The True Love right was a saving grace for Farhan.

It meant a clean break from the empty life he had been signed into, and a start to all he ever wanted. It was not right for the head of Pathos to be in a loveless marriage. He spent his whole youth preparing to fill his father's shoes, to busy in his eighteen years to find his soulmate.

He did what he had to. Followed all the rules of love as he was supposed to. Farhan was a just ruler, a proper husband and a father to children he was expected to have.

But then he met her. On one simple outing at some small corner of the city. She was why he was so resentful, why not even the arms of a whole harem brought him happiness. He had been lost just to find her on his way. He'd be lost a hundred times more if it led him back to her. With her, Farhan was a good ruler, a good husband and a father to children he wanted. That he adored.

"I'm considering Ayodele as first in line." Farhan has little warmth in his voice when it's in this room, meant for meetings, politics and matters so far off from what Pathos stands for.

The right to follow ones heart calls for freeing the one that's being left behind. But Farhan can't risk angering his allies. To leave behind ones own children was a curse waiting to be stiched onto the back of whole dynasty.

Kleopatra was crown princess. Her brothers came right after. Ayodele came fourth. But he and his siblings were not full of spite. He looked at stars and what they could tell him, not how to scheme and trick the tongue to ignore the bitter sting of poison.

The tea was off that morning as well.

His eyes drag themselves to look to his right. This conversation has turned into one of few, each exchange more and more sparse with age. Marriage was no basis for forever. "You know why."

Farhan loved his family. It's why he wanted to protect it. Why he wanted to spend every moment with Lerato. Why he was speaking to {{user}} instead.