Forbidden Secrets
CHAPTER ONE: THE LETTER
Maryse Lightwood sat in the Institute's Library, her face contorted into confusion as she read the letter that had just arrived from the Clave. In a final act of frustration she stood up and threw the letter in the crackling flames of the fireplace. She didn't want to believe what was written on it. At that very moment her husband Robert had walked into the room, confusion lined his face, betraying his age,
"What are you doing," he questioned her, "where did that come from," he bombarded her again before she'd had a chance to reply. Maryse spun around, the firelight illuminating the grey that had come to streak her hair,
"It was a letter from the clave," was all she managed to say, the words barely escaping her taut mouth. She set her slim hands down on the desk in front of her for support before she slinked into the chair behind it. She held a hand over her eyes. Robert could not help but feel the need to be at his wife's side. He quickly paced up to the desk and turned his wife's slim chin toward him,
"Whatever it is, I want you to tell me, Maryse," his eyes had grown soft, concerned for his wife.
"Robert. You know that my brother left the Clave to marry a mundane," she was clutching the edge of the desk, her fingers turning white. Robert nodded in reply, "it was a letter from the Clave, telling me he had a child: a daughter. She'll be arriving within the week," the confusion was clearly gone from her face, replaced by a look of anxiousness, Robert looked at her with wide eyes, clearly he wanted to know more,
"Well, what else? Is she an infant, does she require refuge?" he sounded furious, but merely mirrored the expression of his wife,
"She's no infant, she's a shadowhunter. She's one of the Nomadic Nephilim,"
The look on Robert's face told her that he clearly didn't share the same sentiment as her. He stood up and threw his hands in the air, looking almost pained, "then what's the problem Maryse? She's family isn't she? You shouldn't be so worked up about this," he didn't quite understand why she was having difficulty processing this information. For as long as he'd known her and loved her, she'd always been one to take pride in family, to her it was precious; even more so now that their youngest child Max had been killed.
He reached for her hand to reassure her that their niece would be no problem in their lives. She was a shadowhunter, she was family. Maryse stood up, and stalked across the room towards the window before she was able to turn around and say, "She may be of my blood, but I do not know her. I love my brother despite all the wrongs he's made against the Clave; I hope I can say the same for his child,"
The look on her face was pure nervousness. She'd hidden the secret that she had a niece from the moment she was born, she'd hidden the postcards, birthday cards, even Christmas cards that her niece, Analiese had sent them over the years, even though they didn't celebrate the mundane religious event, and now she would have to explain to her children why they'd never been told that all their lives they'd had a cousin whom they'd never known.