Serah’s POV:

I don’t know what overcame me, but I suddenly felt the urge to tell Perryn everything. What if he wasn’t like everyone else? What if he did just accept me for who I was?

I shoved these thoughts down, as I usually did, because deep down I knew he would just be another heartbreak.

My heart nearly stopped, and my vision blacked out for a moment as a flashback from the past entered my mind.

Not again… I groaned.

A tall, dark haired man with kind eyes and a scruffy beard smiled down at younger me. He was young; maybe in his mid-thirties.

Dad. I instantly thought, my eyes beginning to swell with tears as his voice boomed through my brain,

“Serafina, darling, that is not the way to do it. Let me show you…” He reached out and took my small, teenage hands in his large, soft ones. He helped me to fix the metal pan in my grip. I used to hate it when he called me ‘darling’.

“It makes me sound weak.” I told him matter-of-factly, “I am not weak.”

He chuckled, “No, you are not.” He leaned down and whispered, “You are my favorite child.”

I giggled as he wrapped his arms around me and swung me in a circle, “Of course I am, I am the first girl to be born for six generations.”

He set me down, “How do you know that?”

“I did my research.”

He laughed a booming laugh and ruffled my long, perfect hair, making it frizz. I almost frowned, Mother will not be pleased with the mess, but I decided that would ruin Father’s mood. Unfortunately, his mood was ruined a split second later, when my four siblings rushed into the room. Corrin, my older brother, crossed his arms as he approached. He didn’t look happy as he surveyed the scene in front of him.

“Mother is-“ He started, but was cut off by both my younger sisters who squealed at him unhappily.

“She is your stepmother!! You are not allowed to call her your mother! She is our mother.”

Lili and Stella were their names. For short, anyway. I could never say their long names. Liliavina or something and Stelstars…Their mother was obsessed with odd names.

My real mother had died, only two years earlier, when I had turned twelve. Well, my father said she had died. She had merely gone missing. I believed she was still out there, waiting to be found. Only a year after her disapearance, my father had remarried, wanting to give my two brothers, Corrin and Lukas, and myself, another mother. We had disliked the woman, the instant she had stepped into our lives. Her daughters were young, spoiled children who got everything that they wanted. My stepmother also demanded that we call her just mother for the public. She wasn’t ever mean to my face, but she was to both Corrin and Lukas. She hated all of us, but she kept me in little favor because even at my young age, I had many kings, dukes and princes offering their sons to be my spouse.

When I had grown older, the suiters themselves began to visit our kingdom. Men of my age and older came to see me. My stepmother was pleased with the attention…her daughters, were not. They did not want us calling their mother, mother, even when that was what was requested of us. They were young and spoiled. Their appearances weren’t ugly in the least, but their hearts were.

“Serah.”

Perryn’s voice jolted me from the past and I quickly cleared my throat and looked at him. His eyes were drilling into me, trying to break my cover.

“I love…”

I instantly tensed up as he began, afraid of what he was about to say.

“…being with the crew.”

I tried not to let my relief seem too obvious, but it was hard.

Perryn’s POV:

'Phew…nice save.' I told myself.