Rescuing His Captive Mate: Saving The Future Luna

Chapter 161 - Star - Dinner With Aunt Gloriana And Father Part 7

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Star

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I watched as my father unfolded the letters that he said were from my mother. While he did that I pulled out and unfolded the letters that I had. We were ready with them at nearly the same time. I was shocked to see that they looked almost identical when we held them next to each other. I couldn't believe what it was that I was looking at. How could this be?

"What is this?" Aunt Gloriana asked when she saw what it was that we both held in front of us.

"This is a correspondence between myself and Vivian. This was when she broke off our relationship. This was when she told me that she never loved me." I could hear the emotions that thickened and cracked in my father's voice.

"No, that's impossible. This is the letter you sent back and forth with my mother. This is where you told her that you never loved her, and you couldn't keep up the charade any longer. This was when she was trying to tell you that she felt like she was in danger."

"In danger? From whom? Who would have dared to hurt my Vivian? I would have destroyed them." I saw the anger flare in my father's eyes. It was an emotion that was so strong it immediately changed the color of the flowers that had surrounded him. Funny enough, that was when he finally noticed the flowers. "Where did these come from?" He looked confused.

"I do believe, Aaron, that your daughter summoned them in her anger. Much like you summoned the scent of flowers just moments before these appeared. I think Star needs a little more practice with her magic. She lost control a little too easily, but then again, you tend to do the same, don't you." Aunt Gloriana giggled softly as she looked at the flowers that surrounded the three of us.

"These are yours?" He was looking at me with shock filled eyes. "You summon the heart's flowers?"

"I didn't know that was what they were called. I honestly have never shown them to anyone here yet. Well, I did to Aunt Lotus, but she didn't say anything about them. Is there something special about these flowers?" I turned to ask Aunt Gloriana, not sure if my father would answer me.

"They are my signature magic. A lot of time a child will inherit a magic similar to their parent, but it is rare for them to get the exact same power." I just turned to look at him; was that him acknowledging me? Did he just admit that he was my father? Huh, go figure. Who would have thought it would be that simple?

"I have not learned how to use and control magic on my own yet. It just comes and goes as it pleases right now. I do not know if I will ever know how it works. But yes, these were brought here by me, and I do know what the different colors mean. At least, I think I do."

"That is good. The colors should speak to you directly. They should tell you what the person whom they are surrounding is feeling. It will help you to determine who your enemies are. That is a valuable source of information to have. It is why I thought your mother loved me; if you are indeed Vivian's daughter." He looked like he wanted to believe it, but wasn't fully convinced.

"Just look at her, Aaron. Does she not bear any resemblance to the woman that you remember? Is there nothing in her face that you see that reminds you of your Vivian?" Aunt Gloriana was trying hard to mend this bridge for us. Neither she nor I had told my father yet that my mother had passed away.

At Aunt Gloriana's urging my father looked into my face once again. He had already looked at me closely, and I knew that he had sensed it earlier. That recognition that he had when he saw my eyes. The shape and color of them that would remind him of my mother. That was what I was often told. They even changed colors often like hers did.

"The only similarity I see are the eyes. They are the same. The exact same shape, the same colors, a perfect match. I noticed them earlier, but I told myself that I was imagining things. It was all that I could do to try and convince myself that it was all just an illusion."

"It is not an illusion, Aaron. I am Vivian's daughter, and you are my father." 

I watched as he hung his head and sadness washed over him. It was like his entire heart was shattering, and he was having to come to terms with something that was the opposite of what he had believed for so long.

"This is wrong. This is so wrong. This isn't how it was supposed to be. This was not the way I wanted this to go. I loved her. I wanted to be with her."

My father was backing away from me and Aunt Gloriana. I don't think that he was able to stand any more. It looked to me like he was searching for some place to sit down. It was like the strength was seeping out of him, and he was collapsing without it.

"Then why did you tell her that you didn't love her?" I asked him, my own tears getting to be too much for me to hold in. I returned to the seat that I had taken earlier. "Why did you tell her that she was nothing to you?"

"But I didn't. I swear that I never told her those things. Not once."

"I have the proof, Aaron. I have the letters you sent her. I have the messages that you sent her when you went home and told her that you couldn't leave. You led her on for a while, but then you told her that you never loved her, and that you couldn't play along anymore. It broke her when all she wanted to do was to tell you about me. At that point, her love for you was fading. She just wanted you to know about me, and the danger that I was in. She thought you would care that your child was in danger. She thought you would want to protect me. But you didn't."

I felt the anger spilling out of me. This time it was my turn to feel the rage and have the flowers around me show what I was feeling. For some reason, though, the flowers around my father were turning yellow and orange. They were colors of fear and uncertainty. I don't know what it was that he had to fear. I don't know why he would be afraid of me. Or perhaps he was just afraid of his aunt, the Fae Queen, finding out what it was that he had done. Why else would he be so afraid?

"I swear on everything that I am, I never told her that. I begged her not to leave me. When she told me that she wouldn't wait for me to come back from my time here at the yule celebration, I begged her to reconsider. I told her that I couldn't live without her."

His words weren't making any sense to me at all. My mother never told him anything like that at all. What in the world was going on here? What was he remembering that was different from the truth that I knew? Both stories couldn't possibly be true, however, I could tell that he wholeheartedly believed what it was he was saying.

"How? How can that be the truth? I have read what you wrote to her, Aaron. I know what was exchanged between you, and yet I can see that you believe what you are saying is the truth. How is that possible?"

"How can you have the letters? I have them here. I kept them with me. I didn't want to forget her at all, even if the last memories were painful one."

"No, the letters are here." I held them out for him to see. "She kept them with her journal, hidden away from her family. I found them just recently." I watched as he stared at the letters in my hand, but he too held out an identical letter that looked as if it had been smeared by flowers.

"These are the messages I sent her. I do not know where those came from."

In a daze, we exchanged the letters and started to read them. It was time for the two of us to get to the bottom of what had really happened all those years ago. I was stunned by the way this meeting was turning out, and I was betting that my father was as well. In time, perhaps we would learn the truth and we could work out a solution to all of this.