How thrilled am I to have another chapter to give to you all?!?!?!?! You will get this chapter in...oh, about ten days from now. :) I'm attempting to space out the chapters so any lulls and writer's block have more time to saturate before you notice. (See, I'm learning:))

*Lllloooonnnngggg Sigh*

***Trigger Warning: Cathartic release of emotions that will pull at the heart-strings***

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Chapter 67

District 14

Mr. Arctic Fox

     The old fabric shop was quiet, its shelves lined with bolts of aged cloth in muted colors, each pile of woven thread bearing a thin layer of dust evidence of long-empty days. His late wife, if she were here, would be after him with a broom, scolding him for letting things fall into such disarray. But then, she'd have been after him for a great deal more than the shop they'd shared.

     Mr. Fox shuffled toward the front of the shop, gripping his crooked cane—the last gift from his wife, one he couldn't bear to part with, despite the wear that time had wrought. The cold from outside permeated the air around the window, sinking into his skin the longer he stood next to the frosted glass.

     His fingers trembled as he lifted the picture frame from its worn stand. The photograph, once covered in dust, lost to time, now stood clean, shining from the care of those who knew nothing of the truth and memories that lay hidden within. What a mess we all made. He held it close, feeling the weight of memories pressing down on him as if they were as real as the cane he leaned on.

     The front door creaked open, cutting through the silence. Soft, measured footsteps followed—a sound he recognized instantly. Small and quiet as she was, there was a power in her presence that demanded to be noticed and refused to be dismissed. In that, she was much like her mother, though he would never tell her so.

     He turned, watching as Scarlet Wolfe stepped inside. Her scarlet dress and heels not suited for their District or a child aged twelve, were absent, replaced with the rougher garb of District 14—a plain, durable long-sleeved shirt, trousers, and thick-soled shoes. The gold and silver of her Capitol wolf mask was hidden away, awaiting the next occasion the Capitol demanded the spectacle of her presence.

     She didn't speak as she came closer, her eyes sharp and guarded, finding him right away. Under her golden-eyed stare, it felt as though her gaze peeled back his defenses, exposing every hidden corner of his soul. As if her blackened claws were tearing through his weathered skin, laying his faults bare.

     Without a word between them, they moved through the quiet space, his footsteps slow and small, and even though Scarlet could easily out pace him, she stayed behind him, showing no hint of impatience. Behind the counter where haggling used to take place, Mr. Fox sank into the sturdy, worn chair, the weight of long-kept secrets pressing into his bones.

     Scarlet stopped beside the chair she usually sat in during her visits with Cadmium, or when her younger brother was at school. But Cadmium wasn't here today; Mr. Fox knew why, and from the demanding look in Scarlet's golden gaze, he suspected she knew as well.

     He gestured to the stool next to him, offering for her to take a seat. She didn't take it, choosing instead to stand tall and silent, a reminder that she could leave at any moment.

     The silence between them was thick, charged with the truth he'd kept hidden too long. He knew that sooner or later, he would have to let it out. The truth could be hidden, but never erased.

     "Okay." He murmured softly, giving in under the pressure surrounding him. She shifted slightly, the smallest dip of her chin. He took a deep breath, letting it out so slowly in a wasted effort to fortify himself. Then, with a voice low and steady despite the storm within, he began.

     "My son's name was Hale." His eyes drifted to the photo, the past glinting back at him from the glass. "Dark-haired, wild curls, pale skin, and eyes so blue they shone with everything he felt. Restless like the wind, he never could sit still—not for schooling and certainly not here." A hollow chuckle left his mouth. "He had a wild spirit, one that burned hot and bright." He paused, looking up at her, gauging her reaction, but her eyes remained unreadable. "He met your mother, Harmony, after he was already married."

     He watched her gaze narrow, the guard tightening on her expression. But her lips only pursed, and she said nothing. He wished she would say something.

