Acting Royal #Wattys2017

Chapter 31

ZAYN

Zayn walked towards his father's office, a huge black sense of foreboding was growing inside him. This would not be good. There were a few things his father prized above everything else in this world, and honesty was one of them.

Zayn thought back to the time he was just a boy and his father had hit him. It was the only time his father had ever raised a hand to him. Zayn had been fifteen years old and he'd been angry and resentful. He'd been taken away from his old life, his friends, his school and had been moved onto an isolated island, into the palace with no one to keep him company. He'd snuck out one afternoon and joined his friends on the mainland- they'd done what they usually did after school in the afternoons. They'd gone down to the beach and played a game of cricket on the sand. Then they'd hooked up with a group of girls, gone cliff jumping in a popular swimming place and hung out all afternoon. Normal teenage boy stuff. He'd lied to his father about where he was going that day, though, and when his photo had landed up in the paper the next day, "Prince enjoys day out at the beach" his father had flipped.

It wasn't so much about what he'd been doing- his father had said- but it was the lying. His father prized honestly so much, that anyone who lied to him once, even a tiny white lie was almost beyond forgiveness. "Lies erode, lies chip away at a man's character, lies invite chaos and disaster into one's life, lies change a man for the worst," those had been his words.

Rafiq had told Zayn something in confidence once, that his grandfather, his father's father, had had an affair once. A secret affair that he'd lied to his wife and family about for years. His father had learned about the affair in his early twenties and he'd never forgiven his father. Which brought Zayn to the second thing his father hated; impropriety. Sexual inappropriateness. And Zayn was definitely guilty of that.

His father had made it very clear over the years that Zayn's behavior was unacceptable. And the third thing his father held in high esteem; duty. Duty to his country and to his people.

So as Zayn approached his father's study, he was very aware that he'd broken three of his father's cardinal rules. He would never be forgiven. In fact, if his father did not disown him on the spot, he'd be surprised. But at this stage, he didn't care. Jenny was more important than any of that. His priorities had changed and nothing in the world would change his mind.

He opened the doors to find his father seated at his desk. The desk was massive and truthfully his father didn't need anything that size, but Zayn knew that the purpose of the desk was to intimidate. It served no functional reason, it was simple a psychological weapon used in the game of power and intimidation that his father was so good at playing. His father was all about control and intimidation, and today would be no exception.

Zayn sat opposite his father and glared at him in silence. He had a file in front of him too, no doubt some dossier collected by a private investigator that Amir had hired. His father fingered a photo of him and stared at Zayn with such anger and hatred.

Zayn tried to be strong, he tried to keep up his cool and cocky facade, but it was failing. Every boy wants their father's approval. Every boy wants his father to be proud of him- his father had never been either. And it wasn't for lack of trying on Zayn's part- when he was younger he'd done all he could to please his father, but it was never enough. That's why at eighteen he'd left and had never looked back. He knew that his behavior over the years had been a kind of defiant rebellion against his father. Maybe his rebellion had gone too far this time.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" he could see it was taking all of this father's energy and control not to launch across the table at him right now.