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Alois and Ciel had prepared a lovely celebration for the twins' birthday.

Gifts had been bought and wrapped in beautiful packages, waiting for the girls to open and enjoy.

Even Lucas was holding a little kazoo as he stood anxiously waiting in the parlor to greet his sisters when they arrived after their breakfast in bed.

But Ciel, Lucas, and Alois frowned when the twins never came down from their room

Alois was concerned, Lucas was sad, but Ciel was vexed.

What were those girls doing up there?!

Once Alois, Ciel, and Lucas had been waiting in the parlor for well over an hour, Ciel decided that she was going to find out what was wrong.

The bluenette stomped up to the girls' room and knocked on their door.

"Charlotte, Isabel, what are you two doing in there?! Everyone's waiting on you!" Ciel hissed in an irritated voice.

The twins offered no explanation for their strange behavior.

As ridiculous as Hannah's austere accusation sounded, both of the girls had spent the entire morning wondering silently if it were true or not.

However, neither of the twins were quite ready to confront Ciel about Hannah's claim.

"Just give us a moment, Mother." Charlotte pleaded with Ciel through the door.

Ciel scowled.

"You've already had several moments! Are you two alright?" Ciel asked.

"Yes ...We're fine, we're just ...not quite all together today….I'm afraid." Charlotte answered.

Like Charlotte, Isabel wasn't ready to face Ciel, Alois, her brother, or anybody else and so she piped up. "Can we just have our party later today, Mommy?" Isabel asked Ciel quietly.

It was then that Ciel frowned in concern.

Over the years, Charlotte had become more and more extroverted while Isabel seemed to simultaneously grow more and more introverted.

In fact, there were many times when the youngest twin let her older sister speak for her completely.

So for Isabel to ask Ciel anything, especially for an extension to her and Charlotte's own birthday party…

"Alright." Ciel replied slowly. "If that's what you two want then, we'll postpone things. Perhaps you two will feel better later in the day?"

"Yes, hopefully, thank you, mother." Charlotte replied in a small, sad voice.

"Very well then." Ciel agreed.

The bluenette turned away from the door and made her way down the hallway with her brow knit together.

The girls hadn't said that they were ill.

What on earth was wrong?

From the corner of the hallway, Hannah watched with a triumphant sneer on her face as Ciel walked slowly back towards the parlor.

The Trancy maid knew that she had succeeded in setting everything into motion.

Once Ciel returned to the parlor, Alois and Lucas blinked at her anxiously.

"Well?" Alois asked. "Are they all right? When are they coming down?"

Ciel gave Alois an incredulous look as she half shrugged her shoulders and replied. "They seem to be all right…..but they both said they were out of sorts and….they requested we postpone their party until this afternoon. So, I suppose then, that's what we'll do."

Lucas watched his parents with wide eyes as Alois stared back at Ciel in disbelief.

The oldest blonde shook his head. "No, Ciel, somethings wrong! I know my daughters! I'll find out what it is."

Before Ciel could stop him, Alois stood up and marched straight to the twins' room.

Both Charlotte and Isabel were very close to Alois.

The twins loved their father with all their heart, just as all daughters do.

Alois knew that what the girls wouldn't confide in Ciel, they may share with him.

With a smile, Alois lifted his hand and knocked at their door once he arrived.

"A moment more, Mother!" Charlotte called.

"It's not Mother, it's Father!" Alois responded in a cheerful voice.

Alois expected the twins to fling open the door and welcome him with loving arms, to invite him to sit and chat with them about what was so troubling, but instead, Alois's face fell from a happy smile to a disappointed frown when he heard sobbing come from the other side of the door.

"What's the matter, my dears?" Alois asked quietly, laying his hand against the door sadly. "You two know that you can tell me anything! Even something your Mother wouldn't understand…...I'm here to listen!"

The sobbing from the other side of the door quieted and Alois took a step back when he heard movement.

A second later, the door opened and Charlotte peeked out, looking up at Alois with watery eyes.

"What is it, my dear?" Alois frowned sympathetically.

It made the blonde truly sad to see his beautiful daughter's face so mangled from some inexplicable grievance on her own birthday!