     "Hale's wife, Sunny...she a caring young woman with a gentle heart. She was the calm and steady to his wild storm." He sighed, heavier this time. "Together, they were balanced—it might have been enough to last a lifetime—but after she gave birth to their first child, my grandson, Barren, Sunny became devoted to Barren and the future he would have." Sunny had been a good mother, but had accepted too easily that Hale would not embrace fatherhood as he should have. If she had pushed harder...If either of them had pushed harder... "Barren's birth...it strained their marriage, and when Sunny's health began to decline...Well, Hale could never stand to sit still, and watching his wife waste away in a bed was more than he could bear." Mr. Fox's voice faltered, then steadied, as he carried out the heavy task of sharing the ugly truth. "That was when he started to drink."

    If he had only stopped him then... Before too much time had passed. Yet Mr. Fox had been too passive, thinking that it was a temporary bandage for the pain Hale felt at Sunny's sickness. Too late, he'd realized...it was too late.

     "The affairs stared soon after. I did try to get him to stop—but Hale could not face his life at home, and as shameful as it is to admit, I did not try as hard as I could have." He lowered his head slightly, his eyes shifting to the woman on the photo. "That's when he met Harmony."
He glanced away from the aged photo to the young girl still standing next to him. Scarlet's face was unreadable, her dark eyes watching him intently. She didn't interrupt, but Mr. Fox could feel the intensity of her focus and the force of her judgement as she weighed the truth in his words.

     "Harmony...she was young, wealthy, and full of life. I think she called to a part of Hale that had always resented being tethered down by an ailing wife and a growing child. Harmony was not married at that time, but as you know, Hale was. And when Harmony fell pregnant, she chose the course most suitable to handle her...situation, and married another suitor of hers."

     Though Mr. Fox did not agree with how the situation had been handled, it was a common enough way to deal with unmarried, soon-to-be mothers if only to provide more stability to the child's life—and bettering the chance at survival. Survival nearly always outweighed paternity.

    "All it took was one look at the newborn to know... She was Hale's through and through." He gave a small, rueful smile as his eyes met the dazzling little girl in the photograph, held protectively in her mother's arms. When...when did it all go so terribly wrong?

    "I fought with Hale about their decision. I told him to step up, acknowledge his child, love her. But what grounds did I have to stand on? I was an aging man, taking care of a bedridden daughter-in-law and a boisterous young grandson. My son did not want to be a father, there was no denying that. And I thought..." He swallowed, as pain rippled through him. "I thought it would be better, to be in a house with two parents, rather than here, with none."

    The weight of regret hung between them, thicker than the ever settling dust coating the fabric bolts around them. Scarlet remained silent, her gaze cold, unreadable. But still there. She hadn't left and that filled him with a small bit of hope, giving him strength to continue.

     "I can't say for certain if Hale fathered any more of Harmony's children, regretfully, even you, but I can tell you this—aside from Aureolin, who I know is his; you, Crimson, and Cadmium are the spitting image of him in his youth. The slender build, dark curls and that—that desire, to never be content. And I know Harmony and Hale continued on with their affairs, long after she was married." He paused, swallowing the bitterness-sweetness of his next words. "When Barren turned was ten, Sunny fell pregnant again—a poorly thought-out attempt to reclaim her husband's love—and for it, she paid with her life, having died giving birth to sweet Aurora."

     He set the picture down along the surface of the counter, unable to look at the happy expression on his son's face any longer. Hale had not been that joyful in life for a long while before... Mr. Fox shuddered, turning thoughts back to the conversation at hand.

     "Though their marriage had been long since over, it was her passing that really crushed Hale. Perhaps it was guilt, perhaps regret of lost love—no matter the cause, Hale could not seem to shake her death. It wasn't long after, that he d—died in the streets of District 14, too drunk to see the sense in finding shelter."

