A dull ache throbbed behind Jayden's eyes as he stirred awake, the events of the previous day flooding back in a dizzying rush. Shame washed over him in waves as he recalled his defiance, the harsh words hurled at his father, and the culminating sting of Elio's hand on his cheek.
'I crossed the line,' he thought, clenching his fists against the rumpled sheets. The memory of his outburst fueled a simmering anger. He was done being treated like a child, a prodigy to be paraded and controlled. Years spent confined within the gilded cage of their estate felt no different from the years he'd been crippled.
'But I'm done playing. I don't want to waste any minute of living my life how others want me to. I've already lived many years stuck to a bed, and being held in a big mansion is not so different.
Lost in his brooding, the bedroom door creaked open. Ruele entered, her figure draped in a flowing white dress that seemed to magnify the starkness of the sterile room. She moved with a practiced grace, her approach a silent testament to the countless times she'd soothed his childhood illnesses.
As she settled on the edge of the bed, her touch on his hair was gentle. "Jayden, my love," her voice was soft, laced with concern. "How are you feeling? Does anything hurt?"
He met her gaze, his dark purple irises glowing faintly, a physical manifestation of the turmoil within. He reached up, gingerly touching his left cheek. It was hot, and swollen, a tender reminder of his injury and his father's harsh discipline.
For a couple of minutes the silence stretched, heavy and suffocating, and finally, Ruele spoke again, her voice laced with a tremor he'd never heard before. "Jayden, what happened between you and your father… it shouldn't have happened. We understand that you may not see things from our perspective, but it's because we love you. We want what's best for you, for our entire family."
Jayden pushed himself up against the wall, his voice tight with barely suppressed anger. "Love? Is that what you call this? Keeping me cooped up in this house like a prisoner? I can barely step foot in the backyard without someone hovering over me! Yet, Kiara, she gets to roam free." He looked at her dead in the eyes, his dark-purple iris glowing unnaturally.
"I started talking when I was a few months old and after I hit 1 year, you already could have logical conversation with me," Jayden continued. "I've heard you and Father many times praising my intelligence, and you even gave me the status of a prodigy, a monster, something you've never seen in a kid."
Ruele's expression faltered for a moment, a flicker of pain crossing her features before she steeled herself. "Kiara is different, Jayden. You awakened at 4 years old, don't you even consider that? You do things far exceeding any child's. It's for your own safety that we have these restrictions."
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" I don't understand. Why do you keep me like a prisoner in this house? I'm not allowed to leave the estate, and barely able to go into the backyard to play with Kiara when no one is around, but my sister, she went outside so many times. Why no one besides our close family knows who I am...why no one knows that you also have a son, not only a daughter." His anger started to boil again with every word, questioning his mother. "I just want to be normal, to do things that I like for once."
"Normal," she echoed, the word heavy with unspoken longing. "There's no such thing as normal for our family, Jayden. You are special, unique. But being special comes with a price. We have enemies, powerful enemies, who would stop at nothing to exploit you. We're just trying to protect you from that darkness."
Jayden surged forward, his voice rising in frustration. "And who protects me from you? From this cage you've built around me? You say it's for my safety, but all I feel is suffocation! I don't care about your enemies, I just want to live!"
Tears welled up in Ruele's eyes, glistening like misplaced diamonds on her porcelain skin. "We do want you to live, Jayden. To live a long, happy life. But the world out there… You are not ready for it. Not yet."
"Enough! You're just like father, you don't care about what I feel, what I want. This protection you're talking about just made me feel like I'm an outcast. You never listened to what I wanted, you never gave me what I asked even if I begged, yelled, and cried so many times." Jayden busted out again, lashing at his mother.
"I'm tired of being what you want me to be. I don't want to behave like a child, I don't want to play in the sand, I don't want any of that."
Ruele's expression turned from astonished to sad every moment she listened to Jayden. She thought that she was doing the right thing, giving him the opportunity to live a normal life, something that she and Elio didn't have the chance to do it.
"Jayden...I-I don't know what to say. Everything we did is for your own good, being like this, being a special child in this family is something you can't even fathom. We have enemies at every corner praying for our downfall."
She took a solemn face and addressed Jayden with a stoic voice. "If you think that we don't love you, and we don't care about you, then you are wrong. And I'm fine with you thinking that, but until you grow up, you will do as I say, whether you like it or not.
That said, she glanced one more time at Jayden before turning her back to him and walking to the door.
"Take your friend with you outside when you close the door. I don't want to see any of you anymore" he said.
By glancing into a spot in the room, Elora made her presence felt. She couldn't believe what was going on between Jayden and his mother, and even though she wasn't informed, Elora deduced from their conversation that the same thing or worse went between him and his father.
"Elora, let's go, Jayden needs time to reflect on his behavior, but don't get me wrong, young man. You are not leaving this room until I say so," and by saying that, his mother and protector left the room, leaving him alone.
Jayden watched his mother's back as she exited the room, "We'll see about that," he whispered as a sudden plan appeared in his mind.