Page 151 of Shâhzâdeh

“You think that his money makes you someone important?”

“No. My heart makes me someone important. My husband’s money doesn’t do anything but make people like you fall all over themselves to impress him. But he would never do business with you. He only invited you around for me to see the type of person you were. Because he didn’t want me to be concerned when you end up dead.”

“Dead?”

I nodded happily because there was no reason to lie to him. The idea of him living scared on however much time he had left seemed fitting for how I had to live my life with him. “That was your decision. When he warned you to leave me alone. To leave him alone. But you come around trying to make him think I’m less than. Why is that?” It was the only question that I had. I knew why he treated me the way he did: it was pure obedience to his white supremacist overlords. But this constant following me around when he didn’t want me in the first place baffled me.

“Because you aren’t supposed to leave me! Like I wasn’t good enough for you! Like you were better than I was!” He looked at me in disgust again and I smirked not bothering to feel any sympathy. The good white people he was always trying to impress were looking at him funny and I could only imagine how he would get in trouble when his daddy found out.

“Ah, so you’re embarrassed. Because I don’t behave the way they think I should I wasn’t good enough. Because I didn’t buy into the hierarchy they told you was the truth, I messed with the foundation of your self-worth. Sucks you couldn’t pull your ego up by its bootstraps the way they taught you.” I shrugged and looked at the dress I had in my hands, knowing it wouldn’t suffice for the dinner.

“What did you—”

I cut my eyes to him seeing the furious way he looked at me.

“You should run away now. Not that it would make any difference because we already know where you would go and how you would move. See the man that you are trying to irritate is very irrational when it comes to his wife. She is the very reason for his existence and you are threatening that. I’ve never seen someone become so possessive over another person so quickly. And he’s not the kind of possessive you are. He’s the kind that comes with knowing that someone is yours to protect. The most precious person to you. Your soul in human form and you won’t allow anything to disturb their peace. You disturbed her peace and instead of blowing your life up, she allowed you the ability to walk away. But for some reason, you can’t take that L, bruh. Remember this conversation. The one he had with you the night before they married and all the ones before then. He granted you grace off of the strength of the leniency that Vanya wanted to extend to you. That’s dead and done and soon you will be too.”

I giggled but glanced at my friendly shadow who was standing in between Johnathan and me before patting him on the back. “Not a death threat in Nordstrom’s, Quentin.”

“This is exactly why he didn’t want you to buy something off the rack you know.” He didn’t bother to turn his head to speak to me, but I understood why he didn’t. He stayed turned around until Jonathan stomped off in a snit.

I huffed because he was acting like this man’s delusions were somehow my fault. “I know, Quentin, but there’s no time to have something made and I completely forgot about it with all the wedding stuff.”

“He would’ve paid someone—”

I scoffed because I wasn’t going to have money be the answer to my problems. “Yeah but a mess up on my part isn’t an emergency on someone else’s. I can handle getting a dress for a function without him having to put someone into a coma to get a dress ready on time. It’s a dress. It really doesn’t matter and frankly I’m not pressed about it. He asked me to find a new dress so that’s what I’m doing.”

Quentin glanced around the store that wasn’t at all full before he turned back to me. “You know he’s going to have his aunt send you over her entire collection so you never have to do this again right?”

“She’s gonna be so mad I didn’t ask her but I’m trying not to take advantage of her kindness.”

“Ms. Pat is never gonna feel that way. But I understand you need to get cussed out by her one good time to understand.” His unbothered shrug had me cracking and I pushed him playfully while I pointed to the next department.

“Let’s go this way before we head out. If I’m going to get cussed out, I’m going to at least have a new pair of pretty shoes to strut my way to the guillotine.”

Despite having gone dress shopping, I still needed to check in at the complex. Since we were in the same area as the building, it didn’t take us out of our way to go there. I looked in on the revitalization measures we’d put into place including doing some of the interior refresh on the lobby and common areas. The rental spaces that had sat empty now had a small concierge grocery store inside that would deliver to the apartments for a small fee. They would also shop at the larger store next door for fees less than other food delivery services. It carried some normal items, but many were the higher end luxury food items such as exclusive wine and spirits from Merrick distilleries. It was crazy how each man was a partner to some extent in each other’s business. It made sense because it ensured that they were committed beyond their brotherhood to seeing one another win. Yacouba placed one of the Miller Bank and Trust ATMs inside the lobby as well, which was free for his members to use. The never open bistro was replaced with a small Black woman owned business. She was usually only open for breakfast and dinner because of the schedule of the young professionals but we’d discussed allowing her to do a carry out or delivery service for a few of the local office buildings. There were several medical towers and day spas within five miles that would keep her busy. I was all for her making money and I wanted to see her successful because that meant our residents were happy.

Xerxes was adamant about the taking it easy even though our contract was up. I’d found his home, the stables for the horses and his parents’ home. In addition, we’d found a property that he could work out of that was on the outskirts of uptown so him flying into the city wouldn’t be an issue. I had a new client I was supposed to be meeting later on in the week who’d been traded to our professional basketball team. Navi was still happily listing and selling homes and despite my asking if she was ready to go back to Atlanta, she said that she hadn’t made that decision yet.

“Hey, Navi!”

The leasing office was toward the back of the first floor since none of the residents were on the first floor. The only apartment down here had been for the previous owner, but since he’d taken over the penthouse, it had been empty. I wanted to turn it into on campus housing for the maintenance man I was looking to hire. I wanted someone who had knowledge of and potentially certified in HVAC and plumbing. With the way building had slowed because of the economy, I had a stack of applications to go through. It wouldn’t be difficult to find someone, but so far, none of the people I’d reviewed seemed right.

“Hey, Vanya. I have a bunch of applications in your inbox for the manager position. I’ve gone through who I think will suck and a few others had backgrounds that didn’t check out.” Navi was dressed in a fitted orange pencil skirt and matching halter neck vest. The lobby smelled clean and inside of the office smelled delicious. It was some type of scent that smelled like someone was baking.

“Who ran background checks on applicants?”

Navi looked behind me to Quentin and when I did the same, he was shaking his head at me.

“She forgets.”

“I see that. Uh,Mrs. Mahdavi Cannon, I need you to remember the man who put that boulder on your hand. He ain’t about to let just any ol’ body near his wife. I’m not even going to have you do these interviews solo because you’ll be out here ready to take people at their word. Can’t have anymore murders in the building.” Navi was giggling like something was funny but my mouth fell open in surprise.

I turned around to Quentin angrily and hissed at him, “You told her about that?”

“You think that man didn’t go back and report what he did to his people? Navi is part of his people so of course she knows. We gotta make sure whoever it was wasn’t connected to anyone and if he was, we needed to handle it.” Quentin looked completely aghast at my thinking that he what happened was private.

“Just like that.” I snapped my fingers and both of them were nodding their head like I was finally getting it.

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