Caterina spent her whole life being underlooked and misunderstood.
Hatice spent her whole teenage years chasing a man who loved another.
But Hüsniye became more than a pawn. She became a queen. She conquered the heart of the Ottoman Sultan, the hear...
I may be Sultan of an empire that stretches across continents, but the title I have always cherished most is father.
Before ruler. Before sovereign. Before shadow of Allah upon Earth.
Father.
My children have always been the purest mercy Allah granted me, little pieces of heaven entrusted into my care. I have held them in my arms moments after their births, listened to their laughter echo through palace gardens, watched them run through the halls of Topkapı as though sorrow itself could never find them here.
Now sorrow lived among us like a guest refusing to leave.
The palace had fallen into silence weeks ago.
Not true silence—there were still footsteps, still physicians rushing through corridors, still servants whispering prayers beneath trembling breaths—but it was the silence of fear, the kind that settled deep into walls and remained there. Doors stayed shut now. Braziers burned day and night with vinegar and herbs. Entire sections of the harem had been sealed behind guarded entrances while news traveled not through gossip anymore, but through coughing.
Always coughing.
And I remained trapped away from all of it.
The Sultan must not risk infection, my advisors insisted. The empire required stability. If I became ill, panic would spread beyond the palace itself.
So they confined me to my chambers while the people I loved suffered beyond walls I was forbidden to cross.
It was beginning to feel less like protection and more like punishment.
I stared blankly at the reports spread across my desk, though I had not truly read a word in hours. Governors still demanded answers. Viziers still debated matters of state. The empire continued moving because empires did not stop for grief.
But fathers did.
The chamber doors opened softly behind me.
I looked up immediately.
"Validem."
Relief crossed me so suddenly it almost embarrassed me.
Nurbanu Sultan entered quietly, though there was little caution left in any of us now. Fear exhausted itself eventually. She crossed the room without hesitation and wrapped her arms around me before either of us could think of the rules.
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For a brief moment, I allowed myself to simply be her son.
"I feel as though I am losing my mind," I admitted quietly against her shoulder. "Every hour in these rooms feels heavier than the last."
