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Her family arrived early, and Stevie was already in classes, so Adonis made sure to greet them.
The sisters came tumbling in, bright and wide-eyed, small excitable versions of their older sister. And he wondered if that was who she might have been had she not had to take on so much responsibility at such a young age.
The girls went excitedly off to their various rooms, led by their different attendants. But Stevie’s father stayed behind. Adonis had yet to meet him, and the older man was walking with assistance from a cane, much like Adonis.
He stuck his hand out, his intent to aggressively shake Adonis’s hand apparent. Adonis responded in kind.
“Nice to meet you,” he said. “I’m Roger.”
“Adonis,” he responded.
“I know that you’re a prince,” he said. “Soon to become a king. But you know, Stevie is one of the things I love very most in this world. All those girls, they’re treasures. If you do anything to hurt them, I will come back and haunt you. And if there is still breath in me, I swear, I’ll exhaust the last of it taking you down a peg.”
Adonis couldn’t help but feel an immense amount of respect for this man, who was weak and ill, and societally lower than Adonis in every way, and yet not above being a protective father when the moment warranted it.
“I will take care of them,” he said. “Stevie told me that she did this in part because you encouraged her to. And I will not dishonor that gesture. I swear to you, I will care for all your daughters as if they were my own family for all their lives. They will never want for anything.”
“I believe you,” he said. “And I’m a pretty good judge of character. So I’d like it if you didn’t disappoint me.”
“I’ll do my very best.”
At lunchtime, there was a large spread put out for Stevie’s family, and Stevie joined them, looking as bright-eyed with excitement as her sisters had. And he understood then, that no matter that caring for them was a very real burden, Stevie loved them with everything she was.
She really was doing this for them.
There was something about that recognition that made his heart twist slightly, that made him feel a slight sliver of guilt. She had accused him of taking advantage of her desperation. In some ways, he supposed that he had.
* * *
In that moment, he wondered if he was just a little bit more like his mother than he had ever thought he might be. Because he had always thought that she had taken advantage of his father. Yes, he was a king, but he had been lonely. He had not wanted one of those dynastic marriages where the couple did not know one another. Once upon a time, his father had been warm. Once upon a time, he had been a different man, a different king altogether. And her ambition had destroyed that.
Had he done the same to Stevie? Had his own aims blinded him to the fact that he was using her abominably? He certainly wanted to give back more than he was taking. Or at least equal of it.
She didn’t want love. That was the thing.
But she did want to fly, and he had been quite hard-line about that. He supposed he was going to have to think of it differently. Because that conversation had made her sympathize with his mother, and now that he thought about it, it made him sympathize with her too.
After they were done eating, everybody piled out of the room, and he grabbed hold of Stevie before she could leave, the two of them by themselves in the dining room.
“What?” she asked.
“Why are you cross with me now?”
“I’m not,” she said. “It’s just… They’re very happy. And I’m happy. But it definitely underscores the enormity of all of this.”
“Yes. Well. There is quite a bit of enormity to the situation.”
She rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t speaking of that, and I think you know it.”
“I know nothing of the kind.” He tried to force a smile. It wasn’t usually this difficult. “If you wish to leave, you know you can.”
She looked shocked. “Is this some kind of a joke? After my family has come you’re offering me the chance to leave?”
“It’s only that I now appreciate what you said to me before. But I am manipulating a vulnerability that you have.”
“Well. You are. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t enough good things that go with it for me to weigh out that decision and decide to take the manipulation. I’m strong, Adonis. If I didn’t want to be here, I wouldn’t be.”
“That I do believe.”