Snippet #1511918

"Lionel is no threat to us. He is my son and your brother and his actions have been those of a stupid, misguided boy."

Adelaide had willing accepted her father's comfort until those words fell from his lips. At that moment, she shrugged his hand from her shoulder and stepped away, her eyes narrowing. She shook her head, the tears gone from her eyes. Instead they were once again replaced by anger and rage. Now the hurt she had felt was coupled with fury. After everything her father was still supporting Lionel, still taking his side. How could he? How could he side with the man who had killed his wife? Well, not quite killed, but assisted in killing. It almost tore her heart from her chest even more. His lies were becoming too much for Adelaide. She knew that he lying. The only reason he wished for them to marry was because he wanted a war with the Winslers. Well, he wasn't going to get one.

"He is not my brother!" Her voice was low and dangerous, her cheeks reddening fairly quickly with anger. "He will never be my brother again. He was the reason our mother died....Your wife. Don't you remember that?! He used her as a shield in order to escape. He's the reason she's dead! He might as well have killed her with his own hand." Her voice rose again as she distanced herself further from their father, throwing her hands into the air and shaking her head. "You have lost your mind if you are willing to take back that traitorous bastard child. And I will say this now, if I lay eyes on him ever again, I will hold no mercy. He held no mercy for mother, nor us when he treated us so badly as children."

"Lionel! Don't!" Adelaide cried, tears streaming down her cheeks as her brother took the beautiful bird her father had lately given her in his hand. There was a crack as he wrung its neck without a second thought.
Adelaide threw herself at him, barreling into his chest, hitting every part she could find. For a moment, Lionel looked surprised. He grabbed her wrists stopping her and making her look at him.
"I'm sorry Ada," He whispered, chewing his bottom lip. He sounded genuinely sorry, but Adelaide refused to forgive him so easily. Instead, she looked away, tugging her wrists from his grasp.
It was five days before she spoke to him again.

"He will kill Raban to take that throne." She whispered, her eyes almost pleading with her father. "He knows what he's doing. He is a threat to us! He told me that he'd come back for us. I do not trust him." Why couldn't she make her father understand? Because Lionel had always been the children that their father had been close to. Although he loved the rest of his children, Lionel had been his pride and joy, even if he was a bastard. It only angered Adelaide further that her foolish father could not see past that.