The words cut deep, reopening old wounds that Lucius had long tried to ignore. He stood up abruptly, his chair scraping against the floor in the tense silence of the room.
"If that's how you truly feel, then maybe it would have been better if you had," he said, his voice trembling with suppressed emotion.
His father's face turned red with fury, his fists clenched at his sides. "How dare you speak to me in such a manner!" he roared, his voice reverberating off the walls.
"Leave this house, Lucius. You are no longer welcome here."
The command was like a death sentence, severing the fragile ties that had bound him to this place, to these people who had never truly seen him.
With those words hanging heavily in the air, Lucius turned on his heel and stormed out of the study, leaving his father fuming behind him. He looked at his mother, searching for any sign of compassion or regret, but her eyes remained downcast, her silence a silent admission of her complicity in this rejection.
With numb hands, Lucius gathered his meager belongings, each item a painful reminder of a life that was now shattered beyond repair. His gaze lingered on the mask he had worn at the festival, a mask that had concealed not just his face but also his true identity.
As he walked away from the only home he had ever known, tears welled in his eyes, a silent lament for the family he had lost, for the love he had never received.
The night enveloped him in its embrace, the stars above offering no solace, no answers to the questions that tormented his soul. But amidst the darkness, a flicker of determination ignited within him.
"I may not know who I am," Lucius whispered to the uncaring night, "but I will forge my own path, find my own truth."
And so, with a heavy heart and a burdened spirit, Lucius set out into the unknown, a lone figure in a vast and indifferent world, searching for belonging, for purpose, and for the elusive redemption that seemed forever out of reach.
YOU ARE READING
The Hidden Heir
Fantasy"In an enchanting realm of magic, kingdoms thrived under a wise and mighty king until his untimely demise at the hands of rebels, a secret closely guarded by a few." Lucius, the king's son, endured a life of shadows and neglect, unaware of his royal...
