CHAPTER FOUR

"Nothing, I just asked why she didn't call me to let me know the kids were leaving school early."

Charles felt his anger burn, he was sick of her interfering in his relationship with Madeley.

"How is that your problem, Sin? They are my kids as well, wasn't I with them? You have no right to question her."

"What? No" Sinora blurted out angrily. Charles' eyes widened with surprise.

"Pardon?" He frowned, uncertain he had heard her correctly. Sinora fiddled with her apron, as she trembled with fear.

"I said no. I have every right to ask questions. Those are my children, I gave birth to them."

"But they don't recognise you as their mother." Charles said it so calmly, unflinching even, that it made her blood instantly run cold.

It suddenly dawned on her that he knew quite well what was happening, and he had done it for that very purpose.

She should have known, after the incident some years back when one of his ex girlfriends had shown up trying to ruin his reputation by claiming he had gotten her pregnant despite being engaged.

He had silenced the whole incident as if it had never happened. The media which had waved with rage against him, suddenly started showering praises on him, sending him well wishes for surviving such a sabotage.

Now, he was doing the same thing to her

"Because you took them from me." Sinora whispered, as tears fell from her eyes.

His eyes softened for a fleeting second, and for that split second, Sinora could see the man that had once loved her with everything.

The man who had promised her heaven on earth the day she gave birth to a son for him.

It had not always been like this, and god, she missed him so much. But that was all an illusion now.

That man was long gone. His love had been redirected elsewhere and it did not look like it was ever coming back to her.

"You're pathetic, Sinora, do you know that?" His voice had a sinister to it that made Sinora cringe.

He started to walk towards her slowly, like a predator towards its prey.

Sinora’s hand reached across the table, in search of something to defend herself. As soon as her hand came in contact with a table knife, a loud scream broke out from upstairs.

Panic seized her.

They both rushed upstairs to where the scream had come from, and found that everyone else had already gathered there, even Adrien and Madeley.

Mrs Celeste stood in front of Mr. Lucien's bed, her hands trembling as she reached for his hand.

Sinora went pale as soon as she stepped into the room. Tremors ran through her body and her blood instantly went cold, as she stared at Mr. Lucien's dead body.

He was gone.

------

The funeral was held within a private vault chamber owned by friends of the Belmont family and he was buried in one of their crypts.

During the funeral dinner at the Belmont mansion, Sinora was charged with serving the guests along side the other kitchen staff.

She had managed to serve over fifty guests who had shown up, while the others served the remaining forty in the private small funeral dinner hosted by the Belmonts.

The family was dining privately from the other guests. The house had started to thin out as guests started leaving in their numbers.

Sinora packed a tray of desert for the family dinner - everyone was present, the Belmont uncles, their sister - miss Margot Belmont, Mrs Belmont and her sons, including her late daughter's pauper of a husband.

Their robust laughter could be heard from the corridor leading to the room.

"Oh brother, you should be thinking of getting married again." Charles tapped his brother-in-law on his shoulders with a smile.

The man who had once been married to Charles' late older sister cracked a smile that did not reach his eyes.

He and the family did not see eye to eye, despite the fact that he, Charles and Alora, his late wife, had attended the same high school and college. They looked down on him because he was not in their league, and between the two of them, ladies often struggled for his attention, especially the ones Charles wanted and it annoyed Charles to no end, because he was wealthy and Cassian, last he checked, wasn't.

Even now, while she was seated so closely beside her sister's fiancé, Madeley eyed him, seeking his notice.

"You can recommend." Cassian replied without smiling. His green eyes reflected coldly like emerald in the chandelier's light.

"Well, seems like you're really good with sloppy seconds, how about Sinora? I'm about done with her now, you can have her if you want."

Sinora froze at the door with the tray of deserts in her hand.

Cassian was the first to see her. Her hands shook like palsy, and it was just with a sliver of control that she held onto the tray.

Cassian’s cold eyes drifted back to Charles, ignoring her presence. What sort of man spoke about his fiancée as a mere commodity? Cassian thought to himself. Charles really was dumber than he had initially thought.

But he was no better off, there was no woman who had been able to withstand his own intensity, and he had been with women he did not deem fit enough to be a wife after his late wife.

"Don't worry, she's quiet, obedient, she'll do everything she's told. Plus, she has the ability to endure poverty." Charles added blatantly with laughter, twisting the stake deeper into Sinora’s heart.

Sinora rushed out to the pool, holding her stomach. It hurt everywhere, her chest, her head, her stomach -- her heart.

How long had she been so foolish? How much more humiliation could she stand before she realised she meant nothing to him?

But she had nowhere else in the world where she belonged. The world as she knew it was a wild beast with its mouth open waiting to devour the unsuspecting fool.

She did not know any other life asides Charles and her family. Where would she go? What would she do? She had no money, and what about her children?

Tears blurred her vision as she crouched down and held onto the edge of the pool, heaving and crying so much that she did not hear the footsteps behind her.