Knightress

Chapter 29

"Laura, please wait." Her father blurted out, she could hear the desperation in his voice.

She paused, not turning to them, her hand kept it's strong grip on the handle of her old bedroom door. "Your mother told me that day, that she saw you entering the same lemo as prince Andreas. And that you're the leader of an investigation," he gulped before continuing. "I hear that you're in the Legion too, training to become a knight." Her father stopped.

She kept her eyes trained on the door knob, the funny part is that's the most her father has spoken to her in a day, it was as if her and her father were strangers while her and her mother were enemies. All under the same roof. "I see you're still angry at us but please Laura, give us a chance to make things right, to plead for your forgiveness."

She slowly turned to them, her mind was reeling. Her weak gaze lingered on the floor before she managed to bring it up and look at them. She consciously took them in; their ragged appearance, teary eyes and guilt stricken face. The years of built up pain felt fresh and clenched her heart like a vice, it wasn't anger that surfaced her expression, she didn't attempt to cover up the hurt but allowed them to get it's full attention. Her eyes were heavy with unshed tears, a red blush painted her nose and cheeks, she bit her bottom lip to keep it from quivering and locked eyes with both of them. "Which one do you want to make right first?" The question came out slow and hollow.

"Would you like to start with how you basically turned against me after grandma's death? How you never supported any part of my dreams? Do you want to start with removing the emotional, psychological and physical scars that your words caused?" Each word lifted her despair in a high crescendo.

All the bottled up emotions, those she gave attention and those she ignored, spewed out of her eye sockets, gliding down her cheeks. "Or do you want to first fill the void that your neglect caused? The void from all those times that you never hid the fact that...you were disappointed in me? As if what I wanted was wrong."

Her parents couldn't meet her eyes but had the audacity to cry which angered her, her hands formed fists, her blood boiled at the sight of them. "Speak!" She screeched.

Her sudden pitch caused them to shake, they looked up at her with tearful eyes, fumbling with their fingers. "Laura," her mother started weakly, taking a step forward. "I'm sorry, I've been awful to you and still had it in me to call myself your mother. I-I know what I've done to you is inexcusable but please, please, please find it in your heart to forgive me. To forgive us."

Laura shook her head slowly at her words, her eyes bore into her mother's as if searching with sincerity, she sniffled as more tears flooded out and the corners of her lips crumpled as she cried. "My heart is too shattered to find forgiveness." She whispered.

Her mother placed her hands on her heart, whatever motherly care that was left in her surged her entire body, she resisted the pull to wrap her arms around Laura and sooth her. Seeing her daughter who was starving for that care, but had built walls of steel around her, that restrained her from getting a taste of it. Walls that her daughter built because of her. "I'm sorry," she pleaded.

"To hell with your pitfull sorry!" She yelled, aggressively wiping her tears. "You aren't sorry, you're ashamed that you were wrong. You're ashamed that I now live in the Cyprise castle with the royal family, you're ashamed that I never came crawling back like you thought I would. You're ashamed that I don't need you anymore."

Her parents immediately began to shake their heads, they wanted to tell her it wasn't so but the fury of her glare choked back their words. It wasn't just anger; it was grief distilled into a single stare that dissolved their words before it could leave their throats. Her parents remained silent, they couldn't handle the weight of her glare, it heated up the guilt in their hearts like twin coals, the fury that radiated off of her made them feel small and out of place.