||BOOK 1||
||NOT AN INCEST STORY||
15 years ago, the laughter lit hallways of the Russo household were spread with a silence. Even the walls of the house mourned the loss of the princess of the house. Every molecule in the house filled with rage tow...
"Is that....." Dad's voice trailed off as he stared at me, more like the inverted frame and then at me. His eyes wide in confusion.
(A/N: he saw the glimpse of the picture, but after Artemis picked it up, the back of the frame is facing him, so he can't see the picture.)
"What dad?" I asked innocently, playing dumb.
You don't have to play dumb, you know.
Bu-, oh! Shut up!
"Artemis Diana Gianna Valeria Russo, you answer me question right now. Is that....." He spoke in a low but stern voice before his voice trailed off again, looking at the back of the frame.
Full name? God damn I'm in trouble.
Not shit Sherlock!
Just tell him bitch! You got a lot of secrets to keep. Let this one out.
I hung my head low and gave a small nod. I felt the bed dip beside me and a hand on my cheek, turning it around, for me to meet with similar green eyes.
"How long-,"
"Long enou-," I replied, without letting him finish his question, but he didn't let me finish it and I was pulled into his chest, with him delicately rubbing my back.
"It wasn't your fault Princess. It was no one's fault. It was a game fate played with us, that is what was written in their fate. We couldn't do anything." He spoke with comforting words.
Words..... The same words that I was told everytime they were brought up. Words I've been making myself believe in every night before sleeping. Words that I've been told so many times, mostly being with pity, that I've become numb to them. They stopped making sense to me after sometime. For I know, deep down in my endless pit of self accusations, there is a voice, that will forever tell me that it was mine, only only my fault.
"Why me, dad? Why me?" I ask, my voice broken. Only then did I realise that I was crying. "Why couldn't they stay alive and let me die?" I asked him.
Silence
"It wasn't your fault Artemis......." He spoke again.
The same god damn words! I'm fucking done with them!
"....Because it was mine." He continued.
I got out of his hold and sat crossed legs infront of him, staring right at his face, into his eyes.
"What? What do you mean?" I asked, not believing him. I turned over the photo frame so that I could see them.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"While you mom was pregnant with you three," he started. "I was ambushed by one of our rivals. It happened when she was in the starting of her second trimester. I was held hostage for almost a month. When your uncles got me back...." he let pit a sigh. "Naomi had changed. She used to get lost in her thoughts all the time, get startled very easily, she would not let anyone near her bump, not even me. At first I thought it was normal but what stood out was that she was never this way in any of the previous pregnancies. I tried asking your uncles and everyone but no one told me anything and only gave me sympathetic looks. I don't know what happened, but a few weeks after I came back, Naomi sat me down and told me...." His breath hitched. "That we had lost two of our triplets, and also that the baby left was in a weak condition." Dad explained.
