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"What the hell are you doing, Midnight?" Father hisses as he stands and blocks Uncle Midnight's way. "Those...those spawns are the reason my wife is dead now!"
Oh, wow. Ouch? But then again, he's not wrong. But seriously, how can you say something like that? And to your own flesh and blood?
Uncle Midnight narrows his eyes and glares at Father. "These 'spawns' are your children. And your 'wife' is my sister."
Yeah! Go, Uncle! Show him what's what. Stupid, Father.
Uncle Midnight then sighs and shakes his head. "Look, Rafe. You're a good man. I know you are. I am only exercising patience right now because you're obviously distraught and in despair. And..." he smiles a bit. "It just shows how much my sister means to you."
However, that soft expression of Uncle Midnight didn't last long. His face turned grave once more.
"But...the children have nothing to do with this. It's not fair that they should be the ones to bear the brunt of your anger. Like I said, they won't want to live in a world without a mother. You, of all people, should know that, Rafe."
At that, Father was silent. Not long after, he seems to deflate as he sighs a deep and long sigh.
Looking at him, one might think that he ended up sighing out all his anger and frustration. But who knows? He might actually have.
At least, I hope so. For my sake and my twin brother's.
Father closes his eyes and runs a tired hand over his hair. When he opens them, he stares at me and my twin.
I bravely stared back at my father for what seemed the first time in my life. In both lifetimes, to be exact. To be honest, I can't recall what my father looked like in my first life. However, that's not surprising, considering that most of my encounters with him are met with verbal abuse.
It was a huge blow to my self-esteem back then. It was one of the reasons why I mostly hung my head low whenever he was around. He never liked it when I cried, so I had to hide my pain from his words whenever he belittled me.
Then again, maybe always hanging my head like that whenever we met was the reason why I can't remember my father's face.
Until now, that is.
This is the first time I've seen him up close. And let's be honest here. He's a very handsome man.
He has wavy blond hair that looks smooth and silky to the touch, just like Uncle Midnight's. Seriously, what type of shampoo the people here are using? I've never seen such hair on Earth and I guess this is the first time I have noticed since I always kept a very low profile in my first life.
Other than the hair, my father has beautiful baby blue eyes. Like the sky on a warm day where there are only a few clouds scattered.
All in all, Father has the typical pretty boy look. One that also didn't fail to get me when it comes to my 2D biases back on Earth.
Well, if Mother fell in love and married Father, I guess I know where my taste of blond and blue-eyed men came from. Though, I still prefer my best boy, Tristan with his silver hair and red eyes.188Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbuPVtnyRhB
But I digress.
To think that my father was this handsome man! I shouldn't have hung my head low and missed such a scene in my first life.
Now that I think about it. It was also thanks to my experience from Earth, that it seems all his belittling and verbal abuse in my first life are suddenly pretty tame.
At least compared to the ones I got while I was being bullied by other kids and my worthless boss.
Looking back and imagining my father telling me that I'm weak and my existence is worthless now...I guess I can easily overlook them now. I'll even give him a pass just because of his pretty face.
This reminds me of the game I played before where I am playing as a character that spews nonsense to you like 'Worthless as expected' and 'Useless'.
But like I said, they were easy to ignore because their pretty faces made up for their awful personality. And yeah, maybe I'm just shallow that way.
But this doesn't mean that I'm a pushover now. It just shows that I won't let his words get to me anymore. I won't also be hurt because this time around, I won't need or ask for his fatherly love.
Not when I have Uncle Midnight and Mother.
"Haaaa," Father sighs again.
While he keeps on staring at us, the burning heat of his anger and rage are now gone from his eyes. And...I'm not sure how I should describe it but it seems that there's some kind of softness in those baby blues of his.
Huh.
"Fine. Okay. You're right." He lifts a hand and reaches out to me.
My eyes widen and I flinch a little, probably an instinctive habit from my first life thinking Father would hurt me. And, while he didn't hurt me physically, I guess I always waited for it to happen back then.
All because the servants always whispered that one day, Father would beat me up like how the other kids beat me up.
Father froze in place. His eyes widened as he stared at me and then his hand. He curls it into a fist and before my body reacts again, he throws a punch on his own cheek.
The sound of his fist smacking his face seems to resound along the room. And believe me, I think everyone was just as surprised as I am.
Now, what the heck was that about?
"I think you should go outside and get some fresh air, Rafe," Uncle Midnight suggests.
Though I have no clue what just happened, it seemed that Uncle Midnight got it. Well, at least one of us knows what the heck is going on around here. Father huffs, lowering his curled hand, and shakes his head.
"You're right," he repeats. "Now that you've somehow knocked some sense into me, I'll take that advice. I'll..." He glances at the woman lying in bed then at my twin brother and lastly, at me. "I'll leave them to you for now, Midnight."
He didn't wait for Uncle Midnight to reply and just went out of the room without another word.
"Well...that happened," Uncle Midnight huffs, breaking the suffocating silence in the room.
