome.”
“You think he has it with you?” Ariel laughed. “I was a bit worried that I had it with Cairo. But if so, then I’ve had it since I was fourteen. Is it Stockholm syndrome? Or is it just powerful feelings expanded by close proximity, by the intensity of the situation? Maybe it makes it faster, but maybe they would’ve been there regardless.”
There was something oddly comforting about Ariel’s words. But then, Ariel wasn’t in a situation that was any more conventional than Brianna’s. So maybe it was just what the other woman had to think in order to feel comforted about her own marriage.
Why aren’t you allowed to be comforted? Maybe you should be allowed to feel all right about the situation you’re in. Because you wanted it. Regardless of what you’ve ever told yourself about wanting a normal life, you want this.
That made her want to wail in anger. That maybe she was just too messed up, too broken, to actually even want something normal. She had an image in her mind, but maybe she couldn’t even actually aspire to that because of everything that she was.
Her connection to Cairo hadn’t fixed her. And it had led right here. And maybe that was the real issue.
“There are worse things, you know,” Ariel said, “than having a beautiful, powerful man be a little bit obsessed with you.”
“Yes, but this beautiful, powerful man is so intense sometimes I think he might burn me alive. And he says things that... He says things that hurt sometimes.”
“Well. That’s not ideal. And I guess him not caring about your choice isn’t particularly ideal either.”
He knows what I want.
That truth echoed in her chest.
And it made her feel horrifically uncomfortable.
He did know what she wanted. And deep down, she did too. She wanted him. She wanted for this to be something more than it was.
And she was willing to live with whatever that looked like.
She wasn’t sure if she should call herself a fool, or praise her determination.
She really wasn’t sure at all.
And yet she knew, that whatever she said or did, her marriage was being announced today, without her being present for that announcement.
And she had to decide what she was going to do in response to that. She had to find a way to exert her own will.
Because Riyaz actually wouldn’t even respect her otherwise.
They had done it. That stereotypical balcony announcement. Riyaz had managed to make a speech promising to bring the country together. And Cairo had announced his marriage to Ariel, and declared it a unifying marriage, that would heal the past betrayals of the country.
It had been a masterful expression of public relations, if Riyaz said so himself.
And it was quite different than anything he had ever done before. And really, everything he believed in. Hadn’t he told Brianna multiple times that he didn’t understand why people were so dishonest? About what they wanted and who they were. And yet, here he was playing a part of his first official act as ruler of the country. But maybe that was the point of all of this.
Except, when he had chosen Brianna to be his wife, it had nothing to do with the public face of anything. It had to do with what he wanted. In his room. In his bed. But, of course, he was now in this role, and he had to learn to play it.
Even if the entire exercise seemed pointless to him.
He had spent these last days preparing for this announcement with his brother. He had not had Brianna in his bed.
In part because... He was not entirely certain that she would have him. Not after the way his proposal had been received.
Perhaps it had been less a proposal and more of a demand. And yet, he wanted her. But wanting her felt so separate to this new phase he found himself in. This one where he did have to strive to put on a face for the public sometimes. Because now they knew... Now they knew he was back.
They knew that he was not dead.
And again, in some strange way, he felt his freedom slipping away from him.
