Black Keys (The Colorblind Trilogy #1) - Rose B. Mashal Page 0,42
was Christian, Marie. Muslim women only marry Muslims,” he replied in a low voice.
“Of course! It had to be Janna. Everything is about Janna, isn’t it?” I asked, not really wanting an answer–I already knew it. “You change your religion just for Janna. You change your name just for Janna. You drag me here just for Janna. I marry someone I don’t know and against my will just for Janna. What about me? Do I mean anything to you? Do you remember who I am? I’m your little sister, Joseph. I’m your family, your blood!” I cried, tears and pain staining my entire face.
“Yoseph! What is your sister saying?” Janna asked with a shaky voice. “What’s going on, Yoseph?”
“You need to get out of here, this is not good for the baby,” the prince said, though not looking at her.
“I’m not leaving this room until I know what’s going on!” Tears sparkled in her brown-chocolate eyes.
“I’ll tell you what’s going on,” I said.
“Princess, please,” the prince begged.
“You ask me please? She needs to know what kind of a man she just got married to, what kind of a jerk as you put it yesterday!” I told him.
“Marie, don’t,” Joseph pleaded.
“Your beloved husband brought me here for his wedding, only for me to discover later that it was my own wedding along with yours! I had no freaking clue!” I told her, my eyes never leaving Joseph’s.
“He tricked me, he betrayed me, he destroyed me, he killed me, killed my soul!” Tears laced my voice, and I sounded like someone who’d just lost a loved one for good.
But it was true: I was that person. I’d just lost a loved one, too. I’d just lost my brother. It would’ve been so much better if I was standing now at his funeral, for then he still would’ve been the good, kind, caring Joseph I’d known all of my life. The one who would give up his everything for my happiness–not the one who would take my everything, the one who would drown me in an angry ocean for his own peace and joy. The one who would leave his faith for his own selfish desires.
I’d rather he was dead.
I really did.
“You make it look like I threw you in hell! Look at you! They call you a princess. You have diamonds covering you from head to foot!”
“Are you serious? Are you listening to yourself right now? I don’t care, Joseph, I don’t care about any of it!” I yanked the crown I had on off of my head and threw it to the floor. “I just want to go home!”
“You won’t. You belong with your husband.”
His words hit me like a huge rock to my head. That was the end. Everything ended there. He had planned it all. He knew even before I came here that when I did, there would be no coming back from it.
The part of him that loved God and wished to always please him was gone. I couldn’t even work on that part, where I could’ve told him that he should help me get out of this, just for God’s sake and his forgiveness. But...he had already given him up–he gave up everything.
“Of course you gave up Jesus, no surprise there,” I chuckled bitterly after a moment. “You already gave up your own freaking sister!”
“Would you just shut up!” Joseph yelled his anger, and I heard a growl coming from beside me.
“Or what, Big Bro?” I crossed my arms in front of my chest. “You’ll put a gun to my head if I don’t, just like you did to force me into signing the papers?”
At the same second I finished my words, the prince was in front of my brother, taking him by the tie he was wearing and rolling it over his hand then pulling hard, choking him while the other fisted his hair.
My heart swelled at the sight. Ached. My hands wanted to grab the prince and move him away, force him to leave my brother alone. But my legs wouldn’t move. I just stood there and watched, fear consuming me. Fear for my brother and his life as I saw him struggling for a breath. But I stood still, watching with panicked and teary eyes, clutching my cross once again for protection and the feeling of safety I longed to feel.
“You put a gun to her head?” the prince asked through clenched teeth, his tone scary and his look frightening.