SWNOVELS Chapter 116 - Sorrow
Rowan pulled on a robe lying over a chair, and her hand automatically touched her stomach in a comforting fashion. Robert was still watching her, careful of her state of mind after the brief breakdown she suffered earlier.
He found her sobbing and crying, and she fought him when he tried to pick her up to take her to Alena. She’d been angry, in pain, and devastated. He patiently sat with her until she calmed down, but instead, she almost allowed the desolation of the moment to swallow her.
“Alena lost Marcus too, and she lost her baby,” Robert said when he noticed the way she shut down, and those words ripped her from that dark place where she wallowed in her pain. Alena needed her, and the baby needed her. Marcus would expect her to look after them, and not to allow grief to crush all feeling from her.
“I loved him, Robert. He was the one,” Rowan admitted to him, and he nodded.
“I once loved in such a way. Belvare raped her, killed her, and made me watch. Then he turned me into a monster, and mindlessly drunk on his alure, I killed my sister, my twin,” Robert told her, and those words hit Rowan with a dose of reality. She looked into his eyes, and she recognized his pain. This was why he was so cold because he couldn’t allow himself to think or feel.
He couldn’t bear the thought of his lover and how she died, just as he couldn’t live with the guilt of having killed his sister. She wanted to tell him that it wasn’t his fault, but it wouldn’t do any good. She felt the guilt of Marcus’s death. If it were not for her and Alena, Marcus would live.
She allowed Robert to carry her, and his arms around her were almost gentle.
“I am sorry for your loss,” Rowan told Robert, and his step faltered briefly. She could tell that no one said those words to him yet.
“Thank you, and I am sorry for your loss,” he didn’t just echo her words, he was sorry.
They found Alena sitting in a tepid bath of water. She hadn’t washed, and she probably hadn’t moved since Robert left.
Alena turned to Alena, and she could still remember the way Alena just sat there when they arrived. She firmly tied the belt of her robe, and took charge of her sister.
They scrubbed her clean, they dried her, cleaned out her wounds, stitched the ones that refused to heal, and when Robert tried to lead her to their room so she could rest, Alena wouldn’t go without Rowan.
Rowan never thought she would see strong, independent Alena this broken. Rowan took a quick bath, when all she wanted was to soak the memory of this day from her soul.
“Come Alena, let’s get you to bed,” Rowan said gently, and Alena followed her like a puppy. She hated seeing Alena like this with all the stuffing knocked out of her. She’d never even thought such a thing possible.
Robert followed them to the room, and he helped Rowan put Alena to bed, but Alena didn’t want to be alone, she looked so lost, and with a sigh, Rowan got into bed with her. She cuddled Alena to her, and Robert quietly left them alone.
She soothed Alena as Alena once did for her when the watchers betrayed her, and Rowan never thought their roles would ever be reversed.