     The tension in the room tightened, a vice around his barely beating heart. Scarlet's gaze narrowed further as she absorbed this blow. Now that the words were out, he couldn't recall if he'd mentioned that Hale had died, or if he'd just been long since gone. Not a way a child should hear those things, Arctic, you old fool. He silently berated himself but forced himself to continue. If he stopped now, he would never start again.

     "I watched my grandson die in that bloody Arena at seventeen," Mr. Fox said, emotion drained from his voice. This pain most recent, had not yet sunk in fully. Age, he found, did not make loss any easier. "Aurora was just six, but she watched her brother die. Two years later, my heart filled with both pride and horror as I watched Aureolin volunteered for her sister—" He gave her a bitter, self-deprecating smile. "I thought it was out of love that she did so—the sacrifice most any older sibling would make for a younger one."

     His smile melted away as he held her eyes with a new intensity. "Then you...I watched you...standing on that stage, and Crimson following you up there, and I realized—" emotion clogged his throat, and a tear slipped down his cheek, giving way to his pain and his shame. "It wasn't until just this year, that I understood." His voice broke and he cleared his throat. "I had not left Hale's children with two parents as I first thought—and that you might have been better off here, with none after all."

     For the first time, he saw a shift in Scarlet's expression—the barest flicker of emotion shining through, before being quickly buried beneath her cold demeanor. But still she had not left. And the smallest traces of hope, began to grow.

     "Guilt kept me silent when you returned from the Capitol," he continued softly. "I beg of you to understand, Scarlet, even just a little. From the moment you walked into my shop, it seemed as though you thought yourself unworthy of any kindness bestowed upon you—and for that very reason you trusted me the least out of everyone—but it was always me, who has been undeserving of your very presence in this shop. I was unworthy, yet given a blessing I could not deny."

     She remained motionless, but the cold in her eyes was slowly replaced by something sharper, something he couldn't quite place. In a way, she was like neither of her parents, keeping everything close to her vest, trapped inside that brilliant mind of hers. Neither Hale or Harmony could ever let things settle or keep things hidden.

     "I never meant to leave you and Cadmium in the dark about this..." She snorted, her lips curled up in a bitter smile, a symbol not of happiness, but obvious distaste. Likely she recalled their last interaction as she had demanded to know the secrets he kept. He could have told her then.

     He should have told her then.

     She had been right, but he had been too stubborn and too afraid. "I was selfish." He said finally. "I wanted to see the people that you were becoming—strong, protective, and brave, even with everything thrown your way. I thought..." He paused, wondering if it was right to say this—it wasn't the truth and could push them away. But his pause lasted too long, and Scarlet now noticed. The truth, he owed her, and that's what he would give. "I thought that if I came forward now, after so much time, you would think that it was because of your newfound wealth and title, not anything more. I was afraid that once you knew, you and Cadmium would turn away and I would lose you both."

    The barest sound escaped her lips, her face a mask of stone. Her hands clenched the fabric at her thighs. He didn't know if it was good or bad, but the fragile hope that had formed, trembled with his fear.

     A silence settled over them, thick and heavy, as Scarlet's gaze softened—though just barely. The stone mask slowly breaking, crack by crack. His truth lay between them, and on it, the seeds of hope so desperately yearned to sprout.

     "That is why I've filled your closets with clothes, stitched warmth into your gloves, and kept the shop doors open to you. I can never make up for what my silence may—has," he corrected himself, taking responsibility. "costed you." How many of Hale's children had now been lost? How many siblings had Scarlet seen die—would it have been the same, if they'd been here, safe and loved, or with more mouths to feed and little income, would their fates have been the same? "I hope..." his voice roughened with emotion, near pleading. "I hope you'll both allow me to know you, and to keep gifting you both with the kindness you deserve. It's all I have to offer."

     Scarlet said nothing. Her mask just barely held in place. Her golden eyes lowered briefly, before looking back up and meeting his gaze. A mix of understanding and resentment mingled, as if seeing both the kindness and the failures within him.

