A Court of Pain and Sorrow

Don't blame it on me

Rhaella returned home and, this time, no one was waiting for her.

She quietly got in the bed and snuggled closer to a trembling Feyre who instantly turned around and hugged her in her sleep.

She looked down at her slightly older sister and held back the tears that threatened to come out of her eyes.

Never in a thousand years Rhaella thought she would be able to leave her.

She loved her more than anything in the world.

Nesta and Elain didn't worry her as much.
Even though her relationship with them wasn't as bad as it could be, they had each other.
But Feyre... Feyre had Rhaella. That was it.

However there was no turning back.

Besides, they needed this. She couldn't just sit back (like Nesta, Elain and her father did) and watch Feyre risk her wellbeing to feed the family.

With the money, she would make sure Feyre always had a canvas, paints, brushes and food on the table.

It didn't matter what she had to do.

Rhaella Archeron made a promise to her mother before she killed her: go as far as it takes.

And she was planning in keeping said promise.

***

The morning came and, as the whole family was sitting in silence eating the cold and disgusting breakfast that Rhaella had cooked, she decided that enough was enough.

"I found a job." She said, still looking at her plate.

If the silence in the table wasn't loud enough before, it sure as hell was now.

"You found a what?" Nesta asked, raising an eyebrow.

"A job." Rhaella said, lifting her gaze to meet her sister's. "You work and in exchange they give you money. I don't think you've ever heard of it."

"Rhaella!" Elain exclaimed. "Don't be rude. That's great, Rhae, where is it? What will you be doing?"

Rhaella turned to look at Elain before answering. Lying, of course.

"It's in a bar a couple of towns from here. I'll be trained there, they'll give me food and a roof over my head and then I'll work. I'll owe them some money for it but that's fine... They will take it off my salary but the rest will be to you and..." She was interrupted by a loud band in the table coming from her father's direction.

"You will owe them? How can you be so stupid?! This is a fraud! We don't have money to eat, what makes you think that we can afford debts! Don't you remember what happened the last time we owed money to someone? They ruined my leg!" He stood up from the table and started to limp around the little room.

"Father, we need the money and it's the only place that would hire me. I know what I agreed to. It'll be okay, well get through this." Rhaella replied, trying to ease the situation.

"No you don't. You have no idea what you've done." He started screaming. "YOU JUST KILLED US ALL!"

The fury that rose in Rhaella's chest wasn't natural. In that precise moment, all her life passed before her eyes. All the times she had broken her back for this family while her father sat down on a chair and looked at the fire.

"Don't blame it on me! Don't you dare blame me for our misery!" She snapped. Feyre sighted knowing that this was, yet again, another argument. She had grown sick of them over the past years. "I'm doing everything I can! I break my back for your ungrateful ass and this is how you thank me?"