The Roses and Hibiscus Chronicles - Coriolanus Snow

Chapter 12

What Snow did was risky, and he knew it. However, it was a success. Livia would never admit it, but he knew her well enough to sense how much pain she was in. Although she didn't confess to the crime, it no longer mattered. Snow took her body himself to Dr. Gaul's lab. Despite being retired as a game maker, she still conducted experiments and always needed some material.

Before he left, of course, he wrote the note of the day. It was short, but it should be enough, with nothing that she could relate to what happened to Livia.

"My dearest, Dila,

I couldn't sleep thinking about your lips against mine. I can't wait to see you again.

Love, Coryo"

When Snow returned to the palace, Indila was playing the piano in the dining room, probably waiting for sim so they could have lunch. When he entered, he could see her sitting by the piano, and Crassus was playing with some toys on the ground. They usually didn't have him for meals, but sometimes Indila liked to give him lunch herself. She finished her concert and held Crassus. She leaned to hug him, and Snow kissed her. She blushed.

"We are so happy you are home," she said. Crassus was smiling at him. "And I'm so happy to have both of my favorite people in the world to have lunch with me today."

Julliard told him about the talk he had with Indila. He hoped she would forget all vestiges of her conversation with Livia, but she didn't. At least, Julliard assured him she was convinced it was a dream. However, Snow thought there was a reason for her to bring Crassus with her today—perhaps she wanted to avoid some topics. They sat at the table, Indila put Crassus on her lap, and while she was eating, she was also feeding Crassus. She made it look so easy. Once again, Snow felt proud of how much Crassus loved her.

"So, how have you been since last night?" Indila turned as pale as a ghost upon hearing his question. "Good, it's all good," Snow could tell she was lying.

"Julliard told me you wanted to see me in the morning for some reason, but I wasn't home..." she still looked visibly uncomfortable. "Oh, yes, that's a silly thing; you would think I'm such a crybaby." She didn't want to talk about it then, but it was important that Indila trusted him. "Come on, you can tell me anything, you know that, right?" she surrendered: "That's nothing, I had a bad dream and I got scared."

"About what, do you want to tell me?" Indila took a deep breath. "About your wife, I saw her dirty and looked to be tortured, it was horrifying." Snow tried to look surprised about the information. "Well, it really seems terrible, maybe what we talked about last night just got trapped in your head for some reason."

Indila tried to end the topic. "Yes, probably. I knew we were going to get married someday, but I guess the purpose was too much for my head to cope with."

Crassus put his hand to his plate; it was a mess. He got the table and Indila's hair was dirty, but she didn't seem to care, just took a napkin to contain it from spreading. "Maybe we could go out tonight, for you to relax." Indila thought for a moment, "I don't think so. I would rather stay in, and I don't know, maybe watch TV or read a book." Her plans didn't seem to include him, so he had to do something. "It sounds perfect; we can watch something in my room." Indila was in shock; in fact, Snow had never invited her to his room, and now she had something to think about. She would probably spend the rest of the day thinking about what his intentions were with this invitation. "Ok, it sounds perfect." She had an excited tone.

Snow got up, "Now, it's time for me to go." He kissed Crassus on his forehead; he was laughing and looking at him. "Goodbye to my boy," he leaned to kiss Indila's lips, "And goodbye to my girl." "Let's say goodbye to daddy"; both waved to him. When Snow got to the door, he took one last look at them and said, "I love you both."