"Hannah's…Well, this morning, Hannah…." Charlotte began to explain, but her voice trailed off, along with her eyes as she looked away.

Did she dare say it?

Alois instantly became suspicious.

Over the years, he had caught his maid being unfair to the girls on more than one occasion.

Alois had punished Hannah severely, but if he had known the real cruelty that Hannah had always shown the twins, Alois would have dismissed his maid immediately.

The twins had always kept silent, respecting Hannah, even though she had never respected them.

"This morning Hannah what?" Alois asked Charlotte, crossing his arms with a scowl.

"This morning, Hannah….said something to us." Isabel called out in a very quiet voice from inside the room.

Alois grew a bit nervous when he saw the sorrow on Charlotte's face when she heard her sister's words.

"Well?" Alois asked. "What did Hannah say?"

Charlotte related what the Trancy maid had said in a quiet voice.

Alois did not confirm nor deny Hannah's claim.

Alois wouldn't lie to his daughters…

But the blonde determined that admitting the truth to them wasn't his place.

That was for Ciel to sort out.

Instead of offering the twins a definite answer, Alois sat in the middle of them and pulled them both in close for a hug.

"Just remember my dears, whatever happens to you in this world, I'll always love you." Alois said truthfully with a bittersweet smile.

Wouldn't it be lovely if they were his natural children like Lucas?

Then the twins could have had a lovely birthday.

Charlotte and Isabel both frowned and closed their eyes, their fingers were a pale white as they clutched onto Alois's vest as if they were desperate for him to protect them from an unseen enemy….

"Daddy….." Isabel whimpered.

Later, Lucas had put down his kazoo and had taken to playing with his wooden carriage while Ciel sat in the parlor that afternoon.

Ciel's face was taut and her jaw was clenched.

Alois had been visiting with the twins earlier.

The family had shared a tense lunch and now, Ciel was waiting for Isabel to come in and speak with her, per the smallest twin's request after their meal.

Ciel felt like she was waiting for her execution.

The sliding parlor door creaked quietly as Isabel slipped into the room.

Isabel, now at sixteen, looked like an exact replica of Ciel, except for her amber eyes.

No, Isabel knew that her amber eyes were not like Ciel's and not like Alois's either.

In fact, Isabel had only ever seen one other person with those eyes and that was the fatal flaw in Ciel's deception, the one, undeniable clue that told Isabel….

"It's true, isn't it, mother?" Isabel asked simply in her quiet voice.

Isabel wanted the truth outright.

There was no point in playing games.

Perhaps a part of the amber-eyed twin had always known…...

Ciel struggled to swallow for a moment, as she looked into Isabel's sad, timid eyes.

Ciel had never hated Sebastian more in that second than she had over the past sixteen years.

Ciel hated Sebastian.

She hated him!

Ciel hated Sebastian for coming to the manor and bringing this ugliness into her children's lives.

Ciel had worked so hard to shield her daughters from the nightmares of the world…...

….And now all of Ciel's hard work was in vain.

"...Yes." Ciel admitted to Isabel with a gasp, as if someone had stabbed her from behind.

Isabel's chin trembled a moment and her eyes flooded with tears of grief.

Ciel had no words of comfort to offer her daughter.

Ciel watched in agony while Isabel let out a mournful howl.

It was a terrifying and cacophonous noise.

The quietest twin became the loudest person in the house as she expressed her remorse over the hideous lie that she had been so blindly led to believe since her birth.

Ciel gasped again as she watched Isabel weep inconsolably.

What was Ciel to say?

What was true was true.

Pain was in the world, the world itself was pain.

Still, Ciel had always held on to the foolish hope of a mother, that somehow, maybe, she would be able to protect her daughters from pain….

Several rooms over, Sebastian was doing his best to hold his own against Lady Charlotte Trancy while she practiced her fencing.

Fencing or archery was the preferred sport of the oldest twin and over the years, with proper training, Charlotte had grown to be quite adept at both.

Sebastian raised an eyebrow when Charlotte missed him by inches with a great snarl.

Charlotte was usually competitive, but today, Sebastian felt as if she was genuinely trying to battle him.

Of course, Sebastian had no idea about the upsets that had occurred during the morning…..so he couldn't possibly imagine why Charlotte seemed intent on taking his head off.

