twenty-nine #3
But when he started talking, albeit with a slight stutter, a clear story emerged—he and Kema had naturally connected on a social level those past few weeks, with her expressing interest in the work and him finding her “exotic.”
The fact that she was a hybrid, he said, made her much less intimidating than the full-blooded julah in the party.
Well, that and the fact that Kema wasn’t famous in any way. He was never attracted to celebrity.
“It was clear she was into me a little while ago,” he eventually confessed.
“I ignored it. Didn’t even tell you because there was just so much going on around us, and I was exhausted thinking about it. But then she started coming on really strong, and I just… I was weak. And lonely, I guess.
Especially after that shit I found in my dad’s office about how the glue is made around here. It made me realize how little is in our control until we’re in charge.”
He must have meant Sulim in that “we,” but she didn’t say anything.
“I’m sorry for being angry at you earlier, and I’m sorry we’ve made such a spectacle,” he continued to say. “Look, I am angry about you and Mira. That’s my problem, because I’m jealous. But that doesn’t mean I want you to just up and leave. Does she even love you?”
How could he ask her that? Yet Sulim folded her hands in her lap as she said, “Yes. I haven’t told her I’ll go with her because of what it would do to this family. Believe it or not, I’m not in a hurry to blow this whole place up and put a gossip-gun right on your face. Plus,
I was worried about it hurting you…”
“I was always going to lose you to a woman. Always.”
She didn’t ask for clarification. Lose me how? What part of me? Her heart? Her body? Her friendship?
Whatever he meant, that was for him to harbor in his heart. Sulim had other worries.
“What do we do now?” she asked.
“Damage control.”
That was easier said than done. Sulim said as much when she explained to him how much the maids and cooks gossiped, both in front of her and behind her back.
And he threw at her the fact that the ranch hands weren’t angels, either.
They used fewer words, but everyone out in the field would know what had happened.
They’d make sure everyone else knew. Yes, even the “none of my business” crew.
“Marco…” Sulim said.
“What about him?”
She told him about their confrontation in the old barn. How he had tacitly threatened her, but in a way that did not imply his goal was to upset her marriage.
“Stay away from him,” Sonall said before thinking.
When he realized that he had put voice to those thoughts, he gasped, quickly changing his approach as Sulim silently urged him to explain.
“I don’t think he’ll try anything funny,” he then said.
“He’s not aggressive like that. The man is manipulative. He’s the kind of horse-ass who seduces a woman, then ruins her life. I’ve seen it a few times since I was a kid. Well, ruined is a harsh word, but there’s a reason most of his girlfriends haven’t lasted long. He’s the common denominator.”
“So, what are you warning me about, then?”
“I don’t know. I just… it’s a relief that Graella’s gone. And those julah can handle themselves and their own business.”
“He’s come on to Mira a few times, according to her.”
“Fucking Void! The hubris!”
“Well, I can’t say that…”
Sonall snorted.
“She has warned me about him more than once. She sees him as a social climber who will do anything to elevate his station in life. Like, his only interest in her was the fact she was a julah and the daughter of the High Priest.”
“Yes. I think that’s why he wanted to marry Graella. The more I read into it, the more I think it was definitely his family’s idea. His interest in my sister wasn’t sexual—it was tactical. It’s almost worse, actually. That made her more disposable.
Like she was a steppingstone to becoming the next Lord Gardiah.”
“Do you think he would have used it as leverage to elbow you out of inheritance?”
From what Sulim understood, Sonall had been marked as the heir since he was born.
Graella was older, but the Gardiahs—and a lot of Arrah—practiced male primogeniturism.
More intense than the julah system, from what I understand.
The only way Graella would have inherited was if there were no other male heirs.
And if she had a husband who knew the business well…
he would be adopted as the next head of the family.
Sulim shuddered.
Sonall didn’t have an answer. Even Sulim admitted that her brain was so full of crap that she struggled to think about Marco’s machinations.
Instead, they should plan how to fix this mess before Lord Vern and Lady Jacelah returned—assuming news hadn’t reached them on Graella’s second wedding day.
Which was in two days, according to the universal Federation calendar.
And while it wouldn’t be easy, it would give them something to focus on instead of fixating on how they had hurt each other.
We work best as a team. As partners with a goal. Sulim always thought that marriage was a big representation of that—like telling society that this person is your teammate. Everything else was additional.
She hoped it was true now.