Rona's Story: The Truth Beneath the Rose

Chapter 10 Confessions

(Background music Prendimi by MattiaCupelli)

It was so surreal to her. Here she was, unexpectedly reunited with the love of her life while he sobbed in her arms almost worse than the time he told her about his sordid past. She'd imagined their reunion for so long and in so many different ways but this was too soon and too sad. She'd always thought it would be after she completed her journey after she defeated Alduin in some great heroic battle of the ages. Then she'd return bloodied but victorious and she'd run into his arms and they would carry on with their lives together, free from her cruel destiny forevermore.

But this... this was not what she expected. How had he found her? How had he made it from Riverwood to Morthal so quickly? He'd promised to be in Riverwood at least until the day before and it was at least a two-day trip from Riverwood to Morthal. Perhaps he'd given up early and left to search for her again. She could hardly blame the man. She'd failed to show up there at all, despite how much she'd wanted to.

She felt him trembling in her arms, shaking and sobbing like never before and her heart ached painfully. She sniffled, wiping at her own tears and held him in her arms. She didn't want to think about how much she'd hurt him, but seeing him like that now, she knew she'd hurt him deeply.

Rona stroked his hair and tried to soothe him, "It-it's okay, Bishop..."

Then he looked up at her, his face cringed sharply together with his anguish and he pulled back from her and shook his head, his voice breaking with anger, "No. No, it's not okay. None of it's okay," he threw a hand to his chest and roared, "I'm not okay."

She knit her brows together and her lower lip trembled as she held back her own sobs. He took a sharp breath, "How could you do that to me? How could leave me like that?"

She just stared at him, wordless. She didn't know what to say and he wasn't finished talking anyways. "That was heartless what you did. It was cruel! Do you have any idea what that did to me? Do you know how long it took me to work up the courage to ask you that? To find the right words? I put myself out there for you because I love you. I gave you my heart, my soul... everything. I asked you to marry me," he shook and stood up, clenching his fists, "And you said no. No explanation, no nothing. And then you left, just like that. Like - like none of it mattered! Like I didn't matter-"

"That's not true-" she tried to defend herself but he cut her short.

"No, let me finish... fuck," he rubbed a hand to his head and groaned, "I swore I wouldn't do this. That I wouldn't chase you away again with all of this, but you need to know what you did to me. What you did to your father," he spoke with so much disgust in his voice as he started pacing back in forth, nearly kicking Karnwyr, who huffed, got up and moved over to the fire.

"I've only ever seen that man cry twice in my life," he continued, "The first was when you almost died after Thorn took you. The second time was when Illia came back from Falkreath with the bad news. Word was the Dragonborn was dead. Serlas hit the floor so hard that I thought his heart gave out, Rona," she threw a hand to her mouth and winced at this revelation, "And when he came to... gods... I've never seen an old man cry like that before. It broke him. He just curled up in a ball and sobbed like... ugh... I never want to see that again."

He took a deep breath and stopped his pacing, looking right at her and snapped, "And you know what I did? I convinced him that you were alive out there and that I'd fucking find you and bring you back to him, without even really knowing if you were myself. It took all my willpower not to break down and cry with him, to just believe that you were gone and we'd never see you again or find your body or have any kind of closure."