Fated To Three, Betrayed By All… Until She Rose.-Chapter 296: His will.

Leilani.

"A bloody hypocrite!"

The words rang between us, acting like the blade that was here to cut whatever strings were left that held this family together.

My heart raced in my chest, my hands trembling as I took a small step forward, so much so that I was standing right in front of Chalice.

Her eyes flashed with malice. Open contempt. But it soon lowered as she backed away, sniffled lowly, but loud enough that werewolves with werewolf hearing could hear from a mile away and cried;

"This is what you always do, Leilani! You always want to break this family apart!"

For a very brief second, I was stunned into silence. Goddess I almost laughed at this poor low budget play she was trying to act.

My voice was cold as I slowly took another step forward. She staggered back just as I seethed; "By now, you should know that no one falls for these cheap acts anymore."

"I am not acting!" She screamed tearfully, "you waltz in here even after knowing that you’ve been disowned a long time ago by our father... and what do you do?"

"I pay my last respects..."

"You crash his funeral!" She yelled, this time, causing a few people to begin to snicker and whisper amongst themselves.

From here, I could hear a few people asking senseless questions.

And while one wondered why I was here if I had been disowned.

Another blamed me for being a witch and intentionally crashing this funeral.

Gavin probably heard these things too because then he grabbed a hold of Chalice’s arm, the force of his grip so strong that I could literally see her face go from pale to deep rosy.

He was in her face as he snarled under his breath, but loud enough to send chills running down my spine. He growled; "You think she shouldn’t be here right?"

Chalice met his fury with a stubborn set of her chin. "Yes," she sassed.

"Then you shouldn’t be here either!" He barked, "you killed father! On several occasions, you almost killed our sister—"

"Your sister!" Chalice yelled, interrupting him.

"Yes, my sister." He agreed quickly—too quickly. "I don’t know you. I don’t know who this monster you’ve turned into is... I curse the first day I laid my eyes on you and after today, I do not wish to ever lay my eyes on you."

Silence.

It settled between us as soon as Gavin made that utterance.

I didn’t know how to feel.

I didn’t know what to say to either Gavin or Chalice after Gavin’s very intense outburst.

I raised my hands slowly, tentatively and placed it against his back, as if silently asking him to let it go. He turned to look at me, just briefly, before he turned away again, his voice not more than a whisper as he muttered;

"This is why they always do this to you."

I cocked my eyebrows at him in askance and he shrugged. "You give them the impression that they can walk away freely after doing whatever they so wish to you. They could talk to you however they wish, insult you and even lie against you, and usually, your first response would be to walk away."

His words... oh the way they were worded made my chest feel tight. I whispered; "Do you think I am afraid of them?"

"I guess so."

"Well no," I clapped back quickly— too quickly. My eyes darted from mother to daughter one more time and when I was met with open hostility, I felt nothing. Utter nothing. I spat; "I am not. I only walk away because they aren’t worth shit. Because I’d rather go around this hall stark naked than exchange words with mother or with Chalice."

At my words, both women lifted their heads to meet my eyes. And when that happened, the array of emotions I found swirling around their identical blue eyes was enough to have me stilling in place.

But that wasn’t what it did to me.

It simply reminded me of how much I didn’t belong. Of how I could never belong.

"Mother was an infidel just like Chalice... and Chalice is the one responsible for the fire that took the lives of some of the prisoners... including your father. Yet, they both believe that I am the one who is insane enough to crash this funeral. Isn’t that madness?"

Gasps rippled through the crowd and just like that...

*Smack!*

I was slapped hot and hard across my face, the force so intense that it had my head rolling to the side.

I placed my hand on my cheek and turned to look at my mother whose hands were still hanging midair, a flicker of uncertainty mixed with annoyance gracing her features.

"You had no right!" She hissed between gritted teeth. "You have no right to break this family apart!"

"You never had the right either, Mrs Blackthorne! You never did! You do not get to break the family apart with your hands and blame me for it!" I spat back and with that, turned and marched out of the cemetery, but not after returning the slap she’d given me to her daughter.

Chalice’s shocked gasp was the last thing I heard as I walked away... well, before Gavin began to scream out my name from behind me as he followed me out of the cemetery.

—

He stood to the side, watching the entire debacle come to an unsatisfactory end, hating the way Leilani had simply chosen to walk away instead of unleashing like he had half expected.

His hands gripped on the folder in his hands as he walked up to the front where Mrs Blackthorne and her favorite daughter, Chalice Blackthorne, stood, sniffling into handkerchiefs and pretending to be damsels in distress when they were the ’distress’ itself.

He cleared his throat. "Good afternoon Madame. My condolences."

Maurice lifted her red swollen eyes to meet his cold gray ones, but he didn’t miss the sharpness in her gaze or the way they flashed as they came to rest on the folder in his hands.

"Malakai’s will?" She hissed. It was not a question but a statement and he nodded.

"Indeed, Mrs Blackthorne."

And do you know what stunned him next? The fact that she didn’t ask what it contains. The fact that she didn’t care to know if her sweet husband had left anything to her name.

She simply asked; "Does his bastard get anything?"

"His bastard?" He asked softly, cocking his eyebrows in feigned surprise. "I never knew Malakai had a bastard."

"Yes, he does," Maurice replied coldly, "Leilani Sinclair!"

Oh.

"Oh, that is such a shame!" He exclaimed in a way that sounded almost... mocking. "Because it is written that the will cannot be read in her absence. So yes, she indeed gets something."