The Aldean Chronicles: Spotlight (Part 2)

Tristan takes me to the garden behind his house. In it is a small maze. It isn't hard to walk through, but you can spend hours there.

It has high hedges with colourful flowers decorating the green leaves and grey concrete floors. It also has marble benches placed randomly, and in the middle is a grey fountain. It has clean water but the bottom is brown with a tiny bit of green algae.

"Grey's home?" Tristan asks after ten minutes of walking through the maze in silence.

"He is."

"Is he fine?"

My laugh is bitter. "I'm not sure. He unloaded so much on me today. It was...it was strange."

"How are Seb and Lilian?" He plucks a blue flower and lets it fall to the floor.

"They're..." I stop myself. "I don't think this is the first time they've heard Grey's story."

"Grey's story?" Tristan muses. "Sounds rather bleak."

I manage a small smile. "That's one word for it."

We get to the fountain and I sit at the edge. "I just wish..." I stop myself. What do I wish for? I can't say I wish for things to go back to the way they were because I don't know how they were.

"I don't know what I wish," I admit.

"You don't know what you want?"

"I know what I want. I just don't know if I should wish it."

He sits next to me on the sun-heated concrete. "Cass, I've known your brother forever. He'll be fine. This is just something he does sometimes."

"Everyone keeps saying that. Like it's a normal thing. It's not. You didn't hear the things he was saying to his parents. The things he said to me." My voice gives away and I start crying again.

Tristan wraps me in his arms and massages my back. He doesn't say anything for five minutes, he just waits for me to finish crying.

When I'm done, I wipe my tears with my hands and run them across my shirt. "I haven't showered or anything today. I'm disgusting." I wipe my nose.

Tristan smiles and kisses me for a long time. "It is physically impossible for you to be disgusting."

I chuckle and wipe my eyes one last time. "I can't keep hiding here. I have to go back home and stay there eventually."

"Says who?" He places his chin on my shoulder and whispers in my ear. "You can stay here forever. Move in with me."

I smile. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah. My room's big enough. I have a TV there. It has everything." He slowly removes his chin from my shoulder. "It would be perfect."

I push my red hair behind my neck. "I'm sure it would." I take a very big breath and get up. "I need to go home and change my clothes."

"Will you come back?" Tristan doesn't get up.

"I don't kno..." I'm interrupted by my phone. It's Seb. "Sorry, Tristan. I have to..."

He nods. "Please."

I take the call. "Hey, Seb."

"Cassandra," his voice is calm. "My sister's on a video chat. She wants to talk about what happened with Grey."

I feel oddly relieved. "That's good, Seb. I've been so worried and shaken up for the past hour."

He sighs. "The sooner we address what happened yesterday, the better."

I frown. "What?"

"The Milton's match? The tabloids?" He reminds me. "Don't tell me you've already forgotten."

"I'm sorry?" I ask.

"It's a PR crisis, Cass. Just get home." He ends the call.

"Grey?" Tristan guesses.

"No," I scoff. "It's the stupid press. They're concerned about how we're looking in the media, and not about my brother."

Tristan gets up and nods slowly. "That sounds right."

A wave of anger washes over me. "Classic Harrington move, huh?" I squeeze my fists. "Bigger concern for how we look and not how we are. Happened with Kat last year and now with Grey and when..." I don't have to say anything. Tristan understands.

I'll eventually have my episode. And the family's showing me how they'd react. They won't care about me or get me help, they'll just sweep it under the rug so they don't look bad. I'm slowly starting to understand Grey's frustration.

"I'm leaving. Thanks, Tristan."

He wraps an arm around my waist to calm me down and leads me out of the maze. We enter the house through the back door and he leads me past several hallways to the front entrance.

I don't say anything else to him, I just stroll to my house.

I meet the rest of the family in the smallest drawing room.

Lilian and Seb are sitting on the sofa facing the TV. Aunt Freya's perfect face fills the screen.

Grey is lying horizontally on an armchair with his head and legs hanging out on either side.

I close the door and press my back against it.

"Hey, Aunt Freya," I say weakly.

"How kind of everyone to show up." Aunt Freya drops the folder she was reading and stares at all of us.

"We're here." Seb unenthusiastically gestures at all of us.

"Good," Aunt Freya's beam doesn't meet her eyes. "Now, on to the problem at hand." She searches for something on her desk. The sound of rustling newspapers fills the room.

Grey sighs dramatically. "Let me guess, that's Aldean Daily. I have to say, their headline was my favorite."

