[center]Did she entirely expect Jaden to tell her anything further? Not exactly, but if he had anything further to hide, Clara deserved to know at that point. She had been with him for so terribly long, followed Jaden wherever he chose to take her, and after all of this time she hadn’t a clue about the other side of him that she’d so suddenly gotten more than a taste of the evening before. It had shaken her in a way that she couldn’t explain, unsure of the man that begged for her forgiveness for her, having foolishly placed her trust within him. And yet, he had given her no reason other than the night before not to trust him previously. To have this happen after so many centuries were placed between them, she felt more than apprehensive. 


But then Jaden had began to speak and it was a distraction that perhaps wouldn’t be as welcomed as she would have liked. Part of her had wondered why he was delving into his past - why he had chosen to tell her of what he’d been before; why he’d chosen to tell her about a wife that she’d had no idea about that he had once lost. But as he continued, as he spoke even further, the connection between him and her had seemed to lie deeper than the coincidence that he had found her that night so long ago and had decided to bring her in under his wing. The mere mention of him had struck a chord within her, made a chill run down her spine and made her stomach swirl even further with the anxiety that continued to grow within her. 


Clara had absolutely no idea that Jaden could have held any ties to her sire -- especially ones that could have led him to her on that night. 


Her gaze had turned from him then, afraid to see anything that might have lingered in his gaze, and afraid to show too much of the emotions that continued to swirl and dance across her features. Her silence held heavily on the air between them, anxious to hear more and yet wanting to stop him before he’d gotten too deep, before he had said anything that could have changed what was held between them even further than it was already altered. But she needed to know. She [i]had[/i] to know everything in order to move forward and in order to decide if staying could have been the right choice for her. 


Clara had caught the scent of his blood on the air and for a moment her attention had danced between a pile of books before her to Jaden if only to see the cause for any wound, but she’d pushed it aside all at once as he spoke. She didn’t want to see him as he explained how her sire had been the cause of everything she had met the evening before -- how he’d been the cause for his wife’s fate… 


And even furthermore the new knowledge that no matter what she had believed had happened between her sire and herself, she had been meant as a distraction for Jaden, and that was it. A piece meant to throw him off of her own sire’s trail… a mere ploy and nothing else, tossed aside only for his own gain. Clara had swallowed the small lump that had welled within her throat as her arms had crossed tighter around herself, her nails pressing against the skin of her arm beneath her shirt’s sleeves. Jaden had only saved her because she had resembled his late wife -- not because he had a shred of compassion for the fact that she’d been a female discarded. No, he took her in because she made him remember -- all of these years, she’d been a reminder and perhaps that was it. Part of her had wished that he had just left her to die, whether it would be by someone else through her untamed hunger, or even herself -- he should have gone after her sire and fucking destroyed him… 


It took a long while for Clara to respond, her body stiff before she had shuffled a bit in place. None of what she had learned had settled within her the way she had wanted it to, wondering if after all of this time - all he saw was his dead wife before him -- if that was what he ultimately wanted after all of this. Fuck -- the urge to dash off and drink the rest of her day away was terribly strong and perhaps after all of this, that was where she would end up. She needed time to think; needed time to breathe… Her sire had not only changed the course of her life, but he’d also altered Jaden’s in an even more terrible way. Her life had been nothing to him; everything she understood was a terrible lie, and she suddenly felt more worthless than she had before. 


“...You should have just fucking left me then -- should have gone after that son of a bitch and be done with it already.” Her words were quiet, but Clara did not dare to look at him just yet. Her hands had moved from her arms before they lifted to her hair, fingernails running against her scalp as she pushed her damp waves from her face, her eyes closed as she still tried to grasp everything to its fullest. 


“All of that time…. I fucking [i]begged[/i] you to take my life back then… But you kept me here out of selfishness…” There came a pause after her words before she finally had looked to Jaden, not only that rage and anger from before held deep within her gaze, but there had been something else. Had it been hurt -- pain -- betrayal? She had hoped to hide all of that just as quick as it came. “I hope to hell you realize at least by now that I’m not [i]her[/i] and I will never be [i]her[/i].” She hissed out quietly. 


“And to hell with that bastard getting away with [i]any of it[/i].... Even if you’ve given up, I haven’t… Especially now knowing that I was a fucking ploy to keep you from him and that’s [i]all[/i]...”  [/center]