Page 43 of Shâhzâdeh

“Do you hear zhat Quentin? Shoaib? Our Vanya zhinks zhat we have slacked on the job.” I glanced at the two men who were as overprotective over Vanya as I was.

“You’re the one who said we had to keep him alive. We aren’t used to those parameters with work. Maybe we went too easy on him. Sho, we should get a redo.” Quentin was rubbing his chin looking completely offended at my having requested that we allow Jonathan to live. A request I’d made hoping to earn Vanya’s favor. I could see now the error in my ways.

To his credit, Sho grinned as Johnathan looked afraid. Why he thought I had a genuine interest in working with him had to be based on idiocy and misogynoir.

“If zhat is vhat vould allow us to regain zhe favor of Shâhzâdeh’ssayyida, I am more zhan happy to do so.” Sho cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders slightly.

“I just want him out of my space. I don’t appreciate you bringing him here when I have just finally agreed to work with you. Was this some sort of test?” Vanya’s eyes flickered to me and I could see the flames of anger begin to emerge. I half expected her hair to fan out around her like the fire starter.

“No,ziba. Zhis was so zhat you could see what he was saying about you to potential clients. To show you zhat zhere are some who might come at you—”

“I’ve already told you that they were doing that. You think I didn’t know who sent them? Of course I knew. They didn’t hide it. They were more than eager to talk about what they thought they would get extra from working with me.”

“My apologies. I should’ve asked your permission to look into zhis zhan to zhink zhat you were ignorant of zheir hate. You know far more about zhe monsters zhat you are dealing with zhan I do. Please accept my apologies.” I put my hand over my heart because I could tell I’d truly hurt her feelings. It was never my intention to insult Vanya, I wanted her to have a full understanding when I took their lives the reason behind it. Maybe it was the wrong move to bring this man who’d tormented her back into her space.

“You apologized.” Vanya’s eyes were wide, as though the concept of receiving an apology from me was foreign to her.

“Yes. What else is zhere to do when you’ve wronged someone?”

Her eyes flickered to the man I forgot I was choking. I turned to him, giving him another squeeze for good measure before allowing him to breathe. His face had turned an odd shade and I watched him gasp like a fish out of water as he tried to get air back in his lungs as quickly as possible.

“Let me guess, he was not one to use his words when he was wrong but used force to keep you in line and ignoring his mistakes.” She nodded her affirmation and I turned to spit on the man on the ground. “You are lucky zhe owner likes zhis rug as much as he does or I would soak zhe fibers with your blood.”

“Just make him go away—”

My ears perked up and even Shoaib looked excited at her request. “Permanently—”

Vanya smiled softly before looking down at the man on the ground and shaking her head. “No. I don’t want to be bothered by them anymore. The phone calls and harassment need to stop. I don’t want them dead because I have a perverse sense of joy I derive from knowing they are sitting around going broke and I’m thriving in a way they say I never could. I was too stupid to make it on my own, remember, Johnathan? But now little olenever gonna be anything Vanyais outselling your entire agency. Word is that you guys are on the cusp of losing your agency licensing because of how low your profits are. And very few people actually listen when you tell them I’m only successful because of the rumors you’re spreading.”

“Besides, vould it not be more honorable to condemn zhe man who would be so easily swayed by the offer of using a woman’s body zhan on her merit? I’ve never understood zhe desire to penalize women for zhe crimes of men.” Shoaib added his two cents as Quentin nodded his agreement like we weren’t all ready to commit a crime.

“It is because zhey are weak, Shoaib. Zhey have no discipline and no power outside of what zhey can exert against zhose weaker zhan zhem. I would love for him to try it wiz me, zhough.” I cracked my back wanting Jonathan to get up from the floor.

“He never would. Jonathan will probably be scared to go home with the way he disappointed dear old dad, isn’t that right Jonathan?”

Jonathan sat up turning his anger to Vanya. Sho, Quentin and I all moved to form a wall so he couldn’t get near her. “You’re going to be the one in trouble at the end of all of this. Not me. I’ve lived life the way I was supposed to. I’m getting ready to be sealed in temple to the family—”

“They’ve been hanging that over your head for years. Having us achieve more and more to become true children of theirs. We weren’t even sealed in the temple during our marriage because deep down they didn’t want us. They don’t want us to be bound to them for eternity nor us to one another. They will use you for everything that you can do for them but they won’t ever love you. It’s legitimately modern day slavery. I hate you, but I know you’re the way you are because of them. At least listen to what I’m saying from an objective point of view, even if you don’t want to believe it.”

“You have turned against the ways of the prophet. Against God. Against how you were raised—”

Vanya’s features turned thunderous as she walked closer to her past fearlessly. “Damn right. I was raised to think that my freckles—which God gave me — were somehow a sign that I was a sinner. I had done nothing but be born.”

“Who knows how you were conceived? Your mother was probably a degenerate based on how you are acting! How you acted in our marriage. You were supposed to be a dutiful wife but you turned into a headstrong, overly confident woman who had the nerve to want to have a voice that overruled her husband. You think a man like him is going to tolerate that back talk? Do you know what they do to the women where he’s from? Haven’t you heard of honor killings? You think he would want a woman who has already had one husband she couldn’t make happy? You couldn’t even get pregnant!” He was disrespectful with the way he was pointing at me and shouting at her so I reached out and snapped the finger he seemed so proud of waving around.

“Zhen why do you want her back so badly?” While he writhed in pain I had to get the answers out of him I could.

“Excuse me?”

“If she didn’t make you happy, why not leave her alone? Count her absence as a zhe favor and move on.”

He squeezed his eyes together as though he could block out the pain, took a deep breath and finally spoke up. “Because I—”

“Because you are nothing without Vanya. I can tell by zhe way she runs her agency she’s used to doing the work of multiple people. T’at means she did it before, vhen she vorked for your father. When she was working with you. Probably doing all the work zhat got you zhe realtor of zhe year awards zhat you won when y’all were married. Crazy zhat you haven’t been able to replicate zhat success since your divorce.”

He bristled at my comment and I knew I struck a nerve but there wasn’t shit he could do about facts. He could deny whatever he wanted, but I knew an unbalanced relationship when I put eyes on it. Vanya was a woman who was far out of his league and he was trying to get her back not out of love but because he wanted her labor. He appreciated being able to claim her work as his and according to my love’s information they were losing money fast.

“You know nothing about me.” His jaw was clenched, but he knew better than to put that bass in his voice.

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