Chapter 42
Shehryar
W ith the two-hour time difference, it was just after seven when the plane touched down in a cold, dark Jahandari setting. I was met at Arrivals by a palace driver, and it took about forty minutes to get to Jahmal Palace. It felt odd passing by familiar scenery when I wasn’t the one driving.
Sully, King Kareem’s private secretary, greeted me when we arrived, and the older, white-haired man let me know that the king wanted to dine with me once I’d changed and showered. So, after freshening up, I made my way down to the private dining hall.
It wasn’t until we were eating the main course that King Kareem said, “I heard things… took a turn , shall we say—and not quite for the better.”
“You don’t have to say it like that,” I said, pausing from cutting my steak. “Princess Esmeralda fired me from both roles.”
He gave me a sheepish grimace. “That’s what she said on the phone…”
I stretched my shoulders to their full breadth. “And while I understand her decision, with all due respect, I do not accept it.”
The king nodded. “As you shouldn’t.”
Wait, what?
“You…agree?”
He smiled, small but amused. “Yes. There is no one better for the job.” The curve turned a little self-deprecating. “You were a brother to her when I wasn’t, and you know her to the point the two of you work seamlessly together.” He shrugged his brows in consideration. “She had some valid points about you working too much and focusing on the wrong things, but I do not believe her firing you is a permanent nor long-term thing. From what she said, she simply wants to give you time to reevaluate certain aspects of your life and what’s important to you.”
“I know,” I said, lowering my gaze to the half-eaten steak on my plate.
Silver cutlery clanked against the king’s plate. “Look,” he said with a soft sigh. “Take this from someone who nearly destroyed his relationship with the only immediate relative he had left because of the actions of our father—it’s not worth it. The anger, I mean. Holding on to it and hoping that it will protect what he hurt, while becoming the person that does the hurting.”
A sad smile tilted the corner of his mouth. “If it had been anyone other than Esmeralda, I doubt they would have ever forgiven me. I’m immensely lucky that she had a big enough heart to give me a chance to redeem myself.” He shook his head. “But don’t take it out on current and potential relationships. You’ll have no one left around you. Take it out on the man who caused it instead.”
I took a moment to really let his words sink in, then nodded. “I understand.”
That night I sat in bed and sent an email from my phone.
Re: Shehryar
From: Me
Tell me when you return to Jahandar.
I’d like to meet.
I looked over it several times, debating for a long minute before adding to it.
Here’s my number.
I glanced between Andrew Platmon and my…my half-sister, Ablah, as we sat in an uncomfortable silence around a circular table in a quiet coffee shop, a one-hour drive from Jahmal Palace, and a three-hour flight from the Region of Rustam, where they lived.
I took a sip of my cappuccino as Ablah cleared her throat loudly. She widened her brown eyes at our father like a scolding mother trying to silently warn her child. “ Dad . There’s something you need to say, isn’t there?”
He adjusted the lapels of his blazer and shifted in his seat. “Yes, I…I’m—”
“We’re,” she corrected.
“ We’re sorry for what Johnny did and said that night.” He lifted his chin. “I knew how he reacted to finding out about you, and I knew he wasn’t happy that you were coming to Ablah’s party. I had some understanding of how he was going to behave, but I didn’t do anything to stop him. I should have. But I failed you the way I had done a decade ago, and that’s on me. I apologise. I shouldn’t have stood back and let him insult you. But Johnny…”
Andrew Platmon sighed and shook his head, while Ablah sank closer to him with a twisted pout. “I failed him too in ways different to how I failed you.” He paused. “Losing you made me…harsh on him. I put a lot of pressure on him, not as a replacement for you, but I demanded a lot. Maybe too much, and we haven’t had the best relationship as a result. Finding out about you didn’t help. It seemed to give him a reason as to my… treatment, and that, on top of discovering I was changing my will to include you, turned him very bitter and angry.”
So, Johnny wasn’t exactly the perpetrator either. He’d suffered too. Maybe he didn’t deserve being beaten bloody, but he still deserved that first punch for what he’d said.
“I have a lot to work on when it comes to the both of you,” our father continued. “I cannot promise to be perfect, but I will do better. And hopefully, one day, you two might see eye to eye.”
