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“I’m struggling to find what to say,” Hermione spoke tightly, unable to take her eyes off his face.
“Hermione, please, I need you to understand–”
“I do not understand.” Hermione spoke quietly, but the words were so venomous that her father broke off. He hung his head forward, looking down at the orange candle that was reflected in his eyes. “I will never understand, so do not waste your breath in trying to persuade me.”
“Is falling in love so hard to understand?” His words made her bristle in her seat.
She thought about love, and Antony came into her mind. She couldn’t wait to escape this moment and be back with him. “What about the love you bore my mother?”
“I did love her, very much. I was heartbroken when I watched her die.” Rufus leaned forward on the table with tears in his eyes. “What happened with Cordelia started much later. I never knew what she had done. When she suggested that if we could get our hands on some money we could run away together, to start again, I saw the chance of true happiness.”
“Even if it meant leaving me and Phoebe behind?”
“Would you have cared if I had left?” he asked. “There hasn’t exactly been much of a bond between us as of late.”
“You changed. That is what broke the bond.” She stared at him, unwilling to relent and allow him any excuse. She found she couldn’t cry. For the moment, she was too angry. The tears would come later. “It’s a shame they can’t arrest a man for deceit.”
“You wish I could be sent to prison?”
“I wish you were on the farthest regions of this earth,” she said, tilting her head up so she could look toward the ceiling, pleading with the heavens. “Then I would never have to see your face again, never feel this anger.”
He said nothing, but the idea settled more and more for Hermione. She turned her gaze back down to her father. “By the time this gets out, your reputation will be ruined,” she said simply. “You will be ostracized by society.”
“I know,” he said miserably. The tears that were in his eyes were filling more and more, threatening to fall.
“What will you do with yourself?” she asked.
“What would you have me do?” he said, looking up to her with those eyes glistening. She liked her idea, very much.
“Go into exile,” she said, lifting her chin a little higher. “Live a small comfortable life somewhere far away from here. Far away from me and Phoebe.” The tears began to spill out of his eyes and onto his cheeks.
“What do you say, father?” she asked. “Will you do it?”
“I’ll do it.”
