A Game Of Chess With A Vampire
Chapter 91: He Looked Dead!

Chapter 91: He Looked Dead!

Valentine continued.

"You can see he does not know how to smile. It is because he has never tried to smile since childhood. My brother was always expressionless, which you have seen for yourself, haha. He rarely ever has any expression on his face and oh, those lazy eyes of his, my father hates it."

"In case you are unaware, you are the first person he has ever smiled at, Sister-in-law."

"What?" Avelina’s brows were furrowed in deep confusion. "What...do you mean by that?"

In no sense was that possible. There was no way she could be the only one he has ever smiled at.

Valentine shook his head. "Puzzles me too. It may sound crazy, but...I thought he loved his late wife. No, he didn’t."

"That is not true!" Avelina furiously disagreed. "There is no way that Draven didn’t love his late wife. If he didn’t, then why is he fighting to avenge her?

Valentine smiled at her. "Listen, Draven does not love anyone, not even his own mother. He is not capable of feeling that emotion towards anyone and it is not his fault. What he felt for his late wife was care, just care, Avelina. He deeply cared about her, that is something you need to understand."

"He cared for his late wife, his mother, and his little son. It was not love. That is why he cherishes the things he cares for so much. Since he cannot feel love, he might as well care for them as much as he can."

"I really thought I understood. I thought it was love, but it took me a while to realize that it was nothing but deep care. He is not able to cry, perhaps because he has not felt a deep emotion that could stimulate one to shed tears. He is confused and doesn’t understand why either."

"He doesn’t know why he is different. The day I felt the most sympathy for him..." Valentine’s gaze was distant. "...was the moment he thought he was actually a demon child like our father calls him. I realized how badly he had been broken, how awfully the things my father said to him had ripped him apart to the point he began to believe them."

"But, Sister-in-law..."

Avelina was still and unmoving. She was not saying a word.

"...My brother is the biggest, purest soul you could ever meet. He does not deserve any of it, and I agree. If it had been in my power to stop it all, I would have. It hurt to see him suffer, but even he did not understand that he was suffering. He thought that he deserved everything that had been done to him, and he still does. That is why he doesn’t care about it."

"The only thing that he cared about was his wife and son, who got murdered."

Avelina’s hands trembled, and she took deep breaths to digest what she was hearing.

"There is something that I want to say." Valentine’s head was lowered as though he was guilty.

"W-what?" Avelina asked.

Valentine let out a soft breath. "On the day he was pushed off the high buildings when we were kids, it was...my fault."

"What? W-what do you mean?" Avelina inquired.

"I was being punished by our father that day, and Draven came to save me from him because I was heavily hurt with bruises. But our father grabbed him, and out of rage, he pushed him off the building. I couldn’t help him."

"I couldn’t do anything. I was little, and all I could do was watch him fall to the ground. He had broken his bones and was so badly hurt that we thought he was going to die. I can’t even explain how he survived because I don’t even understand."

"My father started to hate him more and more after that incident. He’d wished that Draven had died that day, but it was as though something was preventing him from dying."

"That was when he decided to lock him up. People were starting to be afraid of Draven, and I could not understand why. He had done nothing wrong, so why?"

"My father made a silver cage. Our kind doesn’t like silver as it weakens us, but my father wanted to hurt Draven and watch him slowly die. So for sixteen years, he locked him up in the cage. He was not given water, food, or even blood, and we cannot survive without blood."

"I could see him getting weaker and weaker with every passing day. He begged for blood, even if it were just a drop, but my father was so cruel and heartless, he felt satisfied by it."

"I could not take it anymore, so...I offered my blood to him. Since I didn’t have access to the blood storage, I wanted to give mine to him. I had fed on a lot of blood that day, so I begged him to take mine. It will be able to help him stay alive for a few weeks."

"Draven did not say a word to me, and I could not tell what he was thinking because his eyes were emotionless. But something in me told me that he was just unwilling to bite me, even though I was begging him to do it."

"He was dying, Sister-in-law. He was so pale that I could glimpse his veins all over his face and his hands. He looked dead," he explained.

Avelina slowly clutched her heart. The tears that had welled up in her eyes slipped and fell down her cheek. "W-what about his mother? Why didn’t she do anything?"

"She couldn’t." Valentine shook his head. "Mother Erawada was under custody, including my mother as well. None of them could do anything, no matter how hard they tried."

"The pain of watching your child slowly dying in front of you I cannot fathom the level, but...I could tell that she was deeply rotting inside at the sight of it. She reached out her hand, wishing for Draven to grab hold of it, but Draven was too weakened, he could not move."

"He could only sit in the cage and watch his mother, who had somehow managed to escape to him, getting dragged away by the royal guards."

"She loved Draven more than anything in the world. He was her angel, and she did not care one bit that he was different. Even though she knew Draven could not feel emotions, she would always smile and say that she knew deep in his heart that her son loved her. And honestly, I know it’s true." ’

"She could not stop apologizing to him for pouring hot, boiling water on him. She did not mean to, she didn’t want to, but my father would have done worse than that had she not done it."

"Draven never bore resentment towards her for it. He would only say, "It is okay," when she cried to him." Valentine chuckled sadly.

"The scar... all over his upper body was inflicted by my father. He tortured him, Sister-in-law. How old do you think Draven was when he did this?" he asked.