As soon as Sahara was in her small ‘house’ and alone, she slumped down on her bed and hung her head. She wanted to think, ‘Hey, it was good while it lasted!’ but, she was truly upset!

She never liked losing things…She had strengthened her heart so that it wouldn’t matter if she really did lose something…Not only that, but she would also try not to gain something to lose in the first place…

With Talon, it seemed that Sahara had forgotten about this. Perhaps, having this disagreement between them will at some time vanish and they will be as they were before. And as Sahara thought of this, she honestly wanted it to be that way, but she couldn’t help but be disappointed.

She mumbled her sorrows away as she laid on the bed…She didn’t feel like doing anything at this moment…Nothing…

 

 

On the other hand, Talon was again stunned into silence after his daughter’s departure.

Gabriella? Is Sahara truly been schemed against all this time? By…Gabriella?

Sitting heavily, Talon tried to recall the past.

Sahara had always never admitted to doing what had happened, but still silently received punishment. What had Gabriella been up to then?

Feeling at a loss, Talon wanted to find evidence to support this claim, otherwise he wouldn’t believe it!

“Someone come!”

“Master?”

“Get me one of Gabriella’s servants here! Now!”

 

 

After twenty minutes, a particular maidservant came in and respectfully bowed. “Master.”

Talon still had no idea on where to start, even having twenty minutes beforehand to think about it…

Staring at her, he tried to find the best questions.

“Master?”

Lightly coughing, he then said, “Sahara’s belongings…”

He stopped, as he was unsure on how to continue, but he was stunned to see uneasiness in the maid’s gestures and eyes.

The silence dragged on as Talon wondered if it was all true!

Did Gabriella truly scheme against Sahara? Is this the missing piece that I felt all this time?

 

Because of the silence, the maid looked more and more uneasy as the time went by. There was no doubt, this maid had a guilty conscience about something! But why else would she act this way just over a small amount of words and some silence!?

It couldn’t be! Why…What kind of reason?

The maid didn’t say a word, to her loyalty to Gabriella, but she hardly needed to…

“Lock her up! I’ll question her myself later!” Talon suspected, yet he also wanted to take advantage of her uneasiness, wondering if having her on pins and needles will be enough to have her speak to him! If he didn’t have to use in depth ways, like torture, to extract information then he would much prefer that!

“Master! Please! I serve your daughter with absolute loyalty!”

Talon sighed to her words, for they were probably true.

As much as he wished for this not to be true, he couldn’t dismiss it now…

New problems seemed to have raised up in Talon’s mind, more problems than he thought possible…

 

How had I punished Sahara all this time? How had Sahara felt? What else has Gabriella done? What about now, now I had not even talked to her when Sahara had come all this way to ask!

A bottomless pit seemed to have risen and wanted to engulf him. He couldn’t imagine how badly Sahara must feel about all of this! And for such a long period of time! When had it started? When they were eight? Or was it even younger than that!?

He had always taken Gabriella’s side. He had chosen to not question, chosen to think and trust his own…He, of all people, had been treating Sahara the worst! He, he had treated her like an outsider when he ‘claimed’ to dote on her! Talon hated himself! He truly believed that he didn’t deserve one bit of forgiveness from Sahara!

 

For a full hour, Talon’s mind was in complete chaos! Just trying to feel or think of what Sahara must have felt or thought all of this time made him want to start ripping his hair out in anger!

“Salem!”

His own personal bodyguard appeared in front of him, “Master.”

“…Watch Gabriella and report back everything that she says and does! You are not to leave one word or action out, do you understand!?”

“As you command, Master.”

 

Already Talon wanted to search out Sahara…But what for? To do what he had already done? What if he were to hear her yet still misunderstand her!?

No, he had to confirm his theories!

Just a little longer, he thought, as he continued to miss a certain presence, a certain voice and personality. But it wasn’t just Sahara that would be without Talon’s attention. Lately, with what was going on and finding truth behind all these ‘scheme’s’, Talon had indeed stayed away from everyone. Whether he meant to or not people don’t know but that is indeed what was going on and some didn’t like his absence at all!

