Page 139 of Wanted
Fuck. All I’d ever wanted…
Katantia was mine.
♥♠♥
Alex held the door open for me. I stepped out of the car, and I took the hand he offered me.
We’d left the hospital after he’d got some sleep. Fylox wandered behind us, staying in the shadows. He and Alex were ignoring each other. It pained me to see them behave like children, but we were in public. I couldn’t scold them.
The palace had organized this event so that my husband could be seen at the sight of the disaster. People needed the imagery for comfort. Of course, they needed much more than images. Alex donated money to charities that had been set up after the disaster.
“Kamila, it’s so nice to see you,” Walden Hart approached me, offering me a handshake. I reciprocated, and then Hart greeted my husband. There was no need to include Fylox in the conversation. He didn’t want any part in it. “The ladies have been up all night. They’re filling out their applications right now. We’ve been following the news. How’s the baby? When’s Aris coming out of the hospital? Was he awake when his child was born?”
We were surrounded by my security, and I noticed that they wanted to intervene. I halted their attempts. I said, “I’m afraid I can’t discuss my brother’s family with you. Weston made a statement earlier, and that should suffice. I’m here with my husband to see how this organization is taking care of the disaster’s victims.”
“Of course,” Walden Hart responded. He was an older man with white hair and cold eyes. He’d opposed my father on numerous occasions, and that was why he’d been allowed to organize his charity. He’d been a banker in his former life. He had more money than he could count, and he liked his fucks raw and dirty. He kept away from the palace when he moved to Katantia, and for that, I respected him. “Let’s proceed. It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. Winters. I’ve been watching all of your games, and you’re one of the best players!”
“Thank you,” Alex replied. He heard these compliments a lot, but it never got to his head.
We were five minutes away from the palace, and the Queen I hospital was just a block down this place. Walden Hart owned this property, a mansion with empty rooms of sex and sin. He led us into the building that he had filled with the women who’d been abandoned and eventually rescued from the tsunami that ravaged my country’s South Side.
I heard voices down the hall as Hart gave us a tour of his property. Money spoke volumes, and I could see that he meant well with his charitable efforts, new beds, clean bathrooms, no mold anywhere. Jordan kept an eye on suspicious people, and this man had certainly appeared suspicious to us. What would he do with a harem of hurt women?
I was just about to see it for myself.
On the second floor of the building, the women were assembled in a space full of desks. They were busy with documents and electronic devices. It looked like a high school setting, one that I saw on television. The actors here weren’t happy, though. The energy of the room was low, and I could feel their deflation.
“Ladies, the Queen of Katantia,” Walden Hart announced me to the working crowd. All movements stopped. For a moment, there was a silence in the room that only my father had once instilled.
“How are you all doing today?” I asked, stepping forward. I had a role to play, but in moments like these, roles didn’t matter. Hart introduced my husband and me to the women. Some of them gawked at us. Others checked my husband’s body out. I wasn’t a jealous woman, but they were tempting me.
They broke the ice by telling me their stories.
“… my boss left us there. The customers walked out as soon as the alarms started ringing. They didn’t offer us a ride back into the city where we would have been safe. I take the bus to work every day, and I had no way of leaving the South Side. The girls I work with and I climbed to the top of the building, and we remained there. It took rescue responders hours to get to us, and some had fainted by the time we were rescued. We work with our bodies. A day in a whorehouse is straining. We were weak, abandoned by the people who we bust our asses for!”
“My best friend and I had been bought by this older gentleman and his young wife to entertain them for a day. When they announced the earthquake, my friend and I wanted to leave the South Side. We know that busses stop commuting when there are emergencies, so we begged them to let us leave. We’d leave on foot. We didn’t care. But they didn’t let us! They kept us there. The man fucked us like we were worth nothing while his wife made us lick her. When the sirens changed, they started panicking. They left us in their house that was on the beach. My friend drowned when the tsunami hit. I knew how to swim, so I kept myself afloat somehow. I must have lost consciousness, but when I woke up, I’d been brought to a hospital.”
“Thousands of women work themselves to death every day,” one of the women raged. “We perform our duties. And how do they thank us? Half the working women of the South Side are dead. If this tsunami had hit the city, ninety percent of Katantia’s sex workers would’ve been wiped out! What would you have done then?”
I listened to their struggles and frustrations.
We’d all lost a part of ourselves in the disaster. These women had lost their faith in the system. It was a flawed system, and it was upon me to fix it.
The house my mother built for my family’s vacation was ruined by the disaster. We kept this information quiet because this wasn’t about us. None of the Wraiths were harmed by the earthquake or the tsunami. My mother’s estate was gone, but her legacy wasn’t.
“Things will change,” I announced, clearing my throat. “This will never happen again. I promise you. My father worked hard to create a narrative in which you don’t matter, but you all do. You’re the backbone of Katantia. It’s going to take me a while to get my affairs in order. The government needs fundamental restructuring. Relief for the victims of the disaster is a priority. Under my leadership, I won’t allow anyone to take away your right to live. You come here to live out a fantasy, but this fantasy doesn’t permit this neglect. I’m sorry for what you have endured. When you tell me that simple acts of kindness could’ve helped save 163 lives, I worry about the state of this country. Aram led us into ruins, and I won’t stand for it. Those that wronged the women of the South Side will face punishment. Our finances are being scanned by experts right now, and we will have a plan to revive the South Side soon. Change is inevitable.”
I talked to the women until my voice broke, forgetting that we had a little one and her impatient mom in the hospital. The sun had gone down, and my exhaustion was unbearable. I hadn’t slept at all while we waited in the hospital, and now, I could barely keep my eyes open.
Walden Hart offered us coffee and biscuits, which I consumed, but my men didn’t touch either. They eyed him suspiciously. I knew my men, and I was aware of what this operation looked like. Hart seemed like a glorified pimp. The women I’d encountered were hurt. They weren’t warmed up to Hart, and after what had happened to them, I feared that it would take them a long time to trust any man in power.
We needed men like Hart, though, and we would abuse every penny in his pockets if it meant that there could be an ounce of stability in Katantia.
Back in the car, I sat between Fylox and Alex. None of us spoke. I drifted in and out of consciousness while they took us back to the hospital. I’d been fucked for two days straight in my late teen’s early career as Aram’s cunt, but back then, I hadn’t even felt a particle of this fatigue.
It wouldn’t be easy to fix the country. Two months of being Queen of Katantia, and I was barely keeping it together. It didn’t help that my family was falling apart.
Once upon a time, I was the fiery red that ignited fires.
