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Duty deserted
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2024-10-29 19:42:56“I don’t care!”
It was the angriest any of them had ever seen their mother. Analiese Finley raged, having mixed success at restraining a savagery that kept forcing itself to the fore. It was a struggle for her to return her eyes to their murky blue each time they flashed red. Her attention was for their father—her indignation, her animosity, her venom.
The woman crossed the room to sit between him and his sister, forcefully pulling them to her so that their heads rested on either shoulder.
“I don’t care about the prince; I don’t care about the realm—I especially don’t care about your damned pride!” she spat. “Our daughter was nearly dissolved in what amounts to experimental acid tonight and your son is crying. Does that mean nothing to you? Do you not see what a mistake your misguided ambitions are?”
“Analiese…” their father took a step cl
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“Hurry up or we’ll miss it!” Megan pulled Jamie through the crowd of students that gathered near the football field. “He’ll be in detention until he graduates, I know it.”Megan shoved and elbowed the pair up into the bleachers where several other students had also managed to climb their way up. All eyes were cast toward the recently manicured lawn—the one the principal had paid landscapers to prepare for the upcoming track events to be held at the school.The entire student body had been abuzz from the moment the rumours first began spreading and those rumours had endured long enough to draw the crowd that they had.In the centre, sitting atop one of the school’s riding mowers was none other than Demetrius Nicholai Finley. He wore the widest Cheshire grin, overly pleased with the work of his hands and the crowd he’d managed to draw. The boy climbed atop the machine he’d stolen from the old shed, facing
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