Part 3
"What do you mean you don't want to be the fucking Emperor?" Tatiana shouted. "You'd be the most powerful man on Karand!"
"I don't want that!" Niall yelled back. "You saw what it did to mother! Her paranoia consumed her!"
"You don't have a fucking choice!" Lena practically screamed at him. "You're the eldest son!"
"I'd rather die!" Niall angrily shouted. "Listen, all of you listen! I will not take the throne! I'll die before I do!"
As Niall and his sisters continued to scream at each other, Finnigan and Connor quietly approached Heather, who was sitting at the back with Hamlin and the young grandchildren, who weren't really sure what was going on.
"Father, what are we going to do?" Finnigan asked.
"I don't know." Heather admitted, to which Hamlin nodded. "I suspected he didn't want to be Emperor for a very long time, but I should have asked him years ago."
"Grandpa, what's going on?" One of the grandchildren asked. "Why are my aunts and uncle Niall so angry?"
"Because your uncle is being forced to do something he never wanted to do." Finnigan gently explained to his son. "I'd make a terrible Emperor, so I'll have to pass on that as well."
"I'll do it." Connor said quietly.
"Hmmm?" Heather asked. "Connor what did you say I didn't catch that?"
"I said I'll do it, Father." Connor said, louder this time. "Niall doesn't want it, Finnigan can't, there's nobody else left."
"Connor there's no going back on this." Heather said, warning him.
"Nobody in this family ever thought much of me, did they Father?" Connor asked.
Heather didn't answer. It felt like he was talking to Victoria all over again. Connor was right, which made the similarities even more pronounced.
"That silence is all I needed to hear, Father." Connor said angrily. "Even you saw me as a simpleton!"
"That's not true!" Heather said, defending himself. "You never seemed cut out for ruling. I love all of my children, and I spent enough years defending all of you to your mother, I'm not going to be badgered by my own children over my thoughts on them!"