"DON'T TOUCH ME! You... You LIAR! You lied to me! About everything! About HIM! I see it now! You love him more than you love your own family! That's it isn't it?! Well I'll never love him, and I don't love you! Everything you did just tore EVERYTHING apart! I hate him and I! HATE! YOU!" (From Octavia @thethiefsden)
He R E C O I L S, hand withdrawing and watches her with wide gaze. The floor beneath his feet feels like a chasm, yawning open to swallow him up and plumet him into darkness. This was the very thing Stolas feared most. Losing Octavia; losing her trust, her acceptance, her love. He should have been honest with her from the start, but where would he begin? Where did these complex and tangled threads meet, split, or end? He thinks for a spell, of accepting this fate, of simply swallowing her wrath and her pain whole so he might let it fill him in his entirety. He ought to sit with it for the rest of his existence.
Stolas almost reaches for her again. He stops short, taking his own hand in the other, wringing fingers before clutching them to his chest. His voice is strained with emotion, hurt and uncertain. He knew he could not fix what has already been broken, that any hopes at mending their relationship would be fraught with difficulty and reluctance. The fact of the matter was that he hurt her. And she felt unloved. What kind of father had he become?
❝ Via, ❞ he begins, attempting to take a tentative step closer. ❝ You are the most important person in my life. It was never my intention to hurt you. But. . . I did. I cannot undo any of this, but you must know — I — it was, is, complicated. I chose him over your mother, yes, but for good reason. But I will always choose you. Can we. . . can we talk about this? I would very much like to. ❞
