Though I understand that it’s not for everyone.”
Sanyu shifted in his seat, his throat feeling raspy at the idea of even discussing his father with someone. “I don’t need that. Time will help.”
Johan’s expression said that he didn’t agree but wasn’t going to push it. “Well. If you want to talk to someone who isn’t a therapist in the meantime, people say I’m a fantastic confidant.”
“You’re ‘people,’ aren’t you?” Sanyu asked, deadpan.
“Hey, I’m learning to embrace what I’m good at. But therapy is really—”
“You don’t have to give me the Liechtienbourgish sales pitch,” Sanyu said. “Your advice has been noted. I’ll get back to you as soon as I figure out what happened with the charity and . . . perhaps I’ll contact you if I need to talk. Thank you for offering.”
Johan smiled—not the devious smile that had been plastered across tabloids for years, but the shy smile Sanyu had first seen on a scrawny redheaded teen at their boarding school before Johan had become known as the playboy prince. “Call anytime. Except Fridays at eight, because that’s when this new drama Nya, Lukas, and I started watching comes on. It’s this fantasy romance with chickenshifters and a romance between the rooster, the alpha hen, and the beta hen—”
“Au revoir, Johan.” Sanyu ended the call and returned to his office, stopping by Lumu’s smaller adjoined one.
“I just got a call from Prince Jo-Jo,” Sanyu said.
“Is he still trying to find out your thighs and glutes routine?” Lumu asked with a grin. “I’ve received a few emails about it from his assistant.”
“No. He said he received a letter stating the land mine charity would be discontinued.”
Lumu leaned back in his chair. “I wasn’t aware of that, and I assume you weren’t either.”
“Not at all. And the fact that this was done after Shanti made it clear that the alliance with Johan for the charity was solely my idea and flat out stated that doing otherwise was undermining me . . .” He expected to feel the not-fear rise in him, but instead he found anger. Frustration. And memories, going back year after year, of Musoke pointing out Sanyu’s errors, “fixing” things Sanyu hadn’t thought needed fixing, trying to change him into a different boy and then a different man, one who would be the right kind of king for Njaza.
Lumu didn’t crack any jokes.
“I’ll start digging into this and have my trusted people look into it.” His gaze held Sanyu’s. “My king, I know you’ve been taught to think that Musoke is always right. But that’s not the way of Amageez—true intelligence always questions, even if that means questioning itself.”
Sanyu nodded, then walked back into his office and sat heavily in the chair at his father’s desk. He ran his hands over the worn wooden edges, the grooves made by fountain pen or letter opener. His gaze caught on a framed picture of him, his father, and Musoke, which rammed him with guilt and grief. Musoke cared for him and here he was doubting the man’s intentions.
But Sanyu knew that Musoke cared for Njaza more, and wondered what he would do to keep it safe if he thought Sanyu couldn’t.
He lightly banged his head back against the headrest of his chair; whoever had said being king was a gift was a liar.
Chapter 15
Marie: Friend, will you join us tonight?
I will try, Shanti texted back, dropping her phone onto her desk. She hadn’t made it to Liberation Books in the last week—because her nights had been consumed with her husband. Every evening had been spent with Sanyu, going over the economist’s suggestions and figuring out how the Rail Pan Afrique and the eventual application to the UAN best fit into those plans, and watching as he began to understand that the requests of Njaza Rise Up weren’t so impossible after all.
They’d also been exploring the more sensual aspect of the vows they’d made to one another; after their political discussions, he explored her body with the same intensity he’d turned toward becoming a better king. Somewhere along the way—okay maybe from that first time against the vase—what was supposed to be just sexual release felt like much more. She hadn’t thought affection necessary for a good marriage, but whatever it was she had with Sanyu felt dangerously close to it.
She turned her attention back to her laptop, where she scrolled through the PowerPoint presentation Sanyu had put together to present at the upcoming meeting. She knew that he seemed to doubt