The Single Heir
And the older they grew, the more thoroughly their mother's words took hold of them: that the fortune now in the hands of their uncle and aunt, Hasim and Ela, was their grandfather's legacy—and that as the eldest son's children, Tengku Imran's blood, it was theirs by right, and would naturally fall to Balkan and Rohima.
On the other side of it all, Hasim and Ela, both nearing fifty, went on savoring their life together, childless as they were.
It wasn't that Hasim lacked the nerve to marry again. He honored Ela—especially since, just before they died, both of his in-laws had wept and begged him never to leave her, whatever happened.