The water beneath her feet was warm, but the woman felt cold and distant from the world around her. Livia's goal with her had always remained the same, just to make sure she left. Serena wondered if peace would only come after she had gone.
She pressed her lips into a thin line and exhaled slowly. She remembered their first true confrontation, how Livia had said, with no restraint, that her parents had been torn apart by rogues before her very eyes. It would be foolish for Serena to claim she understood. She hadn't watched her own blood be spilled like that. But she had known loss, as well as loneliness and shame.
Serena cast a discreet glance at the woman across the spring and then faced forward once more. It hurt, in a quiet and pathetic way, how she was treated. And how badly, oh, how badly she sometimes wanted to reach out and simply tell the truth.
