Trigger Warning: This chapter has a brief mention of suicide.
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The ghost of regret that haunted Ciprian whenever he visited this place caught up to him as he walked through the streets toward the road to the Core. Try as he might to leave it to die along with the bitter shoots of guilt that sprung up in its footsteps, he never could quite eliminate it entirely.
Part of him always knew the truth about how Loma's mother really felt. Eleanor only barely pretended at first, and then she stopped pretending altogether.
She never saw him as anything other than a thief, undeserving of the love she knew he would do anything to attain. She never wanted their daughter or a place at Ciprian's side, even after he'd become the most powerful man in the Order.
She hated him.
Finally she killed herself to prove it.