Zordan’s low, raspy voice created a petrified echo in the walls of the giant room, making his deep grudge quite vivid from his tone. Even though he bore an aloof expression, his dark eyes were filled with intense anger charged towards his father. As both the alphas confronted each other head-on, Aldrick had a baffled look on his face.
Zordan’s sudden question was entirely unexpected for him since, after the demise of Clara, no one ever mentioned a word about her in this castle, especially since Zordan had forbidden everyone from doing so. But bringing up his dead mother while confronting him, was an unforeseen attempt. Aldrick retained a stunned gaze towards him as he spoke, “What…do you mean? What are you trying to say?”
“Father, it’s even more pathetic that I would need to explain it to you.” A bitter smile curved on his lips as he glared coldly at him with his pitch-black vague eyes, “You must have been too indifferent to realize that, but even if my mother forged wide smiles in front of you, or quietly accepted every choice of yours…I…I have seen the other side.” His hoarse voice deepened and trembled a little as if he was having a hard time opening up his emotions.
“Every night…I had seen my mother crying herself to sleep. Even though she faked a smile in front of everyone else, I had seen her suppressing her cries by covering her mouth! She was in immense pain but…you didn’t have a clue about it, father!!”
Just when his domineering rumble created a strong resonance, Aldrick was left completely awestruck as if he was too numb to speak a word. Rolling his orbs wide, he directed a look of disbelief at him as he stuttered, “W-Wh…What?”
The more Zordan stared at his naive expression, the more agonizing anger flared in his heart. He clenched his fist tight and curved a sad smirk as he muttered, “I was only a kid back then and I hate to admit it, but I was too ignorant to even realize the pain my mother was going through. She suffered and left me alone silently…but even on her deathbed, she asked me a promise…that for the rest of my life I would not leave your side, father.”
“Wait…what? C-Clara…asked you that?” Holding a guilt-stricken, shocked expression, Aldrick repeated after him in a shuddered voice, gawking at him.
But Zordan didn’t bother to lower his cold barrier around him and replied ardently, “Father, since then, I have always hated you. Not only you…but I can never accept Our Highness as my mother, at least not in this life. But I am bound to stay by your side, just for the sake of that promise that I made to mother. So, are you diligent enough to realize how much she loved you until the end? And…all you did was to leave her alone for a different woman when she needed you the most…” His pained voice shook a little.
“Wait…Zordan…I had never known that Clara never welcomed my decision to accept Lorelia! I…I had just hoped that she had wished to see all of us as a big happy family—”
“You couldn’t even realize her importance and yet…you call yourself her husband?” Cutting in between his sentence, Zordan threw a scornful smile at him as he moved a step near him.
But his hostile remark imprinted a frustrated expression on his face as Aldrick shoveled his hair above his forehead and exhaled a deep sigh. “Why…Just why didn’t you tell me sooner? Do you really hate us that much now?”
“I am different from you, father. Even though the grudge I bear against you and Your Highness relates the same concern but…my anger on Marcus is related to what he did to Gabriel.” While uttering his grumble, the corner of his eyes curved in a slanting manner, and such an expression implied his flaring wrath.“The way he broke Gabriel’s innocent heart, he had indeed proved himself to be your son.”
“What? H-How indecent—”
“But I am way far different from him, father!” Suddenly, Zordan’s tone changed into much more intense as he moved a few more steps closer, keeping a cold-death stare on him. Tapping his boots aloud, he created a fretful ambiance before he mumbled in a stiff voice, “Because…I love her! I have been always madly in love with Gabriel!!”
His bold confession left his jaw dropped in shock as Aldrick forgot to breathe for a second. Wadding his anxious orbs, he repeated, “What?”
“It’s been…15 years already, father.” Maintaining his firm posture, Zordan picked up an empty wine glass in his hand and stared deep into his fretted eyes. “I fell in love with her before she was engaged to Marcus. You can say, your wife’s sudden decision of making the two of them engaged was another reason which flared my bitter hatred towards her.
“You…were in love with her all this time? With your younger brother’s fiancee? A-Are you insane?” Aldrick still faced trouble in processing the shocking reality before him as he gritted his jowls, inquiring him in a stern voice.