"Isabella Elizabeth Roxton!"

Isabella froze at the furious scream, recognizing her father's voice immediately. Others around the fire spun to look at the source of the familiar voice and Isabella marveled at this unexpected turn of events. Her father stormed into view and Isabella heard her mother let out a half- hidden gasp.

"Isabella, are you all right?" Roxton asked, crossing quickly to her. "Do you understand how worried we've been? Your room was a mess and there was blood all over your sheets. When you and Nathan turned up missing, we thought the worst."

"We?" Isabella questioned, looking up from her seat on the ground, flanked by Cobi and Layton with Marguerite sitting across from her.

"Gabrielle and I, of course." Roxton looked down to her.

Bella scoffed and glanced away.

Unable to be angry with his daughter after discovering she was alive, he turned his ire towards the Zanga prince to her right.

"You! You did this, didn't you? What did you do to her? I swear, I'll kill you for this!"

"Father!" Isabella objected. "I came here on my own! Cobi had nothing to do with this."

Cobi rose at the accusation, pride wounded and anger reaching the boiling point. "If you wish to place blame for your daughter's condition, look no further than behind you. She came to me seeking asylum, something I could do nothing but give her, knowing what happened."

Roxton glanced behind him at the nervous Gabrielle. Marguerite rose from her seat and quietly moved to where the commotion was taking place.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Roxton asked, shooting a venomous look in Jacobi's direction.

"Abuse, John," Marguerite answered for the young man. "Constant, recurrent, physical abuse."

No one could miss the cold tension in her voice. Isabella looked to her mother in surprise as Layton helped her to her feet.

"Abuse you failed to notice for five years because you were too busy screwing the nanny!"

John recoiled and opened his mouth in speechless shock. His Marguerite was here. After all this time she had returned. But what were they talking about? Abuse? Of who? By who? Why did his estranged wife's voice hold so much contempt and hatred for him?

"What in bloody hell are you doing here? And what are you people talking about?"

"Gabrielle beats your daughter, Lord Roxton," Layton told him, feeling his bile rise as usual when they discussed this horrid subject. "You were about to marry Isabella's tormentor."

"What?!" Roxton and Gabrielle cried in unison. Roxton spun around to face his fiancée.

"Is that true?"

"John, I don't know what they're talking about!" Gabrielle defended indignantly. "That's nonsense. I love your daughter as if she were my own! I couldn't harm a hair on her head. She is just clumsy and rowdy, that's how she hurts herself. And you know she hates me! She has every reason to create this slander against me."

"Oh, shove it, Gabrielle!" Isabella cried. "I may hate you, I may be clumsy and I may be rowdy, but God knows I'm not a liar. You hate me because I am everything you are against. You wish to banish my father's memories of my mother so you can have him all to yourself. But are you so stupid as to not see what is happening? Why do you think it took him five years to agree to marry you? He's never stopped loving her. Don't you get it? Can't you wrap your puny mind around that? He. Loves. Her. He loves her! Get that through your thick skull! Hurting me isn't going to change that. Nothing will. And certainly not hurting your own son! You're truly a sick bitch, Gabrielle. Nathan's innocent!"

As Isabella had ranted on about her father's love, Roxton and Marguerite could do nothing other than look at each other. Their eyes locked and the guilt in their eyes was almost tangible between them.

"I'm the sick one?" Gabrielle exclaimed. "At least I am not holding on to a distant memory for dear life and carrying the banner of the lost cause of your parents' love. You cannot go back, Isabella! You cannot live in the past! You cannot be so damn perfect!"

Isabella blinked in surprise after the last comment.

"What?!"

"You know what I mean! The entire city loves you! Your father absolutely adores you. You're sweet, kind, fiery, talented, and beautiful. You have two teenage boys following you around like lost puppies, waiting to do your whim. My son cries out for you when he is frightened at night, not me. When his knee is skinned, he runs to you. All of New London society is completely enamored with your charm! Why can't they see through the lies like I do? Why can't they take you off of that damn pedestal? 'What is it like living with the Lady Roxton?' the women ask. 'You must be so proud of the way your charge has turned out.' 'The poor Roxtons, losing mother and son like that, it is a wonder Lady Isabella has turned out so well.' That's all they ever say! All they ever talk about is you! They tell me how charming you are. They ask me how it can be that such a sweet girl has such distaste for me. It's all they ever do! I had to do it! I had to knock you off of your throne and show you what you really were. Useless! Worthless! A spoiled, vaunted bitch!"

Assai covered Nathan's ears during the last half of his mother's screamed speech. Isabella's mind raced. She'd never thought Gabrielle was actually jealous of her. What was there to be jealous of? Being motherless? Brotherless? Lost in a world that never understood her? This was to be desired?

"Don't you dare talk to my daughter that way!" Marguerite cried, slapping Gabrielle across the face. "Haven't you done enough damage? You have no right!"

"And now you care about her? You abandoned her! You saw her worthlessness too!"

"Stop it!" Isabella screamed. "Stop it!"

Everyone turned to look at her.

"This is ridiculous! Get me out of here, Layton. Cobi, is my room empty?"

"It is always ready and waiting for its occupant," Cobi answered gently, helping Layton move her away from the fighting.

The entire area cleared, Assai taking Nathan to play with younger Zanga children and the other Zangas going about their business. That left only Marguerite, Roxton, and Gabrielle.

"Leave us," Roxton said lowly over his shoulder. There was disgust in the undertones of his voice.

"But, John, I," Gabrielle protested.

"I said leave us. We will discuss this later."

"John!"

"Please," Roxton pleaded. "I don't know what to say to you right now."

"You actually believe her? John, she's a little liar!"

"She's my daughter, Gabrielle! My little girl! My precious Isabella. Hurting her is like hurting me. Leave now."

Gabrielle pouted, shaking her strawberry blonde hair as if she has been wronged, and returned to the outskirts of the village.

"Whatever do you see in her?" Marguerite asked, wrinkling her nose. "I always thought you more the jungle princess kind."

"I don't need this, Marguerite," he answered, not looking her in the eye and wringing his hands together in front of him.

"I think you do, Lord John Roxton. How could you not see it? Look at her bruises, her scars. And I've only seen the ones not covered by her dress. The boys imply that this is a regular occurrence, this beating. Hell, they don't imply, they straight out say it!"

"So this is all my fault? Maybe if you hadn't left she would not have been in this position. Maybe if you stayed you would have spotted it earlier. Hell, maybe she would confide in you. As it was, I was doing my best to raise a heart-broken child while nursing a broken heart of my own."

"You once swore you would follow me to the ends of the earth, John! But you never came after me five years ago."

"Marguerite! You left me days after our son's death! I was grieving, too! I was just supposed to drop everything, my daughter, my son's funeral, just to come chasing after you?"

"Don't! Don't bring Jack into this!" Tears sparkled in Marguerite's eyes at the mention of her baby boy. "I don't need any guilt from that, too! He was my son, too, John!"

"Well, it sure didn't seem like it when you skipped out of town before his funeral!"

"Look at you, unable to deal with your own guilt about Isabella so you turn Jack on me!"

Roxton turned away from her in anger, his blood boiling. "At least I was brave enough to stay."

With that, he stalked out of view. Marguerite collapsed, alone in the fire circle. She sunk to her knees and sobbed.