Because It Is My Blood (Birthright #2)(40)

I considered this. “And the girl doesn’t mind his deficit?”

“No. I am not sure she even knows that he has one.”

I spotted a bit of mold on a cacao pod. I took my machete out of my belt and I sliced off the infected pod. “Pod rot,” I explained.

“I’ve never liked you better, Anya Balanchine,” Yuji said to me.

I had not heard my real name in months and it sounded almost foreign to my ears. I sat down in the grass and leaned against the trunk of a tree.

“Say you are happy to see me,” Yuji ordered.

“Of course I am happy to see you.”

“Tell me about your journey here. I want to know everything. Besides, surely I will see your family again and they will crave news of you.”

And so I told him about the container on the cargo ship and the loss of my hair and learning how to grow cacao and about all the Marquezes and especially Theo.

Yuji listened quietly. “You once told me that you hated chocolate. Do you still?”

“No, Yuji. Not anymore.” Being here had changed me. I could feel it.

“And Win Delacroix? Do you think of him very much?”

The truth was, I hadn’t—not because I didn’t love him, but because I couldn’t bear the thought of him. Still, the person my heart had raced for that very morning was Win. “I don’t want to talk about Win,” I said.

“Do you remember that I told you I would need a favor from you someday?” Yuji asked.

I nodded. How could I forget? It had been the night I had asked him to harbor my brother in Japan.

“Well, the time has come.”

I did not hesitate to ask him what he needed.

He took my hand. “I want you to marry me.”

“Yuji, I-I-I-I,” I sputtered. “I can’t marry you. I’m seventeen. I can’t marry anyone!” As I shuffled to my feet, I dropped my machete. Yuji bent down to pick it up.

“No,” I said. “I’ll get it myself.”

“I know you are only seventeen. That is why we don’t have to marry yet. You only have to become engaged to me.”

“Yuji, but I don’t love you.”

“I don’t love you either. But we must be married. Don’t you see? It is the only way to secure Balanchine Chocolate. If I am to be your husband, I can help you organize the business and protect both our interests.

“I have put a great deal of thought into this matter. Originally, I hadn’t known what I would do after the Balanchine poisoning incident. Should I eliminate Balanchine Chocolate entirely? Should I watch and wait for it to destroy itself? Or should I intervene? I believe I told you as much.”

He hadn’t said it quite so bluntly at the time.

“But then once I met you at the wedding, I thought, ‘There is another way. This girl is formidable. She might have the makings of a good leader. How much better would it be for me to join interests with this person and have the potential to make both our companies bigger and better?’ I began to formulate a plan.”

“A plan to marry me?”

“No. At first, I thought I could just partner you with Mickey, that the two of you together might be enough to stabilize Balanchine Chocolate once his father died. But for many reasons, this plan was a failure. I am not blaming you, Anya. You were occupied with your boyfriend and your schooling and your legal troubles. Your obligations, I suppose. You are very young. And Mickey is older, but he is too much in his father’s pocket. It was too much to ask of you.” He paused. “Since you’ve been gone, you should know that the infighting among the Balanchines has only escalated.”

“Why?”

“Who can say? The election of the new district attorney? The wails of the legalize-cacao people? Whatever the reason, the rank and file at Balanchine Chocolate are angry. My point is, Anya, the only way I can intervene is if I have the authority to do so. If I am to be the husband of Anya Balanchine, I will have that authority.”

“What difference do I make, Yuji?” I asked. “I’m an outsider and now a fugitive. No one cares about me.”

“That isn’t true. You know very well that that isn’t true. You are still the heir to Balanchine Chocolate. And, because of your notoriety, yours is the face people see when they think of Balanchine Chocolate.” He took my hand, but I pulled it back.

Every kind word he’d ever said to me and every good deed he’d ever done for me, I questioned. I wondered whether I’d just been groomed, whether his plan had been to use me to gain control of Balanchine Chocolate.

And yet …

It could not be denied that I was in debt to him. He had helped my brother when I needed to get him out of the country and Yuji had, in part, done the same for me. How much was this worth? Or rather, how much did I owe?

“Yuji,” I asked, “what happens if I refuse you?”

Yuji cupped his hand over his chin. “I would rather you did not.”

“Is that a threat?”

“No, Anya. I … Perhaps I have gone about this the wrong way. I should have started by saying how much I admire you and how much I see in you that I think is worthy of respect. If I don’t say ‘love,’ perhaps this is because I don’t think love is all that important.”

“What is important?”