AN: Hello beautiful people. So this chapter has two particularities, it's not written in any characters point of view and it's a lot smaller. But I thought it was important to show you more of what kind of people Emily and Cassie's family are, therefore I hope you'll like it.

Enjoy your reading!

CHAPTER 13

THE ROYAL MANSION

Robert Fitch takes his wife to his study, closing the door and motioning for her to sit as he does the same.

"Robert what just happened back there? Are you out of your mind?" Joanne asks her husband.

He sighs hard before answering, "Emily was disrespectful towards me. She needs to learn how to treat her father properly."

"And you think violence is the key to that?! Do you realize what you did? You hit your own daughter!" Joanne shouts at him.

"I had to do it!" He shouts back leaving her wife looking at him with rage evident in her eyes.

"What is it that made you do it? What great reason did you have?"

Robert stays silent for a short time before answering, "She knows about the war. She came here to tell me she doesn't approve of it."

Now Joanne is the one that goes silent, "And that was reason enough to hit her?" She says with disdain while getting up, "You make me sick Robert, I don't even recognize you anymore."

Her husband gives a bitter laugh, "I guess we're perfect for each other then."

After hearing that, Joanne leaves the room closing the door hard behind her, leaving Robert alone to his thoughts.

"Women… All the same. I had hope that my daughter would be different, but it turns out I was wrong." He says to the room, "I must have a word with my brother."

Robert decides to get up and go to his brother favourite room in the house, the library.

"Jonas my brother, I could never understand your passion for books." He says as he gets near his brother.

"As I never understood your passion for order." His brother says, closing the book on his hands and looking up to where Robert is standing, motioning for him to sit down in front of him.

He does as Jonas says, letting out a breath as he plumps down on the leather chair, "I guess that's why I'm the only one working to keep this family at its best."

"How? By tearing it apart?" Jonas asks, his voice filled with sarcasm, "I guess you're doing a mighty fine job then."

Robert laughs bitterly, "I guess you heard what happened a few moments ago."

"What? That you hit your daughter and then yell at your wife?" Jonas looks at his brother, with a look of disapproval, "You know brother, it's nothing new that your methods can sometimes be a bit "harsh", to put it lightly. But to hit my dear niece Emily? Well that's reaching a deep low, even for you."

Robert expression changes into one of guilt, "I don't know what took over me. I felt such rage filling my blood that I only realized the mess I had done when Joanne came and stopped me."

Silence falls between the two brothers, but not a comfortable one. It is more like those kind of silences where there is so much to say but you aren't able to because the mere thought of opening your guts hurts.

"I'm afraid I would not have been able to stop if my wife hadn't intervened."

"You know Robert, I remember when you starting dating Joanne, every time you looked at her your eyes would shine so bright that even at that time I already believed that she was gonna be your wife, the love of your life."

Robert smiles with fondness at the memory, "I remember that too. I was so happy back then." He says with a hint of sadness on his voice.

"But that started to fade away slowly and your eyes lost almost every light on them." Jonas pauses looking directly at his brother, to make sure he has his attention, "Until Emily came along. The day your daughter was born, it was like a fire had lit inside of you and left a burn on your heart that would never fade away."

"Jonas…"

"Ah! Let me finish please." Jonas plead to his brother and Robert nodded in agreement, "Whenever she smiled at you I would see a glint in you eyes even brighter than the one you have ever had for Joanne."

"Where are you going with this Jonas?" Robert asks in a low voice.

Jonas sighs at his brother, "What happened Rob? What was it that made you change so much to the point that you can't even look at your daughter like you used to?"

Robert looked at the window on his right and stared at the view.

"Do you see all this? All this empire I've built?" Jonas nods, paying attention to him.

"I've never wanted it. I wanted to travel with my beautiful Joanne and show her all the world, like she and I deserved." Robert says with sadness, "But when father died he only had one request for me, "Rule this family to its best, we are Royals, we never fall, we're never defeated. It's up to you my son, it's my last wish. Keep the Empire alive."

"Robert, the man has been dead for years now! Why do you still follow his orders, his beliefs?!"

"You don't understand." He paused, "At the time I thought I didn't want it. All the power, all the responsibility." Robert gives a bitter laugh, "But I'm just as human as any other man, and the more I had the more I wanted. Greed and overconfidence took over me, and before I realized, it was too late. My wife started to look at me with sadness in her eyes each and every day. Emily started growing up at a speed that I couldn't even keep up and started to look so much like her mother every year that passed. I started to feel so distant from them both and so lonely, that the only thing that kept me alive was the same that created this tremendous gap between me and them."

"I never imagined that to be the reason… Nevertheless, you are still in time to do things right. You can stop this war! It's not too late brother!"

Robert laughs bitterly once again, "Can't you understand? It's too late now, it doesn't mind what I do or don't. Joanne's look of disdain towards me will never disappear and Emily's is just going to keep getting harder."

"I don't believe in that. I think you're just scared to try. You've grown so used at people thinking that you're this heartless man who has no consideration or good feelings for anyone, that it's too risky now for you to show you're a better person than that. Because if you do, people may not believe you and not give you a second chance."

Robert gets up once his brother finishes talking and says sternly, "None of that matters. The war is declared, there's no going back now."

"Robert…"

"I already started calling people to duty to fight against our enemies. They'll start training and getting prepared the following months. And when is time, they'll be sent to foreign territory to defend their Empire."

Jonas gets up and faces his brother, "Your Empire! It's all for you! You selfish cunt, you can't even see what's right in front of you! You are sentencing yourself to death. And you know why? Because you need the people from this city and outskirts more than they need you."

Robert scoffs, "Please brother, don't make me laugh."

"Laugh all you want now, because when you have the people starting to revolt against you and taking down your precious Empire, I think you won't be laughing so hard."

Robert gives a bitter laugh, "I guess we'll just have to see then. I want you by the Grand Hall by tomorrow morning. We'll have a reunion with The Office to go over the plans and start the preparations."

"You'll drag us all down with you, you idiot!" Jonas shouts at his brother as he leaves the library.

"Bloody fucking thick headed man. May the Gods put some sense into him, and may they help us all." He says looking at the ceiling, in hope that some greater force hears him. Because truth be told, they'll going to need it.

AN: Ok you already know the drill, any opinions just leave a review. See you next time ;)