I dragged her into my room as soon as we entered the palace. It was still late at night but the cool night breeze didn't help me control my anger. I dismissed all the guards and servants at night duty near my room and it felt like we were the only two souls present in the area. I turned to look at her and I could see that she is trembling in fear. For the first time ever, I saw Nefertari being scared of me. I made her sit on one of the arm chairs and I sat in front of her. My blood was boiling in anger and I was trying really hard to make sure that I would not physically harm her.
I spoke with anger clearly evident in my voice, " Well, I'll like to tell you a story, love. Once upon a time, there was an Emperor who was known for his power as a ruler and he was also a renowned warrior. His enemies tried every strategy that they could come up with, to defeat him in battle field and they failed miserably at every attempt. One day his arch enemy came across a beautiful girl who had a grudge with the Emperor's family. So he took her under his care and trained her to win the heart of the emperor. She was then sent to his kingdom and just like it was planned the Emperor fell in love. This girl was then made his queen and given all the luxuries that she could think of but the truth is the girl never loved the emperor. She was in love with his arch enemy and was sharing kingdom secrets, that the emperor entrusted her with."
Tears were streaming down her cheeks and her khol had gotten smudged from the tears. Amidst her sniffles she asked " Sese, Do you think of me as the Hittite spy in the kingdom?."
"Shhhhhhh darling. I have not finished my story yet. As you know, every conspiracy comes to light and one day one of the ministers brought to the attention of the Emperor that the Queen has been keeping in touch with the enemy and the emperor reluctantly investigated the matter. He only did it as a formality because he trusted her completely. When he caught her red handed with her lover, the Emperor just lost it. He took her to the middle of the city and severed her head from her body using his own sword and chopped off her limbs and sent it to the enemy as a return gift. He once again became a man void of love."
I looked at her and saw that she had no emotions on her face . "How did you like the story?" I asked. There was pin drop silence in the room. I got up and walked towards her. She didn't even look at my face. She was looking straight ahead. I pulled her from her hair and asked through gritting teeth "HOW DID YOU LIKE MY STORY?" She tried to move from my grip but I tightened it even more and pulled her close to me.
She took me by surprise when she kissed me on the cheek and leaned into my body. " I know what you were trying to do with that story of yours but I'm not going to explain myself to you Sese ." She then took my other hand and kept it on her lower stomach. I looked at her confused.
"You are going to be a father, Sese. You will soon have your heir."
It felt like a bolt of lightning struck me for the second time today. Nefertari was trying to manipulate me to let go of the Yali situation on the premise of a heir, but I will no longer be a puppet in her hands. If she thought that the mention of a child would calm me down, she was completely wrong. In fact my anger just doubled. She was innocently smiling at me, I guess hoping that I have calmed down.
I walked to the other side of the room to help get my emotions sorted but she followed and hugged me from behind. "We are going to be parents soon Sese. Your dream is going to come true." I couldn't believe my ears, here I was accusing her of being a spy and being immoral and she behaves as if none of those accusations matter to her. It was the height of shamelessness. I turned around and looked at her. She was smiling at me but her lower lip was trembling which indicated that she was hiding her true emotions. I pulled her towards me and kissed her passionately biting her lips , drawing blood. She groaned in pain when I let go of her and the rusty taste of her blood on my lips calmed me down.
"Do you really think that one day I will allow that child to sit on my throne? The child of a bloody Hittite spy? Okay... Even if I let go of the fact that the child would be born to you , how can I be sure that this child is mine? I mean, you might have had many secret visits like today. How could I be sure that you have not slept with Yali even after you married me? You know what Nefertari, the reason that you never mentioned about Yali at all ,even as a past relationship is because it is not in the past. You are in love with him even now. How could I be sure that by naming this child as the heir , I wouldn't be ending my bloodline on the throne and simply just passing Egypt onto Yali."
As soon as I finished talking, she sat on the closest chair with both her hands resting on her lower stomach. I walked to her and raised her chin making her look at me . Her face had become pale and she looked like a total stranger to me. " Do you think holding your stomach so tight would protect your child from my wrath and judgment? I am very sure that this child is not mine and I will never allow a bastard to be a part of my lineage. I'm sure you already know this by now, but I'll like to tell you that your worst days had just begun. I will not kill you because I love you too much to drive my sword into your heart but I will make sure that you regret betraying my trust. You will regret the day that you entered my life. That's a promise by the Pharaoh of this nation and your husband."