"What are you doing here?" She said coldy, turning her head away from me.

"I'm here to talk." 

Alice didn't say anything. I sighed as I sat down next to her. 

"Do you hate me?" I ask. She seemed stunned by the question as she turned to me in shock.

"I-" She was silent for a bit, "I don't hate you."

"You don't? Then are you mad at me?" 

"I'm mad at mom!" she admits.

"..." I sat there silently, letting her speak.

"She chose you instead of me." I heard her sniffle, "Dad said she wanted to have you and that she didn't want to leave me, but she still did! Dad acts like nothing happened!" 

"I-" To be honest, I'm not the best comforter. Once I had tried to comfort my younger sister but it ended up making her tantrum worse. So right now, I'm not sure what to do. 

I sit up and walk infront on Alice. She looks up at me in confusion, then shock as I pull her in for a hug. "I've never seen mother." I say. "So... I don't really know who she was..."

I hear Alice sniffling behind my shoulder. "She was very pretty." 

I hummed.

"And kind. Dad said he fell in love with her the second he saw her." 

"Father is probably looking for us." 

"Yea..." She mumbled into my shoulder.

"Alice, Allen!" The Duke ran to us the second he saw us. He knelt down to our leven and put his hands on our shoulders. "Where were you two?!" 

"I found her in the garden, father." I said.

He sighed in relief. "Don't go too far again...ok?" We both nodded.

The Duke turned to Alice, "Why did you run off?" he asked.

"Becuase..." She mumbled under her nose. "I want to see mom again..."

The Duke seemed silent after that, I'm guessing he has realised how the loss of a parent could affect a child. It's a hard thing to deal with, really. Esspecially if you yourself are grieving.

The Duke sighed and stood up, "Follow me." he said walking toward the house. We followed him, down hallways I've never seen before until we arrived to a door, not particularly fancy, but it stood out by being the room at the very end of the hallway.

The Duke opened the door and let us in inside first. The room was kind of small compare to everything else in the mansion, but it had it's own beauty in how it was decorated. Practically every furniture in there was decorated with gold and silver. To the chairs to the doorknobs, all of it was very beautiful. But perhaps the most mesmorizing thing in this room would be the very large painting up on the wall, right in the middle of the room. 

The Duke was dressed in beautiful special attire, a heavy red cape hanging down one of his shoulders, next to him was a chair, a beautiful lady sat gracfully on it, her hands folded in her lap, her golden smiling eyes gaze forawrd, kind and welcoming. Her hair was a dark brown, flowing down her shoulders like silk. 

"This is my favorite painting. I had it commissioned for our wedding. What do you think?" The Duke turned to us.

"Mommy's even prettier than I remember!" Alice smile reached her ears, "Isn't she pretty?" She turned to me.

"Mhm. Yes, I agree." Although my face still couldn't smile, Alice seemed to know I was and returned even a greater one.