Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 101: Resolution

"I'm sorry," he murmured, lowering his head.

"Eh? For what?!"

"For not noticing that he hurt you."

"I purposely did my best to prevent you from noticing, so don't apologize," Ella snorted, setting her forehead against his back. "In comparison to the scars I gave you... mine are nothing. You need not fret over what's been done to me, because I genuinely deserved it."

His heart clenched.

"Do you really feel that way?"

The words escaped him before he could stop them, and he felt Ella's head shift.

"I do," she murmured. "I really do feel that way. I deserve what he did to me."

That was it.

He stepped away and turned around, looking her straight in the eyes.

"Ella," he sighed, giving her a soft glare, "stop it. What he did to you wasn't right, and no matter how many times you say it was, that doesn't make it true."

"How do you figure?"

"Because he can't fix things between us, nor can anyone else," he grunted. "Allowing someone else to scar your body because of your past actions will never fix what you did to me. It isn't some quick way to make us even. Believe me, if he had hurt you... I would have..."

His stomach tightened with anger and an involuntary growl escaped his throat. Ella shivered at the inhuman, animal-like sound... then her eyes lowered to the ground.

"I didn't agree to do it only because I wanted to atone," she said softly. "I did it because he would have forced me to break off the relationship we have. He told me to stay away from you."

Xaphile froze.

"What?" he muttered, furrowing his brows. "Why?"

"Simply put, he said that I can't love you," she snorted, letting out a sigh. "He said that I am too fickle a person to care for you the way you need it, and that if I truly did love you I would let you go. I rebelled against him, and... and then he told me the biggest reason why we wouldn't work."

His heart skipped a beat.

Why it did, he didn't know, but a faint amount of fear tightened in his breast.

"And what was that reason?"

Ella looked him in the eye without saying anything.

His frustration began to grow, since her eyes glimmered, but nothing came out of her mouth.

"Ella," he snapped, finally losing his patience, "what did my uncle tell you?!"

"Uncle?!" Amelia's voice cried, making both of them jump and whirl. "That... that faery... he's your relative?!"

Xaphile sighed, then rubbed his face with a tired feeling.

"Yes. Vordt is my uncle, and the Grand Mother... she's my aunt."

"Gods above," Amelia muttered, furrowing her brows. "Why didn't you say anything?!"

"Selfish reasons," Xaphile bluntly told her. "The knowledge that we're related would have painted him in an even worse light than you guys already have. I didn't want to see the repercussions of the stress that knowledge would have caused you guys."

"Oh," Amelia muttered. "Does anyone else know of this?"

"Only Sinmir."

Amelia looked reserved.