Chapter Seventy-Eight
Veronica’s POV:
“On a visit to your mother at the moment, I was one of the impromptu rescue team that raced into the mansion to get you all out. However, those bastards had done their work so perfectly that it was such an uphill task even getting into the building at all. Coincidentally, Annabelle was also in the building at that moment with her daughter, yes, she had a daughter,” she says in response to our looks of shock.
I got in, eventually, along with some other people. I ran into Harrington’s wife first, she was as haughty as usual, instructing me to save her daughter and go right out while she ran in our path.
She knew I was stronger than she was, conditioned by the training of war. Then I heard the voice of Annabelle, far inside the building, calling for help.
I turned to help her, but she insisted I take the child, you, out of the building. Looking back now, I realize Annabelle would have probably been saved in time by other people but at that moment all I could remember was the fact that there was another heir in the building, and to me, it seemed like she simply wanted to eliminate the chance of the authority of her child been threatened by getting rid of the illegitimate child.
So, I handed you back to your mother and headed back to help the servant girl and her child.
I wish I could say this was out of the goodness of my heart, but the truth is, as I said before, I had harbored a secret affection for your father, and I had been a bit bitter when he had chosen your mother.
Annabelle and her daughter were a sign to me, a symbol that even she couldn’t be everything to him. The perfect thorn in her side that would constantly remind her that she wasn’t all that.
I found Annabelle, quite alright and helped her and her daughter out safely.
It wasn’t until we were out, and she and her daughter were nowhere to be found when the enormity of what I had done had hit me.
I tried to go back in, to reverse my decision, but they wouldn’t let me in. It was getting harder to even extricate the people who had gone in.”
Seemingly tired by the effort of telling the story or rather, the effort of carrying all that burden, she stops for a while to catch her breath.
“Eventually, she got out, exhausted and covered in smoke and ash. Turns out the part of her that was standing had fallen in after I had left.
To cut the long story short, she took her last breath right in my arms. I kept this secret in my heart, and it stayed well-guarded, eating away at my heart and thoughts; tormenting my thoughts by day and infesting my dreams at night.”
However, further events revealed that it hadn’t been a mistake that the arson hadn’t been a mistake at all, the targets had been her and her daughter.
Only a select few were privy to this information, of course. Even the details of the arson had been kept under cover, to prevent public panic.”
At this, Tristan unexpectedly scoffs silently. I hear him though I don’t take my attention away from the distraught narrator in front of us.
“This select few decided it was best to keep you far away from your inheritance, to protect you and the continued bloodline.
All the plans were made to have you hidden away somewhere safe until you were abducted, the night before the safe movement.
While all of this was going on, Annabelle was wasting away with worry, she believed that when you were gone, the people who were after you could come after her daughter.”
James’ POV:
Everything was happening all at once; I could barely understand a thing that went on there. First came the awkward silence then, this Veronica who had begun to cry and started to tell a story.
I did not know where this was going or what she hoped to achieve by telling it, but I could see that Fiona was shaken and taken aback by this story.
She seemed to be a great narrator for she had the gift, and she was very much gifted. She could hold an audience under the spell of her oratory.
I could see the power she wielded in her words; she commanded respect with her words.
I have at this moment already wished that I had not come because I did not prove to be of any help to Kira or myself by being here.
I was there but it was like I was not, just silent and paying apt attention. Maybe, I should have listened to Eleanor because it seemed there was nothing, I could do to help Fiona in this situation as this was beyond me.
Fiona would not even look at me, it was like I was not there, useless. She had only hugged me when I came in and has not bothered to look at my direction since.
I know she has a lot of things going on for her, but I made a lot of sacrifices to be here “I just wish you would look at me,” I thought.
“Give me some hope,” appreciate that I was here for her.
I have tried to assess everyone in this “cell” and the only person I could not seem to figure out was Tristan. I called it a cell because we were hiding from the outside world and voluntarily.
Veronica, I could not trust. Even from the story she told, she had left the princess and gone after the maid out of jealousy for Fiona’s mother because of the father.
She has been lying about being Fiona’s mother all this while.
Imagine what such a woman would be capable of “Women would always be women” I said to myself thoughtfully.
Molly and the other person who I find very difficult to pronounce the name seemed to be cool and easygoing.
It was they who had made me comfortable, made sure that I got a place to sit in, and gave me something to eat.