“I was also considering the bond we share.” He put an arm around her shoulders. “I love you, Jalilah. You are a wonderful person and I am blessed to have you as my sister.”
Her throat was raw. She looked up at him. “Has something happened?”
He laughed. “Am I not allowed to be a doting older brother?”
“No.” She laughed softly. “Not often, anyway.”
“Abdim was sentenced yesterday.” The words were soft; he presented them gently, not wishing to upset Jalilah. She had been unlike herself lately. Timid and quiet, and though he’d been wrapped up in the preparations for his wedding, he couldn’t help but notice the changes with concern.
This news, he hoped, might bring some relief to her.
“Has he?” Her eyes scanned the room.
“He will be in prison for life.” Kiral rubbed her shoulder. “Like the rest of the UAC traitors.”
Her sigh was heavy.
“This doesn’t please you?” Will asked in confusion.
“No. Nothing about it is pleasing to me. It is all such a waste. Abdim was once a young man. A boy. A child. One of our people. A person who looked up at the same stars we do, who swam in our oceans and bathed in the sunlight. And yet these things turned his heart to hate. How does it happen, Ki? How does someone arrive into this world with such evil?” Only she wasn’t thinking now solely of Abdim. She thought of him. The man who had killed Maddie and Faith. She thought of all of them. Men and women who took up arms to kill hurt. Men who were bent on destruction.
“You think he can be rehabilitated if he swims in the sea for long enough?” He mocked lightly.
“No.” She shuddered. “I wasn’t offering an alternative. Merely wondering at the futility of it all.”
He stroked his chin. She was different, indeed. Serious and right. There was a fitting gravity to her observations that settled weight over his shoulders.
“How come you never told me that the UAC had targeted you?”
He drew his brows together in surprise. There was only one plausible way she would suddenly possess this information. “Will told you?”
“Yes.” She lifted her gaze to his face thoughtfully. “But I shouldn’t have had to hear it from … a stranger.” The words caught a little in her throat.
“I didn’t want you to worry. The threat was dealt with.”
She nodded jerkily. “Let’s not think of such things tonight.” Her smile was overbright. “Your wedding is here. Finally. It feels like it’s been in the planning for so long.”
“Yes. Three years.” His words held a darkness that Lilah knew disguised an emotional chasm he would never reveal to her.
“Longer than that, surely. I remember the first time I met Melania. We were still children yet I’m sure I overheard someone refer to her as your betrothed.”
His lips twisted. “Yes, she has always been intended for me, and I for her.”
Lilah turned her gaze back to the window. Did he resent the necessity of the political union? “Your marriage will be good for the country.”
“It is why I marry.”
She lifted her gaze to his face. His profile was set in autocratic lines, his eyes fixed on a point far in the distance. “Do you … Do you ever wish …”
A muscle jerked in his cheek but he didn’t help her finish the sentence.
“Do you ever wish that you could have chosen your own bride?”
He was quiet for so long Lilah wondered if perhaps he hadn’t
heard. Then, in a voice devoid of emotion, he stated, “It is not our place to choose our lives. Destiny is before us. Our role is to meet it.”
Her heart was swelling with regret and pain – for the both of them. “Melania is a wonderful person,” she said softly. “She will be an excellent wife.”