“What’s a mouse doing at my palace?” Atil peers down at you. His gaze held something you can’t quite place, though it was certainly not a look a father gives their child. How unfeeling he’s become.

Your nanny would tell you tales. A fairy and a prince, how enamoured they were with each other. You were young but you knew, it was them. Your parents. In the tales, he was a kind soul, a quiet man, it was told his affection for the fairy transcends their standing in terms of status. A story to swoon over.

Though when you get the chance to look at your father, you see nothing but a shell of who he used to be; not that you knew him prior to the change they talked about.

Atil on the other hand could not face you. He cannot even stand a minute's worth of your presence. You were too bright. Much like her, it brings back the ache he had tried so hard to bury all these years. It is almost laughable, your resemblance to his late lover.

It seems all the portion of life you had taken from your mother paid off. From the tips of your hair, the arch of your brows, to the very significance of your smile. It is his lover all over again. It irks him, it brings a different kind of rage. More so because he cannot bring himself to loathe you, so he resorts to ignoring you.

Avoiding you would give him a great deal of relief. “Go back to your palace.”

Who could have known that years later, you would have the very smile of someone he had long lost.