On hearing about her father’s death, Tullia spends the night sobbing, but when Pito tries to comfort her the next morning, she tells him, “He wasn’t my father…He was King Sandro.” (pp. 234-235) What did you think of this scene? If, “From the moment of her birth, she had been a disappointment,” why do you suppose she mourned him?
She mourned him because he was her father and there is that connection. A father is a father!
Imagine what it would be like to have to call your father by his royal title!
This shows the distance between them, but I think Tullia is crying for what could have been. He is dead, so any hope she had for a future relationship with her dad is gone. Sad.