Aunt Freya's expression doesn't change. "No. It's The Sun." She says. "They mentioned the rift with your sister. We have to fix that. Keri and Dent have already worked on a cover story. I hope you all have tomorrow evening free."

Grey sits up. "This isn't about last night?"

Seb and Lilian's faces harden.

Aunt Freya looks confused. "Why would I call a meeting for that?" And to the rest of the room, she says, "Tomorrow, before sunset, Sebastian, Greyson, and Cassandra will visit Mother and Father's grave. Cassandra, you've never been. It will be an emotional journey for you. So emotional, all wounds are magically healed. Pictures will be taken, a few tears may be shed. The media will do the rest." She tosses the paper aside.

"I haven't visited Father's grave since the Tenth Anniversary of his death. That was six years ago," Seb says.

"I remember. I also remember physically dragging you to the ceremony." Aunt Freya smiles. "Keri will be there. She's bringing flowers. Chrysanthemums, his favourite."

Seb looks really angry. "Freya, I am not going to that grave."

Aunt Freya sighs. "No?" She leans back in her chair. "Okay then, why don't we move on to the other reason for this call?"

Seb looks even angrier than he did this morning. He picks up the TV remote. "Burn in hell, Freya." And switches off the TV.

He gets up from his seat and storms out of the living room, slamming the door on his way out.

Lilian sighs. "I am too tired for this." Her eyes are clear, but still sunken. "I'll be in my bedroom." She too, takes her leave.

It's silent after she leaves.

"That was awful." My tone is light. Grey doesn't respond. "I think I get it now. Your story from earlier. I swear, the people in this family don't care about anything but looking good."

Grey surprises me by laughing. His laugh sends chills down my spine. "Don't talk like you understand this family or what's going on."

"Grey, I do. It's..."

"Stop talking, Cassandra." He gets off the chair. "You don't know anything."

That stung. "You went on a very long rant this morning. I think I understand the story."

His smile is icy. "No. You don't." And he walks off.

***

The walk through the royal cemetery is unnerving. And not just because it's a cemetery.

We arrive in shades of black and white, holding white chrysanthemums.

I walk in with Seb and he takes me first to his mother's grave, then to his father's.

He stares at his mother's for a long time, before bowing and placing a single daisy on her ginormous tombstone. I'm not joking when I say it's big, it's easily a meter tall.

"Leandra. That's a beautiful name."

He nods. "We wanted that to be your middle name." He reveals. "But we decided against it in the end."

Wasn't good press. I almost say that. I instead say, "What was she like?" Not because we're supposed to be videoed talking. But because I genuinely want to know.

"She was..." Seb thinks. "Quite unfortunate actually."

My hands go up to my chest and I fiddle with her necklace. "She was Queen Consort. The most loved woman in Illyria. Why was she unfortunate?"

He turns so that his face is away from the photographers positioned outside the gates. "Because she was married to the most selfish and self-obsessed man in the world." His face darkens. "He knew Charlton was crawling with Ryppers. He had to, he was the king. I keep thinking he sent her to her death."

"He wouldn't do that." I don't know why I said that, I didn't know the man.

"Maybe." He then turns to his father's grave. It has an even bigger headstone. "King Alfred Matteo Harrington. Husband, Father, Son, King." Seb hides his scoff from the cameras. He drops his flowers, forces himself to bow, and walks away.

I bend down and gently lay my flowers on the grave.

"Old grandad." Grey walks up to me. "Shame I never met him."

I turn back and search for Seb. He's admiring the grave of an ancestor who died two hundred years ago.

I stand up and straighten my dark brown cardigan. "Grey." I frown.

"Come on, Cassie." He drapes an arm around my shoulder. "We're supposed to be giving the camera's some sibling affection."

"Eww."

He laughs and uses his head to point at the grave. "Someday we'll be buried here. We'll be nothing but a giant piece of rock and some history. That's something to think about, isn't it?"

A gentle wind picks up. "You should drop your flowers. The sooner you do that, the sooner we can leave," I say.

He sighs but drops his flowers beside mine. "Come on, dad's waiting."

He leaves his arm on my shoulder and leads us back to Seb.

"Wonderful day. I feel so much better surrounded by our dead relatives." Grey grins.

The guard opens the black gates of the cemetery and we fill into black cars.

Keri stops me before I can enter a car. "You should leave with your brother."

I try not to roll my eyes and get into the car behind Seb's.

Grey doesn't say anything to me. He just puts on his headphones, rests his back on his chair, and listens to music.