Again, I Loved the End.

Episode 2: Love vs. Duty

“Actually, it is.” Their father refuted and three pairs of eyes stared at him in shock. He gave a tired sigh. “It’s a well-kept secret in our family, but the King was actually in love with Adora. The only reason he went ahead and married Zina was because he asked to marry Adora instead, and he was denied. It was tradition that the eldest daughter married first. And Sable agreed to marry Zina. This wasn’t something Zina herself knew but Adora did, and she resented her father and, by extension, Zina for it.” The shock had yet to clear from his children’s faces and Mr Stormvein smiled warily. Even Esme, who had guessed at it still looked shocked. He wondered what that was about.

“From her diary, it is believed that the only reason why she followed her sister to King Sable’s kingdom and stayed there was because she was in love with him, and they were having an affair. She only got married to her husband to keep up appearances and the child was actually King Sable’s because she never allowed her husband to touch her. It is believed that she was actually the one responsible for her sister’s death, indirectly, as she may have been responsible for it. She lamented in her diary that she had spoken to a friend about her sister’s trip and someone overheard them.”

“So it wasn’t like she actually set out to kill her sister. Then she isn’t responsible for her death.” Esme chirped in with her opinion.

“But she was still awful!” Zina exclaimed and everyone looked at her in shock. “Why are you all looking at me as if I’m being unreasonable?” Everyone else took that as a rhetorical question and stared at her expectantly.

“Queen Adora was literally sleeping with her sister’s husband. She married someone else and didn’t even fulfil her duty as a wife to him. She then goes on and gets pregnant for her sister’s husband, then marries that same man not even a month after her sister’s death. And you think just because she wasn’t the one to kill her sister, she didn’t already make her life a living hell when she was alive? What the hell is wrong with you guys?”

“Zina,” Kaelen started. “We’re not saying Queen Adora wasn’t awful for what she did. We just understand that sometimes, people in love are not the most rational people in the world. They make decisions based on their happiness and not that of others. If anything, this shows just how human Queen Adora is compared to Queen Zina. When you compare anyone to Queen Zina, she’s like a saint, this untouchable figure who always seemed to do good. That isn’t a standard most people can keep. Maybe, you can because you two seem to share similar traits but don’t judge people with that scale because most people will fall short of that and that’s just the truth.”

The family sat in somber silence for a few minutes, each of them seemingly lost in thought, except for Esme who looked like she would rather be somewhere else rather than where she currently was.

“Can we wrap this up so I can leave, father?” She broke the silence. Zina shook her head at her sister’s antics and Kaelen rolled his eyes. Mr Stormvein sighed and took a steady breath before speaking. His actions alone spoke of how insufferable Esme could be.

“Now, we know that ordinary people will share similar sentiments to Esme. Some may distrust our business just based on the fact that Queen Adora was having an affair with King Sable and was pregnant with his child. We know how far society has come, but for certain things, there would always be those who would be sceptical based on a little family history from 100 of years ago coming to light now.”

“What do you want us to do about that? We can’t control people’s thoughts.” Esme interjected before Mr Stormvein could speak another word. He glared at her a bit in response.

“I was getting there before you interrupted.”

“Fine. But hurry it up because I have to go meet up with some friends.” A glare was her reply.

Kaelen tried to hide his smile. It was always funny to see Esme and their father interact. Esme was wildly opinionated and refused to conform to most things their father imposed, and their father was a calm and orderly man who sought to bring order wherever he went. Zina on the other hand, was the perfect daughter. She was kind and helpful and always sought to make people happy. She currently works at the family company and is set to be the next CEO when their dad retires. Kaelen himself works at the family company as well. He started in a lowly position and has managed to work his way up to a managerial position this year. Esme, on the other hand, branded the family company boring and refused to even do an internship there. She rarely attended any company events and has insisted on working on another degree in psychology at the university. She’s currently set to graduate again within three months. She’s already started talking about doing her masters in a completely unrelated field to the degree she already has as well as her previous masters and PhD. At 24, it doesn’t seem like she’ll be stopping anytime soon with academia.

“I want you all to keep your composure in the face of whatever allegations may be thrown our way. And for all that is good, please do not feed the flames, Esme.” Esme didn’t even so much as twitch for being singled out. “And if possible, let’s try to humanize Queen Adora as much as we possibly can. She was only human after all.” He said the last bit while looking in Zina’s direction.

“Will that be all then, dad?” Esme asked and Mr Stormvein sighed and nodded. Esme jumped up from her seat with a laugh, took her handbag, which was extremely tiny, hopped over to where Zina and Kaelen were seated, gave them air kisses with the obnoxious sounds to go with them, waved to her father and was out of the door before anyone could even ask her to stay for dinner.

Kaelen all but rolled his eyes with a small laugh while Zina huffed in exasperation. Their father could only shake his head at Esme's usual antics. He hoped she grew out of it soon.