Aqrabuamelu Boyfrend: Vasumat Part Two (special preview)

“What is going on in here?” He asks cautiously.

Erameni tries to explain, but it only comes out in squeaks and sobs. Rajarshi sighs, coming in and scooping his wife up into his arms. He then helps me to stand and he places his hand upon my head. 

“Amora, I’ve known you since you were small--I mean, a child,” he quickly covers up. “I have never seen you in such hysterics. You were always, well, a bit intimidating.”

I sniffle and rub my eyes. “It is nothing to concern yourself with, my king.”

“You have my pregnant wife sobbing. I believe it’s time I understand what is happening.” he sets Erameni down then kneels before me. “Now tell me, as a friend, as my wife’s closest confidant, why are you crying so?”

I take in a deep breath and slowly release it. “Vasumat confessed he loved me after I discovered Malik was being poisoned.” I gaze up into Rajarshi’s eyes and, for a moment, I feel safe. “He confessed and I ran away.”

“Let me start by saying all of our country is grateful to you. You’re the hero that saved our hero. I wish you would let me thank you at the festival properly.” Rajarshi lays his hand on my shoulder again.

“I told you. I don’t want to be thanked. I did what anyone would do, just because Malik is special, that doesn’t make my act special.” I wipe my nose on my sleeve.

“Second,” Rajarshi sighs, “Why did you run away? Men and women would literally claw their own eyes out at a chance to hear Vasumat say they loved them. Yet you ran away?”

“I stomped on his foot and then ran away,” I grumble.

Rajarshi opens his mouth to say something but, instead, he shuts it back, nodding his head slowly. 

“The very thing you have me here for is the very reason I cannot let Vasumat love me,” I confess to him. “The poisons I took as a child have completely robbed me of being a viable mate to anyone.”

Rajarshi frowns harshly. “A mate is not someone who bears offspring. A mate is someone you join with as one, pledging loyalty, love, and honor to. A mate is not a brood sow, a mate is an equal. That is why I married Erameni, because to me, she is my equal, my better.” He places his hand over his chest. “Why do you speak like this when you know better, Amora?”

I shake my head and avoid looking at him. “Because Vasumat deserves it! He deserves a family. He deserves a wife who won’t fail him like his mother did!”

“His mother abandoned them,” Rajarshi snarls. His tone is severe and dark all of a sudden. “She forsook her duties, her vows as a mate, as a parent. Those are true failings, Amora. The failure you think you possess is not a real one. Your parents failed you.”

I swallow down the painful lump in my throat that refuses to go away.

“You deserve a family as well,” Rajarshi whispers. “Don’t you?”

I finally look back at him, tears streaming down my face.

“Don’t you think,” he starts gingerly, “that by running away from Vasumat, you did the very thing his mother did?”

“I know,” I hang my head. “But I was so scared! Erameni and you are the only people in the world who know this!”

“Doesn’t Vasumat deserve to know?” Rajarshi asks. “Let him decide what’s right for him before you make that choice.”

“How can I even approach him now?” I whisper. I sink to my knees and hold my head in my hands. “How can I even look at him after what I did?”

“You just have to approach him,” Erameni replies.

I gather up all my courage that evening. I go down to the knight’s wing, where everyone seems to be winding down from practice. I see Vasumat across the room, dealing with a couple of young men in training. He’s wearing a helmet, which means he just got done with a practice fight. I walk around the field, coming into his line of vision. 

His eyes look up towards me and I feel a crushing blow to my chest. I don’t deserve to be looked at by him, I don’t deserve to be forgiven. He shoos away the young men then approaches me, keeping a distance between us.

“What are you doing here?” He sounds neither mad or happy to see me, which somehow makes it worse.

“I came to apologize.” I look down at my hands, but I know he will not see me as genuine if I cannot look him in the eyes. I lift my head and try to keep my neck stiff. “As well as to see how Malik is doing now.”

There is a slight change to his eyes, they seem lighter and brighter. “He’s walking again,” his voice chokes. “Thanks to you.” He then tilts his head. “How about that apology then?”

“Right.” I screw up my courage again. “I would never hurt you, not for anything. I would rather die than know I made you cry. I know that what I did caused a bigger wound than you would ever let on. I did the thing you have feared most in the world, I reopened the first wound you ever received.” I press my palms flat to my chest. “I will do anything to fix what I’ve done. I miss you, but I do not expect you to forgive me.”