Chapter Seventeen
Verena stared at the man who had just spoken. Her heart felt like it was beating out of her chest. The smile he had on his face made her uneasy. It reminded her of Cyprian.
"Adorable." He cooed, looking at Verena.
Verena slightly flinched, making the other man at the table raise an eyebrow.
"Lycus, you're scaring the poor girl." He said, crossing his arms.
Lycus turned his head to look at his brother. "Am I not allowed to be happy about meeting our only sister?"
"You can be less creepy about it." The dark-haired man muttered.
Lycus just shook his head as Verena and her brothers sat down across the table from her other half-brothers.
"Davian, so good to see you!" Lycus beamed at her vexed-looking brother.
Davian just grunted as he clenched his jaw and looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here. Praxis looked uncomfortable, like something bad was going to happen. It didn't ease Verena's nerves one bit.
Verena looked nervously between all four of the men, feeling the intense tension that made her squirm in her seat.
"Hello, Verena. I'm Lycus, and this is Leondias. We share the same father." Lycus greeted with a smile. He was trying to make himself seem less intimidating towards his sister, but was failing miserably.
Verena couldn't manage to make herself look at him. She was curious about having more brothers, but terrified at the same time. She just nodded, still looking down at her lap.
Lycus looked at her, slightly perplexed as to why she refused to look at him. He wondered why she refused to look at either of them. Praxis noticed this and cleared his throat, "She's just shy," he started. "I-its selective mutism because of her...trauma."
"From the psychiatric hospital, correct?" Leondias spoke up.
"That's part of it." Praxis sighed.
Lycus let out an amused scoff and leaned back in his seat. "I imagine it's from the childhood you gave her. You did take Dela's affair quite hard. I can easily see you taking it out on her."
Praxis flinched and kept quiet. He couldn't deny Lycus's accusation when it was true. Lycus smirked at Praxis's reaction.
"What did you do? Beat her?" Lycus taunted as he leaned forward and rested his chin on his hands.
"No! No, we just didn't... give her the attention she needed." Praxis stuttered defensively. Davian clenched his jaw.
Leondias nodded while Lycus looked at Davian with a patronizing stare. He then turned his attention to Verena. "You know, love, we would never do that to you. You would be so loved with us."
Verena looked at him skeptically, trying to find malice in his statement. No one had ever cared for her before. Why would these men be the same? They had to want something of her, and she didn't want to think about what.
"Look." Davian started, "We have many regrets about how we have treated her and are trying to be better. We know it was wrong now to have held our bitterness against her for our mother's actions."
"I fail to understand how neglect can lead to her killing that boy." Lycus challenged.
Verena ducked her head in shame while biting her lip and playing with the loose string of fabric on her sleeve. Praxis put a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up at him. He tried to give her a comforting smile, but it looked strained.
"Lycus," Leondias groaned as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
Davian was fighting the urge to throttle Lycus right then and there for his words. Lycus wanted to get under his skin. He was succeeding.
Lycus regretted his words when he noticed his sister shrink into herself.
He probably should have refrained from saying that in front of her.
He wanted to know if they were harming her.
He had a great suspicion that they had been mistreating her.
He thought if he could rile Davian up enough, he could get it out of him.
Praxis handed a file over to Leondias, causing Davian to give him a lethal stare at Praxis, knowing what the papers were. Her diagnosis paperwork. Praxis didn't just want to blurt it out in front of his sister.
Leondias read over the document and raised his eyebrows in astonishment. Then we wordlessly handed it over to Lycus, who hummed a response. "Interesting."