 

***

 

A few days went passed and Talon found himself wanting to see Sahara wholeheartedly. In fact, he was longing for it more and more as the time passed. But when she saw him…Her face broke his heart…

She did not smile, her eyes held no joy and he felt that his presence did not seem to matter to her at all.

He felt an absolute need to tell this little, adorable girl, that he wasn’t mad at her at all anymore, and that he generally wanted to see how she was going!

He remembered how she was before she opened up to him and realized that she had practically completely reverted back to it now. This invisible wall stopped him from wanting to tell her his thoughts and he could tell that things were the opposite now.

…As he ponders more and more about it…He was the one that had to open her heart, to be able to have her to have faith and trust in him once again!

As regrets filled his thoughts, he felt himself at a loss. Until now…He had never truly known how much he genuinely cared for her…He knew he cared, but he never thought he cared this much for her…

 

Sahara wasn’t that blind to know that Talon was having troubles. But she couldn’t help staying away from him. She kept telling herself that it would be easier not to bother with a relationship, that perhaps Gabriella will stop scheming against her if Sahara was to just stop being with Talon. There really was a lot of positives towards just being by herself once again, even if there was feelings and negatives to this as well.

Talking was one…Sahara didn’t have to talk so much now and could literally spend most of the time only speaking under ten or twenty words all up in the day! Her imagination was another…She had more time just to frig dick around in her own head, where she could come up with all these interesting theories and even jokes to keep herself entertained! She had forgotten how much she was her own best friend. She trusted herself, she had faith in herself! Who needs someone else to have it for her! Bah, she was fine! No problem!

 

A few times she had told herself that she wasn’t a saint…That even though it was obvious Talon wanted to be with her, she was putting a wall up between them on purpose, stopping them from growing close once again. His obvious hurt over her actions made her feel bad, like she was just adding onto the list of wrong doings!

Talon still had no idea that she had been schemed against all these years! For so long he had not known, and punished her without any knowledge and just…

Yes, she was mad and yes, she knew that Talon worked on trust, so she should have found evidence earlier but…She just never truly thought it would be so bad! It was still immature to Sahara, it was still…So stupid! She couldn’t help but think that perhaps, if she had just found evidence earlier to this nonsense, some of this could have been stopped!

 

There was no point to denying that to a degree her laziness and lack of care to how important this can possibly be, was indeed a flaw that she herself could have prevented.

And then for Talon to be so mad, to make her feel isolated…It was too much!

Sahara was a forgiving person, but right now, she needed some time.

In her previous life, it was extremely hard to gain any sort of affection. Through ignoring Talon like this, Sahara knew that she could lose his affection, if she’s not careful, but treating her like that was not okay!

She was quite good at enduring, but each person had their limit…

 

It was getting to new year again and with that, the new year festival. Honestly, Sahara has seen it, been there, done that. So, she decided against going this year.

Finding excuses, each time asked, her mission not to leave the residence became accomplished…Luckily!

Yet another scheme of Gabriella’s was supposed to have happened at this festival, and this was the reason Talon had happily let her stay home. It had been the mother, daughter and son, that had insisted on Sahara accompanying them out. With the last words from Talon, stating that she could stay home, they could only stop asking.

Having Salem tell him of his daughter’s scheme, Talon became terrified of his own daughter’s maliciousness!

The other schemes that she had done paled in comparison!

What is going on? Why is she doing this!?

 

This time, if Gabriella wasn’t able to kill the second ranked cultivator, Sahara, she still had another plan. She was going to give Sahara a bad reputation of chasing her into a brothel, through several guards that she had drawn to her side from the estate. Talon had never thought that the guards would be so taken to a little fourteen-year-old girl and asked how she had done this, but the follower didn’t know as he said that they were already on Gabriella’s side before he started to follow her.

