Chapter 12: The Proposal

Chapter 12:

I rolled in my bed annoyed by my rumbling tummy. If I asked for food, they would probably use the chance to poison me with the rotten food they had been storing especially for me. Picking up the pillow I punched it straight on.

The door slammed open as Anita and her minions of maids made their way in. What did the god of fate want from me? In this poor excuse of a weak state, no matter how much I tried to fight back I would probably be the one beaten up seeing as I was outnumbered and more, hungry. What kind of twisted plot was this?

"I see you're still alive, little sister" Anita mocked making me roll my eyes.

"if death were so easy, I would've died having even liked being related to you." I sneered as a frown overtook her face.

"Well, you are going to wish you weren't related to me. Hold her," she said as the maids walked towards me holding me down.

If she was a woman, enough she would come herself with a head-on fight. Struggling to get out of their grips, she tsked.

"Struggling will get you nowhere," she sighed, "I thought you were smarter than that, Winter," she said. "It's no wonder the Duke has strayed his eyes away from you." She said as a pang of pain hit me.

I couldn't help but feel angry at myself for letting her words get to me. There was nothing more I hated than the betrayal they had inflicted upon me.

"Oh, you didn't know? You poor thing…" she said stating the obvious. "all the people you love in your life seem to be those that indulge in breaking families, just like your mother,"

I would have had to be blind to have not seen exactly what they had been up to in the very house we both live in with our parents. Funny thing was, in my dream, when I had told the marquis of the adulterous debauchery Anita had indulged in, with none other than a married man, her sisters' husband, all he had replied with was,

"Well, it tends to happen, I mean look at your mother…"

This family was one that needed to be destroyed completely, in such a way that they would never ever be able to find solid footing again.

Anita chuckled as a wave of slight anger boiled in me. Spitting in her face I watched her entire demeanour change.

"M-Mistress…" one of the maids said in shock.

Anita wiped her face with the handkerchief she had now received from one of the maids, as her hand had slapped me in a powerful blow.

'That is going to swell,' I thought.

"It seems you think whatever you do will pass," she said, when had I ever thought that? If I could receive some self-satisfaction, I wouldn't mind dealing with the consequences.

"Well, never mind that, I came here to do something else." She spoke.

'When have you not?'

"Undress her and bring that iron rod wed been heating," she said making me widen my eyes.

Anita was never the type to do something so out of character. The most she had done was either slap or pour water on me, but never this. she was meticulous and always did things according to a plan, but something was off.

She had officially lost it. She had gone crazy. As the maids began listening to her absurd request, I struggled against the ones holding me.

"What are you doing?!" I yelled out to her, "Have you gone mad, Anita?"

"Mad? Well, perhaps I have. Was that body the one you used to seduce?" she questioned.

The very eyes that looked at me were the same eyes that stared me down the moment was being beheaded. And though I couldn't catch it, and only saw a glimpse of it, something flashed through her eyes. What it was exactly, I couldn't tell.

Continuing to struggle weakly, the maid had brought the sparkling red iron. Had she been heating that up for hours?! Kicking and thrashing I yelled for help, and though deep down I knew they would all turn a deaf ear to me I still yelled out, just hoping and wishing.

"What should I reduce the beauty of first? Your face?" she questioned. "Your back? Chest?" she questioned.

"Let go," I struggled, "Stop being crazy!" I yelled towards her, as though it was some kind of spell that would stop her.

"You ought to learn your place Winter," she said.

Struggling once more, I managed to loosen their grip. Kicking Anita, I made my way out of the door, slamming my shoulder onto the wall. Picking myself up, I watched Anita come at me with her stupid rod, my weak legs struggling to move fast enough.

Dodging her, I made my way to the stairs and ring down them, how I didn't tumble I don't know. Pushing fast enough I tried reaching for the door.

I passed anna and the marquis who sat calmly but surprised as I rushed past. Their eyes widened in shock at what was going on in full speed. Reaching the door after running for minutes on end, I pulled the big door with as much strength as I could only to bump into something hard making me recoil.

A firm hand had held me trying to steady me and stop me from falling backwards. Breathing heavily, I felt my legs tremble. I looked up to familiar eyes as a wave of relief washed over me.

"You're here," I said before my legs gave out and my vision blurred.

And for the first time in all my years of living, I felt secure.