BULLETS ⚊ divergent

TWENTY SIX

Her first instinct was to tell Hortense to mind her own business but, like always, her sister was only trying to help. She hadn't pried, at first, not when Lilith had gotten to the farmlands with the other refugees, and when she'd assumed that Lilith would probably feel more comfortable discussing what had happened with the group. However, she had no one to talk to. Peter wasn't an option, and she barely knew Caleb, who turned out to be Tris' older brother. Marcus Eaton was completely out of the question, Four had been acting like she couldn't be trusted ever since he'd realized that she had some sort of feelings for Eric, and Tris seemed pretty out of it herself. The only remaining person was Granger, but he'd been ignoring her for weeks.

Lilith cleared her throat, "I feel... alone," she confessed, "And I know you're here, and reuniting with Reyna has been good, but... none of you were there. You keep insisting for me to talk about the attack and everything that I went through, but I can't help but think that knowing more about it will ruin the peace you have here," there was a pause, "You don't deserve that. You don't deserve to worry about a war when you have your own family to worry about."

Hortense placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "You're my family too," her lips spread into a grin, before she furrowed her eyebrows and heaved out a sigh, "I do understand where you're coming from. But Erudite has already ruined the peace we had. Abnegation were the ones being attacked, but it impacted every other faction as well. There's no peace to keep anymore."

Tears brimmed her eyes, "I'm sorry."

"What for?"

She chewed on her lower lip for a few seconds, blinking back the tears that threatened to spill, "I... I had signs that something would happen right in front of me. Ever since Initiation, there were hints that Erudite was up to no good, and I didn't try to investigate and put the pieces together," her features hardened, "And then I was fully invested in being a member of Dauntless. To the point that I had proof right under my nose, and my gut was telling me that I should pry more, and that people were lying to me, and I chose to ignore it because I...," she stopped. Because I fell for someone I shouldn't have, and now he's dead. But Hortense didn't need to know that. Lilith shrugged, "I was in denial until it was too late. And now we're here."

Hortense was quiet for a moment, "Well, at least we're back together. I missed you a lot, you know."

A chuckle left Lilith's lips, her eyes drifting to the flowery tattoo on her arm, "I missed you, too."

The sisters remained silent for the next few minutes, up until the front door of the house was opened and tiny footsteps were heard running in the direction of the backyard. Lilith couldn't stop herself from smiling as she looked over her shoulder at her niece, Ivy, as she pushed the door open and ran straight into Hortense's arms. Though she'd always known that her sister was the most likely to have her own children out of the two, she'd still been surprised to find her married and with a two year old toddler that seemed to wreak havoc wherever she went.

Ivy seemed to have taken after their side of the family, possessing almond shaped eyes and a nose that was shaping up to be like Adelia's. The only characteristic that she'd inherited from her father seemed to be the golden freckled skin, and Hortense seemed to think that Ivy had a smile similar to Lilith's, when she was younger. She couldn't really see it, but she didn't want to burst her sister's bubble. 

After Hortense was done telling her to be more careful not to get watercolours on her clothes, Ivy's focus turned to Lilith, and the beaming grin that she'd grown to love appeared on her chubby face. 

"Auntie Lili!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around the brunette's neck. Lilith closed her eyes as she hugged her back, a feeling of warmth taking over her insides as Ivy chattered about what she'd been doing, that day. After a few seconds, the toddler pulled away, though her eyes were still wide in excitement, "And then daddy brought me to big building and Penny gave me some paint," she rose her purple covered hands, "I drew you."