Clang!

AAAAAGGGHHH!

Charlotte and Sebastian were eye to eye as their swords locked against each other when Isabel's miserable screech rang out.

Charlotte looked away for a moment and the expression of horror on her face startled Sebastian.

"Lady Charlotte?" Sebastian blinked. "Are you alright?"

Charlotte stared off into the distance as if she was in a trance while realization hit her hard.

Isabel said that she would speak with Ciel…

That…...that terrible sound…..

It was…Isabel.

That meant that it was…

True.

No!

How could that be?!

Charlotte heaved a deep breath and turned on Sebastian with murder in her eyes.

With a deep, guttural cry, Charlotte freed her blade from Sebastian's grasp and cut him sharply across the cheek, moving too fast for him to block.

Sebastian's eyes widened and he wiped at the wound with his gloved hand, staining the white cotton with a few drops of crimson.

"Lady Charlotte?" Sebastian blinked, questioning her sudden animosity.

"You!" Charlotte roared, pointing her sword at Sebastian. "I don't care about the past or the truth! You will never be my father!"

What?!

Sebastian's eyes nearly bulged out of his head at that statement.

Sebastian was in shock.

How did his oldest daughter know?!

This was not how Sebastian had planned this!

Charlotte could have run Sebastian through right there, but instead, she threw her sword down and stormed out of the room.

In fact, Charlotte marched boldly down the hall, dressed in her loose-fitting blouse tucked into her slim-fitting black fencing pants, an outfit that was quite indecent for a Victorian noblewoman.

But Charlotte didn't care then.

Charlotte walked down the hallway, past the parlor, and towards the door.

Alois was coming down the stairs and he saw Charlotte walking out at the same time Ciel did.

"Charlotte, darling, where are you going?" Alois called.

"Charlotte!" Ciel cried out, stepping over Isabel who still sobbing on the floor.

"I'm leaving!" Charlotte declared, throwing open the door, and heading outside.

Lucas frowned at Isabel while Alois and Ciel followed Charlotte out of the house and towards the stable.

Charlotte really was leaving.

"You can't leave! This is your home!" Alois reasoned.

"Is it? Is it, really? Perhaps you two will tell me that I haven't lived here after all. Perhaps we're not a distinguished family, perhaps we're penniless. Who's to say?" Charlotte quipped while she saddled one of the Trancy horses.

"You can't go about dressed like that!" Ciel insisted.

Charlotte was so angry she could hardly stand it.

Charlotte was angry at everyone and everything.

But Charlotte was the angriest at Ciel.

And an angry teenager often speaks before they think….

Charlotte's Phantomhive blue eyes flashed with rage as she looked right at Ciel and thundered brazenly, "I don't want to be criticized by a whore like you!"

Alois's eyes widened.

His mouth fell open in shock.

Ciel looked like she was going to spontaneously combust.

"Why…..YOU!! HOW DARE YOU speak to me like that, you little—-!" The bluenette fumed.

Alois saw Ciel's hands reach out, he watched her lunge….and Alois caught his darling bluenette in his arms protectively just as Charlotte reared her horse and charged out of the stable at a furious pace.

Ciel struggled in Alois's arms.

If Alois hadn't grabbed Ciel, he wasn't sure what would have happened…

Either Ciel would have murdered Charlotte, or Charlotte would have trampled Ciel with her horse.

"I'm going to…..! I'm going to…..!" Ciel hissed in Alois's grasp.

"Sh, sh, it's alright Ciel! She didn't mean it! She's just angry! She's angry!" Alois whispered quickly, trying to calm his bluenette lover.

Ciel grabbed Alois's arms and squeezed tight.

Alois thought Ciel was still raging, but then he felt her shoulders shaking with silent sobs.

Alois's face fell into a deep frown.

…...And just like he had sixteen years ago, Alois found himself trying to soothe Ciel while she suffered great pain.

But this was somehow worse, this was a pain that no doctor or midwife could ease.

"There, there, my love. It's alright, I'm right here." Alois whispered sweetly, kissing Ciel's cheek as he held her tight.

"Jim….." Ciel whispered through her tears, squeezing her sapphire eyes shut. "I don't know if I can do this….."