Chereads / Counting your days quietly counting your days / Chapter 6 - The snake in sheeps clothing

Chapter 6 - The snake in sheeps clothing

"Young Katie, Akina wishes to thank you for the books, she has been learning very fast from them, I hope you don't mind, a few of us maids, and butlers, have been teaching, other skills as well, I know you have hope that your mother will allow her back into the house, but it doesn't really seem so, so it's best that she knows more than most girls would at her age, and learn the same skills the man , and boys are taught" Mother Rafe, reported to her, Katie smiled happily, as she continued to braid , and sew her gift to Akina, her birthday is coming soon, and Katie has been working hard and what to give her. While that is happening, he has been looking for Akiko's necklace everywhere, tearing up every room looking for it, breaking anything, it could fit in and the whole time up looking out the window towards the woods, where Akina's hut lies, in her hand was the necklace, Kat stared at it, she had been staring at it all night, getting no sleep, barely eating for weeks since their argument.

"It's not that hard, is it?" Kate asked herself, "It can't be that hard for him to just love me, as his wife, and give me what I want! Akina this, Akina that, I can't do that to miss little Akinaaaa" she chuckled bitterly, shaking her head, "In all these years, not once has he remembered that I'm not a bad person, I just want to be loved by him, he should know how much I love him, I left my first husband just to be with him, and I got rid of my unborn son, just so that I could bare his son" she started crying, "I put myself through pain to get rid of that baby, for him and I get called a monster for it, just because he didn't say it out loud doesn't mean he didn't want me to do it, why did he have to yell, and call me all those names for it!" she shouted, "Akina, Akina, Akina, Akina, Akina, Akina, Akina, AKINA!!" she yelled, as she stomped on the necklace, the necklace was designed so that only he could open it, but Kate's stomping broke it open, inside was a photo of Akiko, Akina, him, and a lock of Akiko's hair in the little pocket of the other side.

Kate took a closer look of the photo, staring at it, at his smile, the smile she could only ever see in painting, and photos of him and Akina, she was sick and tired of hearing Akina's name. she took a pen, and drew on it, slowly she turned her head looking at the painted photo that hung up on her wall, he looked like an emotionless doll, Kate who was standing beside him, also looked sad, that was the day May just came out and told her he was going to be her new father, that she would never see her real father again. The next day, she made Katie, and him spend time together, which they both hated, Katie had spent that time asking him where her father was, was he going to come back for her, why did he have to leave, and where was her aunt Akiko. He  figured out then, and there that Kate was a selfish person, because the reason for the marriage he was told, was for Katie's sake, to protect her from her father who they said was neglectful towards Katie, but Katie spent three years crying about how much she missed her father, sleeping in his room, trying to wear his clothes, she even tried to run away once while  he was babysitting her, because she saw him, as he came back to wanting to take her with him, begging her grandparents to at least let him see the face of his sweet princess just one more time, before he was to leave.

Kate walked downstairs, and into a room, a room he never let her in, she opened the door, and walked in confused, there were paintings covered over with blankets, as she walked towards them, the door closed behind her. they were paintings of Akiko.... of her corpse, Kate jumped back out fear, and she fell onto the floor, they looked so real, like Akiko would walk toward her, towards the back were more paintings, but they looked really old, she removed the blanket from of of them as well, dust flew everywhere, once it cleared up, Kate froze, these were the paintings, Akiko painted herself, and they were of Akina, but.... something about the paintings was scary, it frightened Kate, because the place in the paintings no longer existed, or they were family photos of Akiko, Kate, and their mother. She continued to remove more, and more of the blankets, and the paintings became more and more eerie, then she removed the last blanket, from off of the biggest painting.

Kate started shaking, as she stared at the painting, dropping the blanket, and necklace from her hand, she turned around, and ran out the room, of that hall, and into the washroom to catch her breath. In the painting that frightened Kate, it was the same photo she had over her bed, of her, Katie, and him, but Kate wasn't in the photo her shadow was, and by her feet was a small puddle of blood, next to him was another shadow, that for some reason looked familiar, and with a smile on her face was Akina, holding Katie, and his hand, Kate seemed to have gotten the idea that, the blood represented the baby she was carrying, ending up as a miscarriage and got scared, seeing Akina in the photo broke her, that was the last straw for her, as despite what she said earlier she was planning on listening to Katie, about bringing Akina back into the house. Katie explained that she still didn't support what her mother was trying to do, but that she may have an easier time if she lets Akina back in the house and starts sending her to school, he may start to warm up to her even a little, if she shows a little care and/or concern for Akina's well-being.

She's been threatening to hurt Akina to get him to do what she wants, and though she would never lay a hand on Akina, she did nothing to stop her mother, and in-laws from hurting her, as much as she was jealous of her sister, and dislikes Akina, she was there when Akina was born, and Akiko handed Akina to Kate, to be the first one to hold her, from that to the age of four Akina loved being under Kate, if someone was too see the situation now, they would think they had gone crazy, or that their eyes was playing tricks on them, because Kate was happy with her husband, she had forgotten about how she felt towards him and for a few years everything was great, until a dark force, who was still bitter about how things turned out, about how things went despite her hard work, Akiko was the one who ended up with him, just like how her own sister ended up with Pim.

Do you get it?

Hint:

It was normal for parents to have their children marry their cousin, so what does that mean?

What does that last line mean?