With this in mind, Talon replaced all the guards that he was told of and in his control, with new ones.

The news of all this, was truly shocking and he felt at a loss on what to do.

 

It was coming deathly close to having to choose between his daughters…

He could continue to be ‘blind’, but Sahara’s life was now in real danger! How could he continue to look as though he didn’t know or care!?

Especially since such a scheme is thought of! How could she come up with something so big in the first place!? How can a little fourteen-year-old think of such a terrible ploy!?

But, if he had to punish his daughter, knowing full well of what she’s doing and previously done…

Talon really felt at a loss, if only he had watched from the very beginning! Wasn’t it his fault that he had known and not punished the right person!? He should have taught his daughter properly! It’s no wonder she hasn’t stopped! He…He has given her the idea that she could continue and that someone else will always take the fall for what has happened…

No…It can’t continue!

…This topic was too strong for him to make a decision and so with conflicted emotions Talon told everything to his father, knowing that he favored Sahara instead of Gabriella.

 

His father looked at him coldly, “This is your child! How could you let her act as such! Even having guards to do these bad deeds! Replace the other guards as well!”

“I only didn’t touch them because…”

“Because why!?”

Talon sighed, “They are elder brother’s guards.”

“Just replace them and if he says something about it, tell him it was on my orders! Ah, never would I have thought, a child so young can tell guards what to do! Your daughter has guts!”

 

Even though he said these words, the Right Minister went silent for a moment. “…I don’t want to kill my own kin for someone of unknown origins, yet, if Gabriella continues…Sahara cannot be harmed!”

Talon knew of these thoughts, because he felt the same way.

“If she is not in the estate…”

Talon furrowed his brows at his father’s words.

Did he perhaps mean to send her to a temple…Or family outside?

“Arrange for Gabriella’s marriage!”

It looks like Gabriella has unintendedly become my eldest son’s pawn…Getting her out of the estate would be best.

Talon was surprised, but didn’t go against his orders, “Yes, father. I will carry out your orders.”

 

Leaving his father’s study, Talon knew his daughter was not of marriageable age as of yet, that was why he had never thought of this idea. But she wasn’t that far away from it now, being already fourteen, and the sooner they send her away, the safer Sahara would be.

Walking into his wife’s main room of her courtyard, he found her pampering Gabriella and suddenly wondered if she had pampered Sahara at all…Was there much of a bond between his wife and Sahara?

…Why does he not know? Why doesn’t he know if his own wife is actually being nice to his daughter or not?

 

Over a small amount of time, Talon came to feel different towards his own blood related daughter. When his eyes went to her, he found himself getting angrier and angrier. Searching through his feelings for a short moment, he realized that the pride he had for Gabriella had all but vanished…

“Leave us!” Talon wasn’t able to help saying those words harshly towards his daughter.

“Talon?” His wife said, upset.

Gabriella sat there, still not moving.

With his patience gone, Talon yelled, “Now!”

Celeste put an arm around her daughter in defense, “Why are you yelling at her!?”

Talon sighed. He went to get his daughter’s arms and shoved her into a nanny, “Take her out!”

“Talon!?”

“Father! Why!?...”

 

When his daughter’s yells were finally out of ear shot, he sat down next to Celeste and said, “We are to arrange Gabriella’s marriage.”

Celeste looked stunned, then shook her head, “…No! She’s too young! I don’t want her to leave me!”

Talon took both of her hands in his, “Father has ordered it. We have no say.”

Celeste took her hands away and unhappily looked away from him, “I don’t want too!”

Wanting to coax her, he sat closer and pulled her into his embrace, “Wouldn’t it be better if you oversaw everything? You are her mother.”

He gently kissed her neck, to soften her attitude more.

He was in this plan, of marrying his daughter away, a hundred percent…So that he could save a life that he cared for.

If that meant coaxing this woman for a week, he’d do it happily!

But it took two weeks to finally get her approval, and Talon was thoroughly exhausted!

 

***