Beyond The Gaze: A Love Unseen

Chapter 33

Past - 16

Third Party's POV:

"What the heck were you doing in there?" As Elysia dragged Sven outside the mansion, he abruptly pulled his arm away from her grip and demanded, his voice laced with anger. He could sense her trembling, which only fueled his frustration.

Elysia couldn't help but exhale a sigh of relief, one that signified her personal victory over her deepest fears.

With surprising calmness, she turned to face Sven and retorted, "What do you think I was doing?" Her voice conveyed a firmness that contrasted with the swirling emotions inside her.

Sven was seething with anger. "Don't play games with me, Elysia! Why were you in there? What were you trying to do? Did I ask you to save me?" He queried with flaring nostrils, raising his voice, even though his entire body ached from the earlier ordeal, his back was throbbing in pain but he didn't drop his facade.

Sven's anger ran deep, and he was furious beyond words. He had deliberately skipped school to avoid uttering harsh words to Elysia, and here she was now, standing in front of him. He felt exposed, vulnerable and furious at the same time.

He did not need this world's feigned sympathy, he had moved beyond the point of needing or wanting it. All he desired was to be left in solitude. For a brief moment, he had thought he could be genuine with someone, with Elysia, but then, that girl had abandoned him as well, just as everyone else had.

And there she stood now, pretending to be his savior.

"I wasn't saving you," Elysia retorted, her voice maintaining its composure. "I was saving myself."

Sven was left speechless, his brow furrowing in response to her unexpected answer. Her apparent calmness confused him, but more than that, he was filled with a bubbling anger.

"How much did you see?" He asked, referring to the earlier drama that his so-called parents were displaying.

Elysia lowered her gaze and shrugged her shoulders slightly. It didn't take much for Sven to know that she had witnessed the entire scene.

He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, clenching his fists by his side. Then, he walked toward a nearby bench outside the mansion and sat down, gazing into the distance.

Sarcasm and mockery crept into Sven's voice as he let out his mounting anger. "What's the deal, Elysia? Are you now going to tell me that parents always have their children's best interests at heart? That they can never be wrong because they are older? Am I the only one to blame for everything, labeled as a troublemaker?" The turmoil within him surged to the surface.

Elysia followed Sven, sat on the bench beside him, and shook her head. "Who said elders can never be wrong?" Sven's head snapped towards her in surprise. She faced forward, staring into the distance, and spoke in a softer tone. "Who said parents always do things that are best for us?" Elysia recalled a woman who used to torture her physically and emotionally for years, just in the name of being her mother. She remembered Sven's father, who didn't seem affected by the blood flowing from his son's injuries just now. Then her mom, Sandra's figure flashed in front of her, someone who was different from them, different from others. "Not everybody is the same, and not every time they are right," she turned her face to look at Sven and stated firmly, "and it's not our fault, it's theirs!" There was a huge difference between raising a hand over their children in some situations to discipline them and beating them to the point of drawing blood in the name of discipline. It wasn't parenting; it was downright abuse.

Sven's mouth gaped at her words, creases forming on his forehead. No one... No one ever said that it wasn't his fault. Every time they blamed him, saying he was trying to infuriate his dad, which was entirely true, but they justified his father's merciless beatings every time his step-mother manipulated the situation and he was beaten as a result.