Page 302 of A King's Oath

Samarth nodded. Slowly.

“Formeto take over.”

“Yes.”

“For Sharan.”

Samarth’s sharp inhale was audible in the silence of the room. He looked in his father’s eyes, and his stance hardened.

“Yes, Papa.”

“Why?”

“I made a promise…”

The door to the office opened and Rajmata pushed in — “What is happening here? Your voices can be heard outside! And why is half the family here leaving the function…” she trailed, glancing from father to son and back.

“Sid?”

“What promise?” Bade Rawal zeroed in on Samarth.

He swallowed, his eyes falling on his stepmother. Then, as if something had again hardened inside him, Samarth held his head high in front of his father and folded his hands in front of his stomach — “I made an oath to Rajmata and her parents that her heirs will rule Nawanagar.”

“And she relieved you of it. Remember?” Bade Rawal bit. “I wasn’t around but I got a word-to-word account.”

Samarth nodded.

“Then what is this now?”

“I sat on the throne of Nawanagar on the promise to myself that one day I would hand it over to Sharan. I wouldn’t have any heirs to challenge his claim…”

Silence.

“Is that why you spent all these years opposing marriage?!” Rajmata’s voice echoed — shocked, sharp, zapped.

He remained silent.

“Samarth?” She demanded.

He kept quiet.

“My ancestors’ throne is not your Russian roulette.” Bade Rawal’s quiet voice boomed. His eyes were fire, his face rock. Avantika couldn’t reconcile this man with the one who rubbed his beard on Brahmi’s cheek and taught her how to hold a bat.

“You made this decision in your head, spent 8 years with it in your head. Be that as it may.”

“Sid, stop…”

“No, Tara. Rawal has made his decision and I am done explaining, asking, pleading things of him. I could order him as a child and as a teenager. Now he is Rawal and the father of a daughter. If even after all these years, after the life that we made here, all four of us, if still he can’t understand the simple truth that he is the heir of my blood then it’s better he leave the throne. I cannot have Nawanagar go through bouts of hope and despair as per Samarth’s whims.”

Bade Rawal’s palm landed on the closed folder — “Keep this locked until after your wedding. I don’t want anybody else to stumble upon it like I did. These four days should go without a hitch.”

50. Are You My Son?

— AVANTIKA —

Avantika strode down the palace alley. In a chiffon saree she had quickly swapped for her heavy ghaghra, having put Brahmi to sleep and Kresha to sit sentry in her room, she walked towards Samarth’s chambers in the thick of the night. They were four days from their wedding. The palace was lit up and guards and chaperones were honed in on any new stories, news, drama, developments. She didn’t care if she set tongues wagging.

The guards outside Samarth’s room saw her and one of them turned to knock.

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