He suddenly turns to me and my brother, his serene and affectionate smile pasted on his lips.
"Anyway, let's go do something else, shall we?"
He turns to face the people in the room with us, his expression stony and hard. It was surprising since he was just looking so warm and loving just now. The microsecond change in his face sure is something.
"Everyone in the room with us. Out. Now!" He commands.
And without further prompting, all the servants fled the room. The maid that was holding me and my brother glanced back for a moment, a worried expression on her face. She then turned and left, closing the door behind her.
"You were trying to get to my sister, weren't you?" Uncle Midnight coos, making a funny face at me in the process. He looked funny alright, but he's still so beautiful that I can't make myself laugh at the unfairness of it all.
"Here you go, my cute little niece." Uncle Midnight deposited me as gently as he could to lie beside Mother.
I was about to do what I learned in my past life but my twin started to struggle in Uncle Midnight's arms.
"Whoa there, buddy. Calm down. What is it? Tell me, bud," he asks, lifting my twin up to his face as if doing so can make him understand what my brother wants.
"What? You want to be with your sister? Well, okay."
And with that, Uncle Midnight gently places my brother beside me. My twin settles in quietly and stares at me expectantly.
Wait, what? Did Uncle Midnight really understand what my twin was trying to say?
Frowning a little, I stare back at my twin. From the small tufts of blond hair and his soft but steady lavender eyes, I have...zero clue as to what he wants all of a sudden. And, for the life of me, I thought staring at him would also make me understand what he was up to.
I'm not sure what to expect actually. Telepathy or instant recognition or something, but in the end, I get nothing from my twin. But I have no time to try and figure him out right now.
If he wants to observe me, then I guess he can.
However, since I'm just a newborn, I don't know how I can pull this off. I can't crawl yet. I can't even turn myself on my stomach. The best I can do is hold something weakly in my hands and that's it.
So...how can I look for my Mother's necklace? I know she's wearing it now.
"Are you looking for this?"
Blinking in surprise, Uncle Midnight reaches out and takes the necklace I was looking for from Mother’s neck. Still smiling softly, he puts it in my hand, patiently waiting for me to wrap my fingers around it. After he made sure that I wouldn’t let go of it, he stepped back and pulled a chair nearby to sit by the bed.
I don’t know how he knew what I was looking for without asking, but this made things easier for me. Now…how do I do this again? What was that weird doctor-slash-sorcerer say—
Hey, hey, little baby...
I flinch and look around me, wondering who just spoke up. It was too small to belong to Uncle Midnight and…it was too squeaky to belong to my brother.
Yeah, you. Little baby with the green hair and purple eyes!
Uhm…do I have green hair and purple eyes? I mean, that’s not impossible since I have an uncle with green hair and lavender eyes.
Yes, yes, you. I mean you! The little and only baby girl in this room!
Huh, you really meant me? Who are you, anyway? What are you even? And more importantly, where are you?
Here, here! I’m here! You’re holding me right now!
At that, I stare at the necklace in my hand. For someone belonging to the Darlington household, which is known to be one of the wealthiest households in Axion Empire, Mother’s necklace is very simple. Despite its simplicity, it was intricate, though.
It was a necklace of the great and legendary Tree of Life. I don’t know what its made from, but it looks sturdy and well-taken care of even though I know it’s actually very, very old.
But…is this necklace really talking to me right now?
Yes, yes, I’m talking to you, little girl. Come on, come on! You want to save your mother, right? Great! You can do that with my help! Just break me in half, I’ll finally be free and your mother will be saved!
Wait, what? I’ll just what? Break you, the necklace, in half? But…wait a minute. This all sounds so suspicious, so what—
Before I can even finish telling this suspicious talking necklace that they’re very sus, someone snatched the necklace from my hand.
With wide eyes and a gaping mouth, I turn to my twin brother and watch him break the necklace in half. Cleanly and quickly. It was as if he was breaking a super thin biscuit.
And even though I don’t know what material that necklace was made from, it’s not metal but it’s also not something easy to break. Not to mention that we’re NEWBORNS. So, how—
“Midnight…?”
While I was trying to wrap my head around what just happened, a hoarse voice called out. It was a voice that I’d never heard in my life before. Not in my first life as Ysabelle, not in my life when I was on Earth, and…I never thought I’d hear it again in this second life of mine.
Apart from me, there were no other people in the room who was a woman. Therefore, it’s a no-brainer who just spoke up and called Uncle Midnight.
“Raine,” Uncle Midnight choked in a voice filled with emotion. “Raine, you’re alive!”
Raine. My mother. She’s…alive.
I don’t know if it was the emotions radiating off of Uncle Midnight, I’m still a baby and a slave to my infantile instincts, or…something else. No matter the reason, I suddenly wanted to cry. Before I can stop it, tears are blurring my vision, and the urge to wail knocks on the tip of my tongue.
Oh no. I...I can’t stop it.
“W-Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Since I got out of my mother’s womb, I cried for the first time that day.188Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXM8k91Z6eV
