Although those words stung Arwen's tongue, she still let it roll off because that was the only way she could preserve her resolve. After she had left this place for good, she couldn't let anything hold her back anymore.
"Arwen, how are you speaking to your Dad?" Catrin's voice cut through the air as she walked closer, closing the distance between them. She hadn't expected Idris to return early, but suddenly his presence felt like a blessing. At least with him here, she could ask him to stop Arwen. "Do you know how much your father has been blaming himself since the day you left us? He is punishing himself every day, thinking he wasn't a good father to you."
Arwen's fingers clenched at that. She knew her father would be doing that, and the daughter in her was aching to wipe away all the guilt he carried. But doing so would only tether her again to the chains she had worked so hard to break—the chains of the compelled emotions she carried for her parents.
