Chapter 66: Rule Number One! (1/2)
Cheyenne's voice once again broke King Caspian.
'Love? Impossible!' his mind became overcome with emotion.
There was no way the Queen loved him. They had an arranged marriage.
There was barely any love in ninety-nine percent of all arranged marriages!
This was the first time hearing of the strange concept of his wife loving him.
He wanted to dispute it, but, deep down, he couldn't! The facts were laid bare in front of his eyes.
He could remember the peaceful smile his wife always gave him. It was the same smile she had when she died.
To be honest, it always unsettled him because of the guilt he tried so hard to hide.
How could he have not noticed all along? Or, perhaps, he had noticed but decided to ignore it?
Faced against such truth, Caspian cried in his mind, 'Heavens! What type of man did I become?!'
He couldn't help but ask himself, 'Did she really think I was worth saving?'
It didn't help that Cheyenne kept screaming, ”Why? Why? Almost every day, beneath the eyes of the palace, Mother would cry. She would come here after her rounds of crying, trying to hide it, but we could always see it, her swollen red eyes.”
She repeated, ”Why? Why were you so cruel to her?”
”Uh!...” Caspian became tongue-tied.
He fell short of words.
What answer could he give?
Was his reason even sensible?
He reckoned if he were to talk, he would sound more like the children than them?
'I couldn't see it all this while! It has come to the point where I am now ashamed of myself,' lamented Caspian.
He looked down at the comfortable grass floor. Yet, he couldn't feel any warmth.
All he felt were the grasses judging him, mocking him for being a failure as a family man.
”You can't talk, can you? You don't even know yourself anymore!” jabbed Cheyenne with a poison-laced voice.
With a spiteful glance, Cheyenne scorned, ”Oh, I was such a foolish young girl. I always tried to get into trouble so I could see you again. Always vied for your attention. Now, looking at the real you right now, I realize that you aren't worth it, not even a fraction of my admiration! There is nothing worthy in you as a father!”
Her brother, Roan, who was watching this, softly called out, ”Cheyenne….”
It was an emotional moment for him too, but he had to interrupt for his sister's sake.
He walked to drag back his hysterical sister but was stopped by the raising hand of his other sister, Princess Sierra.
”Why?” he asked.
”It is high time he heard it. Don't you feel it too? The frustration building up within us? Cheyenne is not just expressing herself, she is talking for us,” replied Sierra.
She looked at her father, and shouted, her eyes reddening, ”Way back, I could tell that Mother loved you from the way she smiled anytime your name was mentioned. If I'm being truthful, that was her only fault, that love was stupid as the person she loved wasn't deserving of it!”
Throughout her outburst, Roan didn't interrupt. He stepped back and chilled his soft hear, evidently siding with his siblings.
He was also disappointed with his father.
Since the first time he knew he would be the crown prince, he vowed to become exactly like his father. The person who the public loved so much.
However, reality struck him hard, when after all his achievements, his father wasn't there to smile at him. It was always his mother.
He became a bit of a Mama-boy and spilled out his desire to his mother, who became supportive of the idea.
He could remember her laughing, ”Haha, your father is wonderful, isn't he?”
Years passed, and he became an outstanding young man. He became one of the Four Stars!
Yet, he never heard his father praise him or even smile at him.
Was it so hard?
Did he not at least deserve something like that?
Or was he spoilt to think that?
He didn't know the answer to those questions. What he knew was that whenever he was sad, he would always go to his Mom to cheer himself up.
Yet, she was taken from him!
Roan clenched his fists as he spotted the culprit of the whole fiasco.
....It was bound to a not-so-silent day in the palace.
......…