Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 126003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
I was confused. I had options?
“You could be like me, Eason. Well, not exactly like me, of course. I’m a literal prince. But you could change the path of all your descendants. You could start a dynasty. What do you think of that?”
What did I think of that?
“You think this is a prize?” He panned his arms wide to indicate Bora Bora, which is where we were at the time. “You have no idea the kind of prizes you could have. And you don’t even have to fight.”
“What?”
“That’s right. Of course, you will have that fight with the Sick Heart. Don’t worry about that. I’ve arranged it. You will win, I will get his camp, and then we will have lots of fighters, Eason. More than we know what to do with. And the minute that happens, the moment you win—while you’re still standing on that Bull of Light platform, I will make that call, and have that talk, and everything will be… just… fine. They already have what they need to keep you in line. So I will make sure that they take your application seriously. What do you think of that?”
“All I have to do is one fight?”
“More than one. But not many more. Just a few. We need to…” He paused here. Like he needed to choose his words carefully. “We need to make them worth it, right? You understand, right?”
I had no idea what he meant. So no, I didn’t really understand. He was talking about one thing, then he was talking about something else. And I couldn’t parse it at the time. I was having a hard time following. I think he was confusing me on purpose. To give me time to come to terms with the two separate atrocities? I don’t know. I’m still not sure.
It’s entirely possibly he was just sick and evil and trying to fuck with me because he smiled at my confusion. A really gross, all-teeth smile. Which was a lie. Like everything else he ever told me. “You want this life, well, it comes with a price.” He was always in command of everything. Not full of himself or boastful, just extremely confident. “They need to feel like you are controllable, Eason. That you will respect the institution. And they do that by using things you love to keep you in line.”
He said all this like he was ticking off things on his grocery list. Like being controlled was nothing special. And maybe it wasn’t? Maybe he had just grown up this way. Maybe Benny saw how his father was controlled—all his brothers, and uncles, and cousins—and had come to terms with it sometime back in childhood.
It’s just… the way it is. Like a rite of passage.
I imagine the conversation Benny had with his father. Picture in my head what it might’ve been like…
You want to be a man, Benazir? You want a palace in Riyadh? You want a château in France? You want wives, and children, and power? We want you to have all these things too. But a man, even a wealthy one from a royal family such as yourself, needs to understand his place. And should a day come where his understanding is blurry, we need a way to sharpen that image and bring back the clarity he needs.
So I asked him, “How do they keep you in line, Benny?”
He pointed at me. “See, this isn’t a proper response, Eason. I don’t care if you ask me that question, but you can’t go around asking that fuckin’ question. It’s none of your business how they keep me in line. I’m your owner. But like I said, I don’t care. And besides, you’re like me, right? You’re like me. That’s why I’m having this conversation with you. I want you to rise up, Eason. So I will tell you, so you understand what you’re signing up for. They keep me in line using my first wife.”
“What?” I didn’t even know he had one wife, let alone a second. But some of the puzzle pieces were starting to fall into place, so I kept it going with another question. “How many wives do you have?”
“Four, so far. They are all arranged, of course. And I don’t live with them, obviously. But Juri was my first. We were promised to each other at birth. We grew up together. We were friends as children. I love her, in my own way. I would not want her hurt, and that’s all that matters. So they use her to keep me obedient.”
“Who does? Your father?”
“No.” He paused to laugh here. “No, Eason. See, the world is not run by one man. Not even my father is that powerful. It is run by committee. It’s a… board of directors, so to speak. And people like me, and my family, we’re beholden to them. We have tasks to perform.”