Page 105 of Shâhzâdeh

“Well, kinda. Your weird ass adoptive parents were manipulating kids and I’m sure there was some weird religious extremist element to your upbringing.”

“Mormonism.”

“DING DING DING DING. And you were the children to be corrupted and sacrificed toHe Who Walks Behind the Rows.I’m sure the harvest they were interested in was money though and not corn. But I digress.”

“Huge digression but that’s neither here nor there at this point.” It was strange how she was hitting on key points even though she was wrong. “They would adopt a bunch of children or foster them for a time. They were always of different races and they would impart their knowledge of the prophet and religion on them.”

“Indoctrination.” Frankie spoke up again trying to remind me she’d been telling me this for years but I hadn’t listened.

“Yes, but as a kid, you don’t see it like that. It was always children of color too.”

“Strange they weren’t into eugenics.” It was the same thought I had but I knew there was an underlying predatory factor to it.

“Kinda though. It wasn’t justnormallooking Black kids. But we were just a giant sociology experiment to them it seemed. I was fair and my ex was technically special needs because he was born addicted.”

Jada was nodding her head in understanding and I prayed that we were moving on from this topic to something else. “Ohhhh. You know Xerxes is gonna have to kill them all, right?”

“Jada. You say that as though it’s a given.” I was chuckling to myself because Xerxes had been saying that but I hadn’t expected her to be so brash about it.

“You laugh as though it’s not. Do you know who you’re marrying?”

I thought back to the way he’d stabbed that sword through the throat of my date and I cringed slightly. “I’m more than aware.”

“Okay, good, cause I was worried there for a second. We like you and it would devastate Francesca if we lost you.”

“Jada!” Frankie was hissing through clenched teeth like a mama trying to stop a child from embarrassing her.

All the champagne I’d consumed all day started to sour in my stomach. “Lost me how?”

We both spoke at the same time and I was looking between them as Frankie’s eyes cussed Jada out.

Jada huffed an innocent laugh as she looked at me pityingly. “Because they had to kill you silly! You know, if you suddenly discovered your husband was a prince and an arms dealer—”

“A PRINCE!”

She slapped her hand over her mouth before looking over and Frankie with wide eyes. “Oh shit. You didn’t know that?”

I exhaled loudly as Frankie only continued to laugh at me like any of this shit was funny. “I think we should stop talking to one another. I feel like I’mg giving you information that I should only be giving to Xerxes and you are giving me information he should be providing.”

“Fair enough. Just don’t tell him I told you. That might cause static and then Smoke might get grumpy. Then, angry Xerxes has access to nukes—”

“What do you mean? Like a nuclear weapon? Like the mass destruction kind?”

“Propaganda. But you should probably stop asking me questions if you want to lessen your worry.” She shrugged and then got up off the sofa again like she hadn’t just casually talked about nuclear bombs like it was no big deal.

“Well. As always… it has been a… mind fuck talking to you. I have been… enlightened as always.”

Her eyes narrowed as she studied me quizzically. “Are those pauses as you speak ways for you to gather your thoughts or ways for you to not say what you really mean?”

“Both?”

She grinned and nodded like my answer was acceptable. “That’s fair. Well, to get back on track from where we long veered off, if you have any more ideas about the wedding don’t hesitate to call.”

“That’s why we have a planner.”

“You thought that lady was going to have sole control over this wedding? No ma’am. I’m her intermediary to ensure she gets this shit right. We are literally doing a royal wedding.” Jada did the big showy hands like this was an actual production she was in charge of and I wondered if she was going to stress me out.

“I mean Liam and Frankie’s wedding was spectacular.”

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