-UndoubtedlyYours-

-Chapter♕♚Fifteen-

✧NEARING THE FESTIVITIES✧

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Rhea had been asked if she wanted to join her mother in picking up her brother, but she politely declined. She didn't need the reminder of how her mother acted to her brother than to herself, Merlin—Rhea couldn't remember the last time a family member had offered a bit of comfort.

Alphard had been her touch of humanity, whether it was a kiss here and there in passing or when they escaped the public eye. Granted, it had started to become difficult with Rabastan's attendance now.

But Rhea was not prepared for her brother's knock on her door so early in the day, it confused her beyond belief and she was in the midst of writing an owl to Atlas.

Her heart was still beating from his last missive, she didn't want to put it before her brother and his company but she couldn't help it.

She craved more of Atlas' delightful and caring words.

"Hey Raba! I'm sorry I didn't go with mother to pick you up at the platform. I was wrapping presents." She claimed, and while that did spike up a bit in his attitude.

He came here with a purpose.

"Rolf told me you didn't want to stay at his manor while mum and father were in France." It didn't surprise her at all that her eldest brother would go behind her back and speak to Rabastan.

Even now, she was being giving an accused look. As if the future little Death Eater could get any secrets out of her. She knew her brother, he was far too sensitive to do much.

"I'm sure he told you the reason as well, and his bewildered load of nonsense—"
"The only nonsense I'm hearing is that you've claimed Dolohov's has hurt you." And while her heart had shattered once more, it hadn't hurt as much as before.

No, it was starting to become a normal feeling.

"Oh, is it now? Did he tell you Antonio raped an Auror right before me at a meeting? Or that Orion had to stop Antonio from acting like a fool in public? Has he told you that I showed him my bruises and the remains of my broken ribs that were healing, that they all came from Antonio?" Her questions had started to break down his stern exterior, he was neither Rolf nor their father in terms of being controlling the room.

"Did he dwell in those details? Or was his ignorance of not believing me still up for debate. It's no matter that Mr.Black had cleaned Doholov's cum off my face in September, right?" The mention of both the awful action and Mr.Black had caused Rabastan to stagger backwards.

She prayed that there was some sort of awakening into him, that if he believed her then Rolf would start to do the same. But that hadn't happened at all, she caught the hesitation in his eyes, as if Rhea would lie.

As if she needed any more proof.

"I told you before Raba, I pray that you don't turn into that sort of monster," Rhea claimed as she had taken her notebook and current read off and away, leaving Rabastan alone in her room.

And it wasn't until he caught sight of a Black family crest on a parchment or the familiar owl that he started to catch the truth behind her words. But in the hierarchy he would need to stand behind his brother, leaving no one in the family ever found themselves in Rhea's corner.

In following off downstairs, she finished her response to Atlas—Though managed another one to Orion, who she informed that Rolf spoke with Rabastan some time following her reveal.