Page 50 of Craving a King

Chief Owusu takes this opportunity to pounce. “Yes, and we all know our king has corrupted many of our villages’ girls into willing bed partners that I’m sure he’s claimed to love.” He turns his sweating face to me. “No offense to your majesty, of course. I’m just stating facts for the sake of our discussion.” I do not acknowledge his fake apology. Instead, I continue to drill a hole in his confidence with my posture. “Looking at his behavior inside the bedroom and out of it, no Ashanti women are good enough for our throne. Yet he spends four weeks with an American we know nothing about, and suddenly he is in love. It is witchcraft, I tell you. Why else would our benevolent king break a promise to the daughter of one of his most loyal chiefs?!”

The room starts to verbally sway and agree before Akua stands up and addresses the room. “If I may shed some light on the issue,” she begins, “I think it will help you all wrap your minds around all of this.”

Owusu rises from his chair to object. “You are not a member of council; you may not address us without expressed invitation. Who even invited you to this meeting—why are you here?”

At that, I snap at Owusu, “Sit down now, you oversized jackal.” He trembles his huge jaws in defiance but sits, nonetheless. I continue to address only him. “Did you not see her arrive with me, your king! Obviously, she was invited. Now you will sit here with the rest of the council and hear what my guest has to say, or you can leave, and we will discuss it without you. Now, which do you prefer?”

He stares back with curled lips. He knows he cannot verbally challenge me without reprimand. “I will stay, your majesty.”

“Good.” I turn to Akua. “You may address the room.”

She nods at me with a smile and continues. “Our king is the victim of a flawed but benevolent father and a greedy Chief Owusu. Kofi’s father never handled the Ashanti treasury. Most of you don’t know that. However, Chief Adu does.” Akua turns her warm eyes to the eldest of our council chiefs. Chief Adu is 92 years old and has led the village of Suame for 65 years. Without a word, he nods at Akua to go on. “This was set in place a year after Kofi’s birth and four years before Owusu’s sinful contract. He never wanted it to be said that he used Ashanti government funds inappropriately; therefore, he imposed his own oversight.”

Owusu interrupts Akua. “But what does any of that have to do with today’s proceedings? Guest of the king or not, you are wasting our time.”

Akua shoots him a deadly look. “You try to extort our king by holding him to a marriage that he does not want even when he agrees to pay you the sum of the loan with interest. You do this because you know he will not want his father’s name tarnished. However, what you do not know is that even though his father was a gambler, he was a good and smart king. He put in measures to assure his reign will always be above financial reproach, while you still operate the very casinos our king lost his personal fortune to. I wonder what we will see if we open those books!”

Owusu’s eyes open wide and I swear the man turns beet red even though his skin is the color of a dark chocolate bar.

“Yes,” Akua continues. “You think no one knows that much of your wealth comes from the gambling houses in Accra. Well I know, because your wife, God rest her soul, used to cry about it at church every week to the elders. I served in those prayer rooms. I know more than you think. And if it weren’t for you trying to extort our king now, I would have let that secret along with all the others I know go to the grave.”

It gets so quiet you could hear a giraffe piss in the savannah. Owusu drops his head in shame before he laments. “I meant no harm.” He starts to weep. “I just wanted my family to be taken care of. The gold mines were drying out, and I had to find a way to turn a profit. The casinos were the perfect investment. When I started to hear that King Kwame was frequenting the establishment, I tried to stop him. But he would not listen, and he was so arrogant. So, when I found out he was losing so much so fast, I decided to present the loan and betrothal to him as an insurance policy. That way, if any of you hypocrites found out how Tarkwa was really keeping its coffers full, you would not blackball my daughter from having a chance to be queen while Kwame would have the money he needed to live a king’s lifestyle. I never thought Kofi would really fall in love. No king really gives his heart away.”

Akua lifts her chin. “My king does.” The rest of the council mumble in agreement.

Akua continues. “Kofi will pay his family’s monetary debt. Nothing in our tribal laws state he has to marry an Ashanti woman, only that his wife must be a woman of noble character and not a harm to the Ashanti Nation. She must honor and protect our customs.” The chiefs nod in agreement, essentially admitting they cannot choose my wife nor enforce the asinine betrothal contract to Abena Owusu.

Akua sits and continues to speak. “The council will speak no more of this, because you know King Kwame did not mishandle any government funds. This will never leave this room.” She turns to Owusu. “Finally, no one will shame Owusu or speak of his business again, or I will come to your next council meeting and share some of the things I learned about each of you in those prayer rooms. Is that clear?”

“Anne,” everyone agrees. Akua turns and grabs my hand. “Your majesty, the floor is yours.”

I kiss the back of her hand and address the council. “This meeting is adjourned. I have a plane to catch.”

Chapter Thirty-One

Pursuit

Ella

“Don’t you have anywhere else to be besides hovering over me?”

Maya screeches as I try to force a homemade pedicure onto her. She let me know she has people to do that, but I insist she allow me. I’ve been back in Atlanta for a little less than a week now. I miss Kofi terribly, but I know I made the right decision to leave. He needs space to figure out exactly what he’s willing to sacrifice to have me at his side. After my last relationship, nothing short of everything will do.

In the meantime, I try to wait on Maya hand and foot to take my mind off my sadness. I came back to my best friend living in Adom’s mansion in Cascade. The doctor was ready to release Maya to a rehabilitation center one week ago, but Adom would not hear of it. He hired the best private physical and occupational therapists money can buy and converted a room in his home to Maya’s new sanctuary. He only started going back to work two days ago, once he realized I basically had nothing to do with my time but mope. I think both of them resent me for infringing on whatever is budding between them. I’m sorry but not sorry; they are both my best friends and owe me for all the times I helped them get their lives back together after a breakup. I just can’t face my lovely empty home right now. It no longer feels like home. Bonbiri is where I belong.

I look up at her and huff. “Oh, I apologize for trying to be a good friend. Your toes look horrible. You never let them go like this.”

She sits herself up further on the mass of pillows I continuously fluff for her. “Bitch, I was in a major car accident and spent almost two weeks in a hospital.” She looks down at the undone toes poking out of my Gucci slides and shakes her head. “What’s your excuse?”

I throw the nail polish bottle at her and laugh. “Why I got to be a bitch, though?”

She breaks a smile. “Because you are smothering the hell out of me. I finally got Adom to leave me the hell alone, and then here you come. If you and Adom don’t get y’all hovering asses the hell on. Oh my God! I’m going to scream.” Uh-oh, when Dr. Maya Taylor starts a cursing, she’s at her wit’s end. Maybe I should give her a little space. She eyes my pensive look and takes pity on me. “Ella, why don’t you just call Kofi and put us all out of the misery you are determined to expose us to? I mean, clearly you are hung up on the man. This is ridiculous. You haven’t even been to the office!”

I take a seat on the edge of her bed and finger her duvet. The purple and gold silk are a nice touch. Adom knows Maya well. The whole room is decorated precisely to her tastes. “I know. It’s just that work reminds me of him. It reminds me of the work starting in Ghana right now without me. You know, I sent our best operations director to jumpstart building in Tafo.”

She arches her eyebrow. “You sent Dara?”

“Hell no! I sent Brandon.”

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