“Not with the black eye he’s currently got,” Ablah murmured. She leaned across the table with an intrigued smile. “I’m not going to lie, I would like you to teach me how to punch like that.”
“Ablah,” Andrew Platmon grumbled in a scold.
“What?” She shrugged. “I should know how to defend myself.”
My mouth gave the slightest twitch of amusement. She was like a combined version of Mariyah and Esmeralda.
“How is he?” I asked without remorse or sympathy.
“Bruised, face and ego wise, but patched up and recovering,” she answered and sipped her latte.
I stared at my coffee cup as I considered how to word my thoughts aloud. “I don’t think he and I will see eye to eye anytime soon, not if he insists on degrading the people I care about. Nor can I really say that I’m sorry for hitting him, because I’m not.” I raised my gaze to Ablah. “But I’m sorry that I ruined your party, and…” I shifted my attention to our father. “I shouldn’t have let my anger escalate the way it did after. But you have to understand, my anger runs deep and has done for a long time now. It’s not going to magically fade away, and I’m not going to pretend I suddenly like you either.”
The hope in Andrew Platmon’s eyes waned.
“But,” I continued. “I would be open to staying in touch and working towards some sort of understanding.”
A slow but small smile spread over my father’s mouth. “I would appreciate that.”
“But I don’t want your money,” I added firmly. “And I don’t want to be on your will.”
His smile dropped. “It’s not what you think it is,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m not trying to buy your forgiveness nor my way back into your life. You’re my son, Shehryar. You’re entitled to my wealth in the same way Ablah and Johnny are. I want to give a part of it to you. And maybe, yes, there was a small part of me that hoped this could be a part of my redemption, but it was never supposed to be an insult, and I had intended to tell you properly before I made it official.”
“It doesn’t matter what your intentions were or are,” I said, frowning. “I don’t want any of the Platmon businesses. I won’t ever have an interest in such a thing, nor do I want to be a part of them. Give it to the two children you have who grew up in that world and know about being in it.”
He returned my frown, ready to argue, but Ablah quickly intervened. “Uh, how about we drop this topic and come back to it another time? Yes, Dad?” She gave him the look again, and he pressed his lips together. “Great. Any other questions, Shehryar? Or things to say?”
I rubbed a set of fingers through my cropped beard. “It’s inevitable that people will find out I’m your son…but I’d rather not have videos or rumours of me beating Johnny up circulating around.”
“Oh.” She swiped a hand dismissively through the air. “Already two steps ahead of you. Dad threatened every—”
“Ablah,” Andrew Platmon bit out, a faint wash of colour appearing on his cheeks.
“What? You did.” She thumbed at him. “He threatened everyone there that if they said anything about what happened, he’d make business difficult for them.”
I stared, unblinking, slightly taken aback. I’d never thought he’d go to such lengths for me.
It was odd because our relationship still wasn’t in a good place. Just a vaguely better one.
Ablah grinned laughingly between us. “You’re actually both very similar in that sense.”
I glanced at him. He glanced at me. And we both looked away awkwardly.
Our father cleared his throat, and I took a gulp of my coffee.
Ablah wore a big smirk before leaning over the table again. “Now that that’s done, please, please, please tell me you begged for forgiveness from Mariyah before you came back to Jahandar.”
My jaw went stiff. “No. She took an early flight back to Raven that morning after, and I missed my chance to.”
“No,” Ablah groaned, dropping her head forward and immediately jerking back upright. “Have you messaged her at least? Asked how she is? Told her you’re coming to apologise? You are going to go to see her, right?”
“I am. My flight is this coming Wednesday in the morning.” I scratched my cheek. “But I haven’t messaged her yet.”
“What?” Ablah snapped, and Andrew Platmon flinched at her loud tone. “You haven’t messaged her yet? How is she supposed to know that you feel bad for what you said?”
My brows pinched together. “Apologising through a message won’t sound sincere.”
“Agreed. But how is she going to know that you regret what you said and that you’re on your way to apologise if you don’t tell her? You’re just going to make her angrier and more upset with you.”
Well…when she put it like that, she had a point.
“Bloody Neves, come on.” She slumped back in her chair, shaking her head in both disappointment and disbelief. “You didn’t even think of that, did you?”
No, I hadn’t. But I knew exactly what I wanted to say.