Truth And New Reasons

[ In the living room]

- I'm a little confused here, I thought you guys didn't care about me, maybe even hate me. So would you mind explaining what I heard? I want to know if I spent all this time hating and blaming the people who actually cared and loved me. Please tell me the truth.

- We never hated you and I never hated your mother either. You might not remember this since you were very young but your mother and I were very good friends.

- I don't remember much about her she died when I was four years old. I can't even remember her funeral. The only thing I can remember of her is her voice when she said my name. The rest is blank I can't remember anything.

- There was no one that didn't like your mother in the estate. Whether it was servants, commoners, or us everybody loved her that's how great and gentle your mother was. It was extremely hard to hate her. And that's why your father fell in love with her.

- Didn't that bother you?

- How much do you know about the relationship between your Father and me?

- You two were engaged because my Father was a friend of the King and you fell in love with him during a ball when you were both 16.

- Well you see, that story is wrong, at least the end of it. We got engaged because I'm the cousin of the King. You could say that our marriage was proof of their bond. As for me the more I got to know your Father the more I admired and respected him I never actually fell in love with him and it was the same for him. There was no love between us but there was a deep and solid friendship.

- What about when Father fell in love with my mom?

She lets out a small laugh. I was surprised today I was seeing so many sides of my family that I never knew. My Father was actually able to smile at me and my usually cold stepmother showed so many new expressions so did my second brother.

" Did I ever try to get close to them? No, I never tried. I just assumed without confirming anything. I never actually tried to do anything when it comes to my relationship with my family."

- Your Father always had a hard time expressing himself, he wasn't close to many people due to his title and standing in society therefore except for me and my Galliard there weren't many people he let get close to him. When he fell in love with your mother he didn't know what to do. He always came to me for advice. It was quite fun to see him struggle with his feelings and how he expressed them and your mother was quite a dense person so she couldn't figure out how he felt towards her no matter how many hints he gave her.

- What about you? Did you ever fall in love? You agreed to the marriage but did you ever have feelings for someone back then?

- There was someone before I met your Father.

- Was? Did something happen to him?

- He died during a monster extermination expedition... When he died I had a hard time and that's when Galliard introduced me to your Father. Perhaps that was his way to help me deal with the situation I was in, if it was then he was right having someone to talk about it without worrying really helped.

- I'm sorry... I didn't mean to make you bring up painful memories.

- It's fine, it's been a long time since I've gotten over it. it was thanks to both your Father and your Mother.

- However you still haven't explained why I was isolated, why did everybody act like I didn't exist why did nobody acknowledge my existence...

-Ugh, sniffle

I can feel it emotions that I had buried a long time ago are starting to resurface, I can't even control my expression any more tears are slowly but surely coming out of my eyes and I'm even starting to have a runny nose.

"Finally, finally I'm getting to have answers to the questions that kept tormenting me."

My stepmother jumps at me and hugs me the tears that were coming out slowly due to the fact that I was holding them back came out rushing. I couldn't control it I was crying as if I was a newborn baby.

- I'm sorry, I'm so sorry you had to endure all that by yourself.

[ A few seconds later]

" This is actually pretty embarrassing, I'm way too old to cry like that!"

- Have you calmed down, Noah? Asks Leyah

- Yeah. I'm good.

- The reason we acted like that, is because it was the most effective way to guarantee your safety.

- huh?

- Your pretty intelligent so I guess you can understand why your mom was attacked.

I nod up and down to express my agreement with her statement.

"It's simple my mother was loved by everyone in the estate but the most important was that my Father loved her but only had a friendship with the Duchess. The Duke would have a more favorable opinion of me. Those facts could have a great impact on the succession matter. That's probably why she was killed."

- I understand, why you guys kept your distance from me and acted as if I didn't exist. Since you couldn't figure out who was behind the assassination whoever it was would try again and it would be too difficult to protect me since there is too much to take into account but at the same time, the person behind my mom's death had to lay low to make sure they're not discovered.

- That's right. Your Father decided that it would be for the best if we kept you far away from anything regarding matters of succession and the like. Just like we wanted rumors started going around that the murder was from someone from the family.

- Since the rumors said that someone from the family did it they couldn't risk tarnishing the family's reputation, therefore, confirming that the one behind the assassination wasn't aimed at Father or the family but at Mother and maybe me too.

- Your really a bright child. There was also a possibility that whoever was behind it wanted to kill your mother because they knew how much he loved her however these suspicions were wrong.

Jynn puts his hand on my shoulder and says.

- I'm sorry we kept you in the dark.

- It's alright. What's important is that from now we can change all of that I'm strong so I can protect myself and now I also now know that my family got my back.

I smile and they both smile back at me.

- Leyah?

- Yes Noah

I hesitate, after all, I lived for a long time if I include my age in the future I would be around forty years old to forty-five years old I stopped counting because it wasn't something that really mattered. So what I will ask will seem quite childish but I still want to its something that I couldn't have something that I couldn't feel because my mother died too when I was too young.

" Who cares! I'm eight years old right now!"

- Can I call you mom?

" Damn iiiiiitttt! This is way more embarrassing than I thought!"

Leyah hugged me once again. And the feeling of embarrassment floated away and completely disappeared all that remained was the warm embrace of my second mother. And then my brother came and joined the hug.

" I never felt something like this. I gained another reason to get stronger this time, I'll protect my family too. Aaaaahhh this time I won't lose anything nor will I lose the people important to me."