“There wasn’t time.”
“There wasn’t time to invite her parents to her wedding?”
Again, Zayn shook his head. “My men had trouble locating her. She does not go by the name used on the betrothal document. I did not want to risk losing track of her once we found her.”
“You make her sound like some kind of criminal.”
Zayn flinched, thinking back to his use of the national riot team to collect her.
“I had no ideawhoshe was.”
Finally, he was able to turn some of the censure around. And this time it was his mother who flinched.
Lifting her hands, palms up, she offered, “We always thought you’d get out of it.”
For a moment he just stared at her incredulously. “I had the best lawyers in the country look over the contract. It’s unbreakable.”
She nodded. “Of course. You were the only one who could have broken it. Or her, I suppose...”
A fluttering sensation entered Zayn’s chest at his mother’s words. He didn’t recognize it as panic because he had never experienced it before. He took a seat on the studded leather sofa. Did his mother know some way that Mina might nullify the marriage? If she was free to walk away, would she?
Palms going clammy, Zayn asked cautiously, “Is there some way we could render the marriage void?”
Mistaking the thread of fear that wove through his words for desperation, his mother took a seat beside him, her eyes widened in alarm. “Oh, no, darling. I’m so sorry. It’s far too late now. We just never in a million years thought it would take you so long to find love...”
Her voice trailed off, and the slick, oily panic that had coated Zayn’s throat at her words began to dissolve.
The marriage stood.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
His mother’s alarm warped into guilt before his very eyes, and for the first time in his life he had the experience of seeing his mother ashamed. “We just never thought it would come to this.”
He raised an eyebrow “Somehow I find that hard to believe. Father entered into an agreement that would require constitutional amendment.”
“That’s absolutely absurd. Absolutely.” Like a tempest, his mother blew through emotions like mere changes of clothes. Now indignation ruled. “You’re the King—you can’t marry a cabbage farmer’s daughter!” she exclaimed.
The sentiment was the last thing he’d expected from his mother, who had spent her time as Queen championing the rights of the poor, and Zayn found himself bristling in Mina’s defense.
“Mina is far more than just a cabbage farmer’s daughter, Mother—far more. And, thanks to Dad, we are already married.”
The fact that he’d used the cold, commanding tone he reserved for speaking from the throne on his mother startled them both.
She opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again.
Uncomfortable with this discord with his mother, but unwilling to back down in his protection of Mina, he surprised himself by adding, “Besides, you don’t even know that her father grew cabbage.”
His mother took her seat once more, her eyes growing shrewd. “Of course I know her father grew cabbage. I know everything about the man.”
It was Zayn’s turn to be confused. “What do you mean?”
“I was pregnant with you—just weeks away from my due date—when I developed anemia. My hemoglobin levels dropped below three and my doctors insisted I needed a blood transfusion. Obviously they looked to Seraphina first, but I have a rare blood type and she wasn’t a match. They searched the national donor database, invoked royal privilege to search all private medical records, and even reached out to distant cousins amongst Europe’s royal families, but still could not find a match. Then your father had them search an old military database—and would you believe it? A match with a former sergeant. Ajit Aldaba—the one person on the entire island who could save my life.”
Zayn’s mouth dropped open, hanging wide in the same fish expression he’d accused Mina of having.
Clearly exhausted by the telling, his mother continued, “Your father was out of his mind with worry. My pregnancy had been rocky from the beginning, and we wanted you more than anything in the world. By then we knew I would not likely be able to sustain another pregnancy, so even though there was a risk we approached Sergeant Aldaba.”
Zayn’s voice rasped out, a dagger in the darkness. “And he said yes, on the condition you gave away your only son in a betrothal?”