Page 64 of Royal Academy

“It all began earlier this year, my sister Lia, she had gotten into some trouble and my father had sentenced her to teach at the Royal Academy. It’s an exclusive boarding school in Hazenbak that is only for royalty and the upper crust. He was trying to teach her a lesson about behaving as a royal should behave.”

“This sounds like his issue, Ben,” Sally said softly.

Benedict nodded, “It was wrong of him, he never considered us with any type of emotion unless you consider disappointment into the mix. But while my sister was at Royal Academy I couldn’t stand the thought of her going alone so I managed to get my mate, Nick to be a professor as well. It was there that they fell in love.”

“Still doesn’t sound bad to me,” Sally knit her brows together, “Am I missing something?”

Benedict laughed, but the sound didn’t hold any mirth. “No, it was when things got sticky and my father came down on her that I realized she had been living in much worse circumstances than I had thought. I spend years avoiding our home and staying with friends or living the life of the bachelor. All the while Lia had him on her back and breathing down her neck. I’m honestly shocked that something didn’t happen before this year. But, Sally, that isn’t the point.”

“Ben, what is the point?” Sally looked up at him with worry in her eyes.

“I was selfish and oblivious to my sister's circumstances. I was in a relationship with a woman I didn’t even like, and I didn’t give two shits about her. I was slowly becoming him. Is that how this works? We just repeat the same mistakes over and over again, generation after generation?”

“And so you ran away.”

He nodded, “And so, I ran away.”

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