Red Princess

70. The woman we forgot

His silence was all the evidence I needed.

"The pills she takes, they are no anxiety medicines! They are a disguise so that she can be labelled as Ariel!"

The moment she had mentioned that Seydon got her those, I knew something was wrong. My gut told me it wasn't beneath him to play dirty, to trick her, to trick us all.

He pinched the bridge between his nose, the silence hanging heavily between us like a fishbone stuck in the food pipe. His fingers ran through his hair, and I knew he had no more excuses up his sleeve. I had outsmarted him. He couldn't hide it anymore.

"Look, Alex-"

I jabbed another punch to his face, drawing blood out the corner of his lip. Before I had time to process, his hand flung towards me, and his fist met with my jaw, knocking me down. Livid with his retaliation, I jolted ahead and grabbed the collar of his shirt, shoving him against the wall.

"You motherfucking piece of-"

"Listen to me!"

"No! You listen to me!" My breathing escalated, every breath heaving out as a growl. I despised him. I despised his face, his guts, and every cell of his being. I wanted to do the same to him- take his one person away from him the way he did to all of us, but the sad irony was he had only my sister. This selfish fucking bastard played dirty, and I was going to make him pay for it. "You took my sister away from me! And then you had the nerve to get engaged to her! You are at the top of my hit list now, Seydon Cross. And the death I'll give you won't come easy."

"Will you hear me out?"

My finger poking him on his chest curled away, and I turned, not wanting to breathe the same air as him. Just the sight of his face had my stomach turning in disgust. He knew how I suffered. I was estranged from my father after I learned the truth. I couldn't get close to Rihanna because I had to protect her. Kaidon was out wailing in his misery on some suicide mission. Even having witnessed all that didn't make him pity me enough to tell me the truth.

"I am calling out this ruse, and then I'll watch as every single person you admire spits on your soul, including my sister!"

I turned on my heel, my feet heavy to lift with the weight of the truth and contempt I held for him.

"Your sister asked me to do it."

What?

I halted in my trail, processing the words he just used, wondering if I heard it right. I wouldn't put it beyond Seydon to lie again so that he could keep the ruse going longer. Regardless, I turned back to him, curious what more did he have in store for me. How low he could get.

"That day... five years ago... she called me. She asked me to make her disappear from Kaidon's life."

She had called me the night before and told me she'd come to see me. Her voice had cracked on the phone, but I thought it was the network. I didn't realise she had broken up with Kaidon. Only when I discovered the house empty did I realise she was planning to move away. I had hated Kaidon since that day, not because he didn't protect her, but because he let her go. Kaidon was an idiot, but my sister was an even bigger fool. She always had this dumb sense of responsibility that she owed to people and had to look after them. She never let anyone care for her, or spoil her; she always took it upon herself to help others, even if that meant her own heart crushed under the weight.

I had loathed him because he didn't hold her hand. He didn't recognise that stupid tendency of hers. He always blindly believed whatever she said. He hadn't been selfish. He didn't hold her against her will. I detested him because he was as selfless an idiot as my sister was.