To His Hell and Back-Chapter 116: Bond Over Traumas

His voice lowered to her ears, his warm breath and his teasing tone were enough to make her entire face turn red down to her neck. Feeling embarrassed, not knowing whose fault, she pushed his face away from her, furrowing her eyebrows while covering the left ear he had whispered to.

"W- W- Why are you whispering to someone’s ears like that!"

"Oh, now whispering is bad too?" Cassius put up a sorrowful face but then he dropped his act and opened the carriage door, "As much as I want to continue our lovely time together, it would be rather troublesome if we embark at night to the red light district. Go in, birdie."

Arabella nodded and jumped inside the carriage while Cassius turned to Renard before ordering him to go. Then he walked inside the carriage, throwing his coat to the side as Arabella sat down on the wooden floor.

Seeing her curled like a ball, he spoke, "Sit down in front of me."

"On the seat?"

"On the window," he smiled while answering her.

Though annoyed by his sarcasm, she slowly stood up and placed her bottom on the soft plush chair. Upon sitting down, she realized just how fluffy the seats in the carriage were. So fluffy as if someone had torn a part of Cassius bed to make this seat. Perhaps because they were made out of the same cotton, she considered.

As she curiously felt around the chair, Cassius spoke, stealing her attention, "Your father, he’s alive isn’t he?"

Arabella had lived her life the past few weeks trying to forget that she had a father. When someone brought up the name of the man who had beaten and demean her since childhood with his words, and then threw her to be sold for his debts, how could she not form an irked face?

She pursed her lips and looked at the window, "The last time I saw him, he was alive."

"What kind of person your father is?" Cassius continued and seeing her annoyed he chuckled, "As a fellow person who suffers from the hands of our own father, we should exchange a story or two. I’ll tell you about my own father."

Curious and both surprised, she opened her eyes and blink, "You’re going to tell me about the King?"

"Yes," he confirmed.

Thinking about her curiosity between Cassius’s relationship with his father, telling her father’s pasts and all the things he had done wasn’t a bad exchange.

She hummed, thinking on where to start when she recalled something and finally spoke, "My grandmother used to say how lucky my mother was."

Cassius leaned forward with interest, "Lucky? How exactly?" He knew what happened to her and her sister, lucky was an ironic thing to call that man.

"My father was the most handsome man in the village. He was known to have so many women lining up for his hand in marriage. But things happened and my mother became pregnant before marriage," she said as she smiled bitterly, thinking of her grandmother’s expression as she proudly told her and Ariel that she wasn’t happy with their mother, as if also disliking their birth. "Hearing what had happened, my grandmother had no choice but to accept my mother into the family but she wasn’t very happy with my mother. After all there were even ladies from the noble houses who had wanted to marry my father."

Cassius hummed while tapping his finger on the arm rest, "Had she treated your mother badly?"

"Badly? No. Horrible? Yes," confirmed Arabella as she chuckled dryly, "I never support the idea of my mother running away with a man that very night. But when I look back and considered the situation of her life, I don’t think she had a choice."

"Why did she not have a choice?" Cassius inquired her, his genuine tone made her smile when she looked at his crimson gaze that was trying its best to study and understand her.

"My grandmother used to blame everything that happened to the family on my mother’s shoulders. If they couldn’t have enough food, it’s her fault despite knowing my father had used it for himself. If my father gambled away all the money, it’s her fault because she couldn’t even take care of her husband despite being the one who would scold and berate my mother whenever she had tried to stop him from gambling. My grandmother would always tell my father that my mother was the one in the wrong and that he’s without a blame, trying to survive. But he’s being coddled like a child, and I had always hated that side of him."

"Coddled like a child," he hummed as he thought about his father, "Perhaps in a way he’s similar to my father."

Her eyes moved to him, waiting for his words as he added, "Being a Prince since childhood, he was given everything in a golden platter. Then he thought about making an Empire, not only a kingdom, but a larger, better, one that would never fall Empire, he was told by everyone that he would be capable of uniting all kingdom and rule it as his own Empire. Quite a lot of liars nowadays don’t you agree? But believing that, he embarked on a journey to prey on the woman who he thought would most successfully bring him to his dream as an Emperor."

"But how?"

"How you asked?" Cassius chuckled. "He wanted a son, no, he wanted a pawn. A strong one, one that would destroy anything that stood on his way whenever he wishes. Then with that he would use that pawn to help him unite the kingdoms into one."

Bella shuddered hearing his words. It felt sharp, cruel, and heartless, showing the entirety of Cassius’s relationship with his father that was less of a father and son and more of a pawn and the owner.

He rested his back on the couch and hummed, "Don’t give me that look birdie, I survived didn’t I? Just like you," he said as he pulled softer smile that melted her worries, "Besides, as a fellow survivor of a horrible father we should stick together."