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“I can’t believe she’s in a clan though. That’s scary.” Lin shook his head.

Jamiel laughed. “What? Who did you think all those men who pick her up from school were?”

Lin had never seen them since he always stayed back after school for tutoring. It was always suspected amongst the students that she was involved with the clans, but the interviews released over the weekend confirmed it.

“Jamiel, no talking in class. Are you eating?” the teacher scolded him.

I glanced at Reaper, but she was staring down at her desk and probably heard us talking about her. She hadn’t opened her notebook yet, barely gripping onto her pen in her hand.

The teacher arrived in front of her desk and waited for her to hand in the assignment. “Where is your assignment?”

Reaper didn’t answer.

The teacher leaned down and spoke in a low voice. “Look, I know your weekend was probably difficult, so I'll give you to the end of the week to hand it in. How does that sound?”

“I don’t need your pity or favours,” Reaper mumbled.

The teacher stiffened, slowly standing upright. “Go see the counsellor.”

“I’m fine. ”

“It’s not a suggestion, Miss Vicary—”

“It’s just Celestine,” she snapped.

“Datura Celestine Vicary.” The teacher’s voice was sharp. “Either you go to the counsellor or you’re getting detention for your behaviour, which one would you prefer?”

The temperature in the room dropped as Reaper lifted her eyes to finally meet the teacher, daring her to do something. After a long, tense moment, the teacher pulled out the pink slips from her pocket, wrote on it and placed it on Reaper’s desk.

About half an hour later, the counsellor came into the room.

He smiled at the teacher, apologising for the interruption, who gave him a nod and continued her explanation on the history of food scarcity in Soulesity.

The counsellor walked to the back of the classroom, nodding and smiling at some of the students, urging them to not mind him.

He stopped next to Reaper’s desk and put a hand on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze.

Crouching down to her level, he whispered, “I heard you’re going through a bit of a rough patch.”

Reaper didn’t answer nor look at him.

“Those interviews must have been really hard to watch,” he said. “Come, Celestine, we can have a cup of tea together.”

Reaper released a breath, knowing there was no getting rid of the counsellor, and stood up with him. He took her things for her and rested his hand on her back, guiding her out of the classroom.

Throughout the rest of the week, hardly anyone saw Reaper except in class, but apparently she had skipped most of them.

***

By Friday we thought all the interviews about the situation had finished and the talks had died down until the Soulesity news channel decided to chime in .

“Good afternoon. I’m sure we’ve all seen the recent interviews regarding the Vicary family and the scandal surrounding it. Today we have an exclusive interview with someone who worked for the Vicary’s at their manor.”

The screen split to reveal the silhouette of a woman. “Good afternoon.” Her voice was modified to something robotic.

“Do you mind telling us why you chose not to reveal your identity to the public?” the broadcaster asked.

“The Vicary family is one of the most powerful families in Soulesity. I’m risking my life being here today talking about this.”

“Do you really believe you’ll receive negative consequences for this interview?”

“Everyone who works for the Vicary family signs an NDA.”

The broadcaster nodded. “Why don’t you begin by explaining what you did at the Vicary manor.”

“I was just one of the many housekeepers in the manor. It’s a rather large place, you see, so there were a lot of us.”

“So, you’ve seen many things, then?”

“Yes. I worked there for twenty years, and I watched both Vasos and Datura grow up. I feel that it is my duty to be the one to remind everyone that Datura was just a little girl, a child, when all of this happened. She is a victim.”

“How was she when she was younger?”

“I hardly saw her as a child. As we know, she is not Ren Vicary’s child but another man’s. Delilah tried to keep her distance from Datura, hiring countless nannies to take care of her.”

“Why so many?”

“Delilah is a narcissistic mother and when the nannies would get a little too close to Datura, Delilah would get jealous and fire them. ”

“Did she do that with Marigold and Vasos?”

The woman shook her head. “She was a present mother for Vasos and Marigold. Once, I had to go into Datura’s room to clean it because the one who usually did was sick that day.

Datura woke up when I came in, even though it was well into the afternoon.

” She took a moment to pause. “She jumped out of her bed and grabbed one of her picture books off the shelf, urging me to read it to her.” The woman’s shadow crossed her arms in front of her chest, rubbing at her upper arms in a way to comfort herself.

“I sat down on the floor with her and while I read, she snuggled up against me. When I finished, I knew I had been in there too long and I was worried that someone would get suspicious, so I told Datura that I had to leave and her face–I’ll never forget her face–It was like I was betraying her. ”

“Was she alone often?”

“Her door was constantly locked; they wouldn’t allow her to leave her room. I heard from others that she had tried to escape multiple times, but the furthest she got was a couple steps into the hallway.”

“Do you think this sort of solitude contributed to why she decided to run away?”

The woman sniffed, as if she were crying. “I was there the night she left.” Her voice cracked. “She was having an argument with Vasos, because Vasos was worried Octavius was taking advantage of her.”

“Do you believe he was?”

“Oh.” The woman let out a short, cold laugh.

“That boy was much older than her. I believe we can all draw our own conclusions from that.” The woman shook her head.

“No. Datura didn’t leave because of Octavius, she left because the Vicarys forced her to.

In the middle of the argument, Datura broke Vasos’s arm.

Now, it was an accident, you see, but they’d been waiting for an excuse to kick her out. ”

“How can you be so sure they wanted her to leave? ”

“I’ve overheard Ren and Delilah arguing many times about Datura.

Her existence was a reminder to Ren that there was a time Delilah didn’t love him and that put a strain on their relationship and the Vicary reputation.

But it wasn’t Datura’s fault, you see, she’s just the product of a mistake Delilah made.

” The woman took a deep breath. “I once heard Eugene tell Ren to get rid of Datura by any means necessary, and Eugene often referred to her as a bastard.”

“You are one of the few people who believe that all of this has been a plot against Datura. Do you know why they hated her so much, to the point where they wanted to get rid of her?”

“It’s obvious isn’t it? They needed to save face and blaming her for running away sounded better than her getting kicked out.

Why do you think they were so convinced Octavius killed her?

Why they spent so much money on sentencing Octavius and putting him somewhere he couldn’t talk?

Why Vasos left the city days before he was meant to stand trial?

Then there’s Marigold. They used her as someone to distract from their previous daughter, because if you look up ‘Vicary’s daughter,’ the only thing that pops up now is Marigold, not Datura.

They wanted to erase her. Don’t you find it convenient that just a month after Datura was reported missing, Delilah fell pregnant?

How convenient it was that Marigold was born in the beginning of the trial against Octavius?

” She took a moment to breathe before continuing.

“Marigold was a distraction from the negative focus on the Vicary name, you see. It obviously worked. What heartless person wouldn’t melt at the sight of Marigold's big eyes and innocent laugh. The media nicknamed her Soulesity’s sweetheart, but who really thinks that–”