Page 191 of Shâhzâdeh

Maman smiled brightly before she bent down so she was eye level with him. “Nothing. It is a terrible thing to give people false hope isn’t it?” She tapped his cheek mockingly before she stepped back from the table.

“I can remember begging you to save my vife. And you did. But I didn’t know I had entrusted her into zhe devil’s hands. Zhat is a wrong festering over zhirty-tree years. I am here to right it.” My father’s scimitar was in his hands and cut across the doctor’s wife’s throat within seconds. Blood bubbled through her mouth, and I knew he’d cut her shallow enough to make her suffer while her husband watched as helplessly as my father had when my mother needed him.

“Barbara! No!” He jumped up and the children shouted but Dr. Seawwell was shoved back down into his seat.

“Oh, be quiet. You are sobbing for having to watch her die vhen you were happy to have a contract put on her life. Vhat, you were okay with her death as long as you have to vatch? You cannot will someone to die wizout being man enough to take zheir life. To vatch as zheir soul, zheir consciousness, escapes. You were a coward to harm my wife just as you were a coward to pay someone to harm yours. And yet you vant grace? Mercy? And you call yourself a healer.” Bâbâ was lecturing this man as he wiped his scimitar clean on her shirt and she convulsed.

Their children sat there with stunned faces as though they couldn’t believe we’d actually done this. Which caused me to smile as the doctor wailed.

“You know it’s funny. You went to medical school and went into obstetrics with a man who was famous for providing aMississippi appendectomy. Do your children know what that was?” I was attempting to be civil by even having this conversation with him.

“Are you going to help her?” He had the audacity to be crying as though his tears would somehow move us.

My mother looked at him with disgust before she laughed. “Of course not. I’m having a grand time watching her bleed. Be grateful my husband does not gut her the way you did me.”

“A Mississippi appendectomy is when zhey sterilized Black women to control zhe population of Black women able to give birz. It seems zhat is zhe reason my grandfazer sought you out. Luckily for zhem, zhey’re already dead. As for anyone who might have aided you, they will be next.” I gave him a wink so that he knew he would at least have friends to share in the misery ofjahannamwith.

“You’re monsters.”

The daughter looked so angry with all of us it was as though she had heard none of the things her family had done. They’d all been scared or beaten into silence before we arrived and her speaking up now was a mild irritation.

Maman focused on her, and I could see the subtle shift in her demeanor. “No. Monsters would be having your kids here with you. Your spouses. Luckily, it’s just the one and maybe your husband’s family will help him raise the girl. I don’t really care.”

“But my mother didn’t have anything to do with this. It was our father’s fault! Just kill him.”

Vanya looked so confused because as someone who hadn’t had family, I knew she couldn’t understand why or how their daughter was so easy to throw them under the bus. “After everything he’s done for you? I mean he said he was mutilating Black women but you don’t really seem to care too much about us. Just saving yourself. Are you as selfish as your father?”

The daughter sneered as though she’d momentarily forgotten her current predicament. “The number of abortions that flow through the ghettos—”

Vanya emptied the clip in a gun I didn’t even realize she was holding, shocking the fuck out of everyone in the room. I walked to her slowly but saw how calm she looked holding that gun. There was no recoil in her arm and now I had questions.

“Eshgham, what was zhat?”

None of us were bothered by the muffled screams of everyone else at the table as their sister bled out. Vanya’s shots were controlled, and precise enough for me to know none of them were luck. The silencer on the gun prevented any shots from being heard and she calmly handed the gun to Shoaib who I assume had handed it to her. And again, I was gonna have questions.

“I’m tired of white people speaking on shit they caused and then refuse to fix. Like the entire reason Black people are still viewed as less than isn’t because of their racism, hatred and jealousy. I lived that my whole life. Suffered because of it. Tried to love it out of the people who hated me because of how I was born. My grace and giving them space to unlearn their bullshit is over. They should’ve been happy when Black folks only wanted equality. Now? I’m moving with the spirit of vengeance.” She was serene as she spoke and I wasn’t sure if I need to be worried that I’d corrupted my wife or happy she was letting the fiery spirit she possessed shine through.

“Which one of my men do I need to zhank for your precision?”

She grinned cockily at me before she answer. “Navi.”

I barked a laugh as distressed tears and sobs played out in the background. “I should’ve known zhere was more to your showing houses and girl talk. But Frankie is your best friend so I clearly never should’ve doubted you.”

“Not underestimated. You’ve allowed me to flourish. Complete the metamorphosis into who I’m going to be. Apparently, you planted the seed for the final stage already. That’ll be completed sometime next year.” She was smiling and despite where we were I just wanted to cradle her in my arms and keep her protected.

“Such a good man we raised, Bijan. Let us leave the past here so that we can fully enjoy the blessing of our future.”

My mother and father shared a look, one of understanding, the pain of loss and the desire to end all who had hurt them. My mother made quick work of ending the last two kids before my father turned to a still sobbing Dr. Seawell. I knew, no matter how short his life was going to be that he would never get these images out of his mind. She’d taken his children from him, the same way that he had taken children from her. But the good doctor? He was left for my father.

“You touched my vife in malice. You vere supposed to protect her but you used your position to harm her. And to zhink you want pity. Understanding? Grace! After all zhe harm and mental anguish you have given us.Alhamdulillahfor the child we have. Zhe son who is as fiercely as protective over his wife as I was my own despite how I failed her. Zhis son and now his soul mate will restore our hearts in zays that only He can. Zhey are zhe positives born of zhis tragedy. But you are going to suffer a little zhile longer. A swift deaz would not appease my wife’s decades of suffering. So dine wiz zhe corpses of zhe family you protected by destroying mine. May your last moments of earth torment and haunt you. May zhe sins of zhis life follow you for as long as time exists.”

Bâbâ backhanded the shit out of the crying doctor and I knew he wished he would’ve had the chance to kill him. His chest heaved in the black button down and jeans he was wearing before he reached behind him to grasp my mother’s hand. He pulled her to his side, wrapping his arm around her before she stepped in front of him. The intensity between the two of them was the highest I had ever seen it. Like every emotion they could feel was floating between the two of them right now. As though choreographed, they moved toward each other exchanging a kiss that I should’ve never had to witness. Which was saying a lot given how I grew up.

“Will that be us at their age?” Vanya wrapped her arms around my back and we stood watching them express their love for one another.

I looked over my shoulder at her with a smirk. “We will probably be worse.”

“Good. That’s a promise I plan to hold you to.” She stood on her tiptoes and I crouched slightly so that I could meet her lips.

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