    "I..." she started. Her voice was hoarse with emotion, thick with the flood of information he'd just delivered. "I have to go. I have to think."

    Without another word, she turned and left the shop. The door slamming shut with a loud, final thud. And Mr. Fox was left alone, weight down by lingering presence of everything now said.

     Scarlet—no...His...His grandchild...was so strong. Nearly unbearably so. Yet he found it comforting in a bitter-sweet sense. Scarlet Wolfe was strong, and maybe she could escape from the weight of the people who'd let her down. Maybe she could escape with Cadmium, finally free from mistakes and choices that were not hers and should never have been hers to bear.

     A muffled sound broke the silence, a choked sob coming from the opened doorway behind him. He turned, fear curdling in his gut, as he saw a sight that broke his heart. There in the doorway, stood Aurora, her face pale and streaked with tears, her wide blue eyes brimming with betrayal and disbelief.

     "Why didn't you tell me?" Her voice trembled, thick with pain and confusion.

     Mr. Fox's heart ached at the sight of his beloved granddaughter's innocence, cracking under the weight of secrets he had kept hidden, even from her.

     For a moment, he could only watch, torn by how deeply the truth had cut everyone today. Then, slowly, he opened his arms to her. "Aurora," he whispered, his voice thick with regret.

     She stumbled into his embrace, her small frame shaking as he held her as tight as his aging body could. She sat on his lap, curling into his chest in a way that she had stopped doing long ago; I'm not a baby anymore, she'd tell him. He patted her head gently, his fingers running through her thin black curls, the only solace he could offer.

     Unlike Scarlet and Cadmium, who had both fled when confronted by a truth they didn't know how to bear, Aurora clung to him, her trust bruised, but still there.

      "You are your mother's daughter, Aurora Fox. You have her kindness and contentment. Your love is boundless, but your heart is fragile. I simply wanted to leave you unburdened with the darkness of other's choices. My own included."

     Aurora's sobs softened into quiet sniffles, her face pressed against his chest as she absorbed his words. She had never known hatred, never more than harsh word or two. Her world had been softened by the love of her grandfather and the fierce, protective warmth of her older brother—until he was taken from them both too soon.

    Mr. Fox pulled her even closer, letting her tears soak his worn knitted sweater. He felt the weight of his choices, both regrets and his love. There were no words that could take away the sting or erase the wounds that the truth had caused.

     All he could do was be there for the grandchild in his arms, the one that had stolen his heart at first breath. Keep them safe. Her mother's soft voice hoarse with pain and fear, her final words ringing in the air.

     Mr. Fox had long since realized that he was not a selfless man—not a perfect man who could make all the right choices. He had chosen to protect his two grandchildren, over the others. He had chosen to love the two he had and protect them from the harshness of the world around him.

     It was, he realized, quite a bittersweet revelation, to realize that age had not made him any less selfish.

     He sat there in that worn wooden chair, having let two children run away, confused, alone and hurting, while Aurora's unwavering love washed over him. 

     At least, he thought quietly, he would not lose her. 

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Before Cadmium made the connection, how many of you guessed this? Be honest! o_O 

I'm not sure if I wanted it to be a mystery, or just a possibility that lingered in the back of your minds to be honest, but the intention, from their very first visit.... how many chapters ago?! was for this BIG reveal to happen. 

How do you all feel about it?

About how everyone's choice: Hale's, Harmony's, Sunny's, and Mr. Fox's... it all affected so many people. Do you feel bad for Bash? Who was likely lied to by Harmony and essentially married her under false pretenses? 

If you were Mr. Fox, what would you have done?
How do you feel about the ending? Like him, hate him? Does it make him a bit unlikeable? Does it make him more relatable? 

How about Aurora? What about her little crush on Cadmium?! Her...half-brother?! OMG talk about trauma and trust issues after that. 

Any other opinions or questions or comments?!

Please Vote if this took you for a spin!

TAKE CARE AND STAY SAFE! ~CANGEL