Chapter 28
Tasha stepped into the suite and looked around, shocked at the mess. The elegant space might have been decorated with a teenager in mind at some point, but there was no way to know what that décor might have been. There were clothes, towels, and empty food trays scattered everywhere.
“Who are you?” a teenager with multicolored hair demanded. The pretty girl leapt off the bed, tossing the pillow away so that she could glare belligerently.
Tasha stepped closer, extending her hand. “I’m Tasha. We’ve met several times since your arrival, but we haven’t been properly introduced. I’m your brother’s executive aide.” Her hand wasn’t accepted so she dropped it, feeling awkward. “It seems that the cleaning staff have ignored your suite. I’m very sorry about the miscommunica…”
“They didn’t,” the grouchy teenager interrupted.
Tasha’s apology stumbled on the militant tone. “Didn’t…what?”
The girl turned her back on Tasha. “I sent the cleaning staff away. It’s just me here and I see no reason not to clean up after myself.” She snorted. “It’s not like I have any real duties.”
Tasha stared at the girl, wondering why she hid herself behind that atrocious makeup and bizarre hair. Still, there was something in the girl’s voice that called to Tasha. Something that she recognized. Fear? Sadness? Both, probably. “But…you’re a student, right?”
“Yes.” She snorted and Tasha felt as if she were invading the girl’s privacy. She started to turn away, but the girl’s next words, and the sadness in her tone, stopped her. “I could graduate. If I wanted.”
Tasha turned back to the girl, curious. “You could…graduate?”
The girl shrugged, trying to pretend that the conversation wasn’t worth her complete attention. She walked over to the sofa, stuffing several pillows behind her as she looked out the window, feigning casual unconcern. “Yeah,” she said with a forced sigh. “I was taking college level classes…before.” She swallowed hard and Tasha could see the sorrow and grief in Marianna’s eyes, even if she tried to hide it behind her multicolored hair.
“That’s…amazing, Your…”
“Don’t call me that!” she hissed, her eyes suddenly glaring at Tasha. “I’m not…I don’t want to be called that! I was left with my mother all my life, my father only stopping by occasionally to check in on me. I don’t ever want to hear that title or anyone in this…” she lifted her eyes as if encompassing the entire building, “to refer to me by that title! It’s insulting!”
Tasha didn’t understand, but she wanted to. In fact, she wanted to go to the girl and pull her into her arms. The girl-child was trembling with misery. She probably felt abandoned and alone. Not to mention, confused.
“What would you prefer to be called?” she asked gently, moving closer to perch on the edge of a cushioned chair.
“Just…call me Marianna,” she whispered, pain edging into her tone.
“Okay. Marianna it is. And I’m Tasha. Would you…like to talk? I’m not a royal. I’m not related in any way.”
“You’re in love with my oldest brother,” she argued, animosity tingeing her voice, but it wasn’t as vehement as before.
Tasha smiled gently, nodding her head. “Yeah. I love him. He’s a grouchy pain in the neck sometimes, but he’s a very good man.”
There was a brief spark of humor before Marianna’s sadness returned. “He doesn’t want me here.”
Tasha was stunned by that assertion and hesitated as she shifted on the chair. There was plenty of space between them and Marianna sighed as she pulled her feet towards herself. Still, her body language screamed that she was hurt and wounded. Tasha knew that feeling all too well.
“Why do you think that?”
“Because I’m…not one of them. And besides, he wasn’t even here to greet me when I arrived. I’m just…the baby sister that was inconveniently born.” Her angry brown eyes glared daggers at Tasha. “I didn’t choose to be born, you know! I didn’t have a choice in being here! I wasn’t given an option to stay with my friends in Paris. I was just ordered here to the palace and patted on the head.” She humphed, then her shoulders drooped as if she were defeated.
“First of all, I know Khal has been asking me how to talk to you. He’s worried about you.”
That brought the girl’s eyes up, but then she looked down at her fingers again, tugging at a hangnail on her thumb. “No, he’s not.”
“Did you know that he stopped by this morning to have breakfast with you?”
The girl’s head jerked upwards. “No, he didn’t!”
Tasha nodded. She hesitated to tell this wounded child the truth, but in the end, suspected that the truth might help. The girl needed to know that she wasn’t just needed, she was understood. “He did. In fact, he also knew where you’d been last night.”
She snorted at that statement. Even laughing. “No he didn’t. I snuck out of the palace and…”
“Went to a dance club. You met three very nice men, didn’t you?’
Marianna’s suspicious eyes lifted to glare at Tasha. “Yeah. How the hell did you know that?” she demanded.
“Because your brother knows you’re in pain. And you’re lashing out in any way you can. He protected you from the others in the club.”
Marianna’s mouth fell open with that bit of information. “How?”
“You have been surrounded by bodyguards every moment you ‘snuck’ out of the palace. Everyone that you danced with, every man who bought you a drink was a palace guard.”
Marianna jumped up, outraged as she tossed the pillow to the floor. “That’s…that’s…!” she stopped, floundering. A moment later, her silence was broken by a teary reply. “That’s actually kind of sweet,” she whispered, bowing her head. Marianna turned and peeked over her shoulder at Tasha. “Did he really do that?”
“Yeah,” she confirmed, nodding for emphasis. “He’s worried about you, but he doesn’t know how to help you. So, he did what he does best; he protected you while he waited for you to work it out on your own.”
Marianna’s shoulders shook with her tears now. Tasha jumped up and wrapped her arms around the girl, knowing exactly how pain could lash at one’s soul.
“Why wasn’t he here to meet me that first day?”
Tasha hugged her closer. “He doesn’t have the right to do what he wants, honey,” she whispered softly. “Khal rarely has personal time. As his assistant, I would know. I’m the one that controls his schedule.” The girl started to pull away and Tasha let her, looking into her eyes. “The day of your arrival, there was an explosion at a power plant in a small village. He was literally walking out the door to join Raj and Joran, heading to the palace entrance to greet you when word of the explosion came in.”
The girl lifted teary, kohl-stained eyes to Tasha. “He chose the explosion.”
Tasha wasn’t sure what the girl was thinking, but continued. “You know how you weren’t given a choice to come here to Lativa?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, Khal is never given a choice about his day. He was born into this family and was never given a choice about his career. He went to university and studied business. He probably would have started his own business if he’d had the freedom to do what he wanted with his life. But his father was suddenly killed in a plane crash. Without any warning, Khal was shoved into the role of ruling a very complicated country.”
“No way!” she hissed, captivated by the story.
“Way,” Tasha confirmed with a nod. “He wasn’t even allowed to attend his graduation from university. He was brought here to the palace and forced to deal with an entire country that was confused and terrified of the future. He had no idea what he was doing. He stood in front of the crowds on the upper balcony and told everyone that they would be safe and protected. That their world wasn’t coming to an end.”
“That’s…rough!” Marianna whispered, listening intently.
“I suspect it was horrible,” she replied, remembering the videos of that day. “From the moment your oldest brother wakes up in the morning, until the moment he closes his door, usually around midnight, Khal’s life is usurped by obligations and meetings, and he’s forced to make life and death decisions. Sometimes literally. He has no privacy. No time to just relax. Even his meals are absorbed by his duties.” She smiled gently. “So, yeah. He really does know the kind of pain you’re dealing with, Marianna. If you’d give him and your other brothers a chance, I suspect that you might…maybe…find some comfort in talking with them.”