One Day More - a Sartorias-deles fanfic

Chapter 26

"Iris, my daughter, we are proud of you." Cetus entered the dwelling's living area, arms outstretched as though offering Iris a hug.

She felt nothing but nausea in the pit of her stomach.  The man was her father.  She should have felt some affection for him.  Maybe not love, but a familial attachment.  Instead, he had sucked her into him and his schemes and held her with glue made from their shared blood.  Iris wished she were a Bell rather than a Theren.  The despicableness of this family made her never want to see their faces again.  In the past, she may have felt pity for their plight from favor.  But now...Iris wanted nothing to do with them ever again.  She would never forgive them for the death sentence they had dropped on the shoulders of the Primas.

"I do not seek to make you proud," Iris said, voice firm with a conviction that surprised even her.

"Come now." Cetus sat on the sofa beside her. "Everyone loves you."

"I did not want anyone's love!" Iris stood, putting as much distance between herself and Cetus as possible.

"Everyone admires you.  They smile at you.  They recognize you by sight and know your name.  Surely you feel approval for that."

Iris did not look at him, merely focused out the window.  His words tugged at a place in her heart.  Anonymity was all she had known in her youth.  She could walk through the streets of her little town, and no one would notice her.  No one knew her name; no one even cared to ask.  All except Tobias, anyway.  Although Iris did not like the sensation of every eye turning toward her when she entered a room, she could not deny she enjoyed the admiration.  The respect.  The loyalty.  The affection, especially from Alaraec.

"Your silence speaks many words," Cetus said wryly.

"So what?" Iris spun to face him. "You hid me away in secrecy until I came here.  Of course I find favor in the recognition.  You never gave it to me."

"The mouse has found her tongue." His tone had turned dry.

"Isn't that what you wanted?  For me to blossom?  To come into my own?  To be the person Prince Alaraec wanted?  I can tell you this; he desires no woman who falls at his feet.  Who says 'Yes, my lord' to his every request.  He wants an equal...a partner in every sense of the word.  I won't be his slave, and I no longer want to be yours."

Cetus shook his head, laughing. "You think you can turn your back on your family?"

Iris hesitated to say anything.

"No, you are too kind-hearted for that."  He rose from the lounge and crossed to her, circling her like a predator around its prey.  The threatening glint in his eyes chilled Iris to the bone. "We have done everything for you, and this is how you repay us?"

"You have done nothing without conditions," Iris said, though her resolve was slipping from her grasp.  She fisted her hands, ordering herself to be strong. "I don't understand how you can say you care for me—for anyone—when you threw people's lives away."

"They knew their fate if they were caught."

"But they at least thought they had a chance.  From the moment they agreed to your terms, they were dead.  You killed them, and you show no remorse for it!"

"Welcome to politics," Cetus snapped. He grabbed her chin and forced her to look up at him. "They made their choice."

"They wanted to provide for their families.  Instead, they will be executed and leave those families destitute."

"Nothing to be done," Cetus said, tightening his grip on her face. "Put it behind you and move on."

"How did you do it?"