Fool's Rook [Closed]

[saronym]

Owen resented the way he was being manipulated and strung along with little bits of information like pieces of a treat to a starving dog. He couldn’t quite grasp why Kama was so set on secrecy. He found it hard to believe that there wasn’t some power struggle going on, and knew his oversimplification ‘sibling rivalry’ wasn’t quite accurate. But it didn’t feel exactly wrong either. If anything the rivalry was going on in this room. Kama had always been bitter about Owen’s influence over Julianna. He paused on his way to the door partly because he noticed the subtle glances shared between Kama and Sairus. Still more information was being withheld. But, Kama seemed to be losing the upper hand. He was defensive. The way he raised himself up to avoid being loomed over. The way he made as if to stop Owen from leaving. The way he seemed to be revealing more than he'd intended.

For the sake of preserving some dignity, Owen turned his back to Kama anyway and made for the door, but was stopped by the last of what Kama had to say. He half turned back. "Excuse me, what?"

To hurt her. The hand that had reached for the door knob went limp. He couldn't exactly hide his initial pained reaction from the other men. Brows knit together over a smoldering gaze. His lips pursed, pressing together at the corners. Intrusive memories of the times he had hurt her the most flooded into his mind. He assumed that reference to Owen's ability to hurt Julianna had something to do with these moments. He only vaguely remembered the disagreements that ended in violence, perhaps a self-induced amnesia for self-preservation was at work. He mostly remembered picking up the pieces afterwards. The unwanted thoughts were accompanied by that sort of nauseous feeling one gets with remembering things that are better left stuffed into the darker places of the mind.

"Who could hurt her more than that one short-fused tyrant of an ex-husband? He was the violent, addict right? He'd be great to torture Julianna with." He directed the sarcastic tirade to the doctor like some sort of sick parody of Kama’s thought processes. Denying his wounds with sarcasm had always made him feel stronger, more secure. Even if it was kind of a lie. Referring to himself as her ‘ex’ just came out by accident. He had been calling himself that in his mind of late, more or less, because death sort of did nullify a marriage. ‘Till death do we part, and all.

“Poor misinformed Elliot, we were happily married all along. So it seems that we agree that Elliot's plans for me were ill-conceived. And if you've now established that I'm no threat to Julianna, then I don't think we have anything else to discuss." He made as if to turn back towards the door, but merely stared at Kama, giving him the opportunity to stop him. He all but ignored Sairus throughout, finding the lynx’s near deference to Kama strange and annoying. If Sai wanted to be treated like a guard dog, told where to go, how to act, and what do to, so be it. But it wasn't as if Sairus' show of loyalty to Kama was doing Julianna any good. Not that either cared for Owen's assessment on that matter.