Unexpected News

Kel'ri stared at the datapad in her hand. Two hours ago, she'd been laughing and playing truth or dare with a bunch of friends, and now...

She should be crying, shouldn't she? When her mother had died, she'd cried for days as though the world had ended. She began to feel guilty for the relief that she had felt when Deke'o had given her the news, because the secrets she'd so carefully guarded could now die with the rest of her family.

Wasn't she just talking with someone about their father? Rhiordan had been talking about her father, and he was happy for her. Kel'ri had smiled and been happy for her without the slightest sense of jealousy for a father that could be a good influence in his daughter's life. It was like just that small story made it easy to share in that feeling of being loved by a good father.

She imagined her father as he was before her mother's passing, warm and filled with a father's love for his little girl who detested skirts and could beat the boys at most any game on the playground and was teased by her older brothers. But she'd already mourned the loss of that father, hadn't she? He'd been replaced by someone she couldn't recognize, filled with anger and contempt for anything that reminded him of his loss - including Kel'ri.

The datapad slowly unblurred as she blinked back the unshed tears from her eyes, and she counted the zeroes again. Deke'o had called it her 'share', her inheritance. It was carefully diverted and disguised so that she couldn't be traced by it, he'd said. Now, what to do with it...

And why wasn't she crying?