My mother is wearing what i would call the biggest smirk of her career. She has a very enigmatic way of smirking that you will sometimes wonder if there was something else behind the smile that she is flashing around.
Well i don't know if you would have felt that way but i sure know that i do.
She's wearing the sort of look that tells me she had known this would be the best birthday present for me and for once on my birthday i actually have to agree with her.
It's a brooch alright, another brooch but it's not just any other brooch. I had first seen it in my dreams as a child and i had wondered what the strange object was. Mother was so worried that i might be sick and dying so she had summoned a doctor. Even though she didn't have as much power as she does now, i'm guessing she had enough to get me a really good doctor.
I can swear that i had seen the woman's eyes glowing the moment she met mine but that would be too presumptuous of me to say. I was two years old at the time and i'm guessing that most people at the age of eighteen do not remember in detail what had gone on around them at the age of two. Another reason why i won't believe it was all an hallucination.
The Doctor and mother had exchanged a few words and she had dangled the brooch in front of me. Little pudgy fingers that were only two years of age had grabbed them like they meant the world to her, and even now, even after sixteen years i still get that feeling of nostalgia simply being near this thing.
It had barely fit in my palm at the time but now that i am eighteen, today that i turn eighteen i pick up the brooch and it fits perfectly into the crook of my palm.
Mum has a most amused look on her face and there is that part of me that wants to believe that this is all just spontaneous. There is a part of me that wants to believe that there is nothing else to this wonderful birthday gift that i have been given but yet i know my mother. I know the person who gave birth to me and at the current moment i wish i didn't.
"Is there any string attached to this overly wonderful birthday gift?"
She stares at me a moment and then she smiles a sad smile. My mother is adept at making all the expressions on her face carry her intended message and hit it's mark, at this point i can get all that look is trying to convey but at the same time i really can't.
It makes me feel like i should be scared of what that smile means but what exactly does it mean.
"Your uncle is dead and your father is heavily injured. An assassin was hired to kill your uncle and your father he had been caught up in the fray."
The news instinctively makes me feel some sort of joy and apprehension rippling through me at the same time, and i smile as it is all i can do to tell myself to calm down. I simply tell myself to remember to breathe at this point because i hadn't been expecting such news at all. There's also the fact that father has been injured and that makes a question pop up in my head.
If father had been at the Duke Havilland's house, then who had committed that heinous crime against Alina?
There is something that isn't clicking here and I'll remind myself to figure that out later. The brooch feels cold in my hands and i see it for what it is now.
I see it for what mother wants it to be and even though i do not approve hitting the dog while he is injured, i will also do anything to go against my father.
Especially when it's mother who is taking the initiative. I mean that's been like my dream for a while now.
"Your brother and some members of the House Bartell will also be in attendance so make sure to look your best"
Something in my head wants me to notice the trap she has weaved into her words but yet all that is drowned out by one important part of what she has said.
My brother is coming back?
She looks at me and nods almost like she can hear what went through my mind and y'know at this point i really wouldn't be surprised if she did. or if she could, anyhow it is, i feel like all that doesn't matter.
Ilya is actually coming back.
i bolt out of my bed and into my wardrobe the next minute. I can still feel mother's stare on me as i search for something to wear and it's actually strange that she hasn't already picked up something for me to wear. I turn back and shoot her a cold look.
"What?"
She simply shakes her head and chuckles before she sort of raises her hands up in surrender and leaves me to what i am doing. A question pops up in my head and i feel i should have asked her this way earlier. Mother is about to leave my room and i don't really know how to tell her to wait.
Hey don't shake your head at me. Usually she's the one who leaves me alone to momentary confusion whenever she comes to see me. Well i am also confused now so i'm guessing she's still doing that but there is also something else that i can't really explain about us. Mother never leaves without having satisfied my curiosity and i'm really curious as to how this particular happening has come to happen.
Father might be a whore and a tyrant but he is also sort of a capable whore if you can get what i'm saying. My father is the most deadliest men i know when it comes to using his weapons and almost anything else that he can come in contact with so how?
"Mother?"
She turns around with a sort of smile on her face and i have to roll my eyes at this because would it kill this woman if she was to simply make my life easy for once?
"Yes daughter"
I stick my tongue out at her and she tsks before she lets her features settle into a graceful calm.
"The assassin was hired to kill Uncle right?"
She nods at this without any hint of grief or feeling. There is something about the men and women of my family. The men are always fools all except one and the women are plain deadly, well all except one.
My mother coughs softly and i sigh.
"How come he was able to kill Uncle and still injure father?"
That question should sound dumb in my ears but yet it does not. It sounds kind of okay actually and i can see mother's face also scrunch up in confusion.
She makes a very accurate imitation of me shrugging and i roll my eyes.
"I'm guessing we'll find out soon enough"
With that she walks out of my room and i shake my head while the feeling of dread pools in my stomach.
This is not good.