Like mother, Like daughter

{Isla’s POV}

My phone started buzzing before I could process the name he had just called me.

Cassandra. 

I quickly pulled away from him, scrambling to find my phone by the door. Four missed calls from Vanessa lit up the screen, and a fifth message popped up.

Where are you? The last carriage is leaving. Miss it and forget the key.

That was when reality hit me. Whatever had just happened in that room, whatever his mouth against my throat had meant, or whatever this mark on my neck meant, none of it mattered next to the simple fact that if I didn’t get home before Vanessa fell asleep, I would lose the one thing I’d been promised my whole life.

I hated how easily Vanessa could do as she pleased with me. With that Key and Mrs. Elwood’s care still in her hands, she would forever control me.

“I have to go,” I said.

“Why do you look so frightened? Is something wrong?” he asked, reaching for his trousers. “I’ll go with you.”

“No,” I said immediately. I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly aware I had no clothes on. “I can manage.”

I couldn’t let him come with me; he might find out the real, pathetic me.

He didn’t argue, which somehow unsettled me more than it should have.

I quickly picked up my ruined dress, still damp and sticky from the pool. Before I could say another word, he draped his jacket over my shoulders, his fingers brushing the raw mark on my neck.

“I can’t let you go like this. At least take your mask off.”

“No. It’s fine,” I said.

“Are you really sure about this?” he asked gently, pressing a soft kiss to my forehead.

 I let my eyes flutter shut, torn between the urge to confide in him and the suffocating fear of his reaction.

I hated that I still cared about his reaction. I hated that I let myself get attached too quickly.

A bitter regret twisted inside me. Maybe I shouldn’t have allowed him to mark me. Maybe I wasn’t ready for an attachment like this.

I pulled away from him and turned to leave. But his voice stopped me before I reached the door. “Run tonight if you need to. I’ll find you anyway.” His voice stopped me.

For a second, I just stood there, then my hand reached for the door handle.

I’ll find you anyway.

I let his promise carry me the whole ride home; it replayed in my head, and I chose to believe it right up until the front door of my father’s house that lit up like it had been waiting for me all night.

I pushed open the door.

 Richard stood by the fire in his evening suit, composed in the specific way that always meant something evil. Vanessa sat with her legs crossed, holding a cigarette between her fingers, watching me the way you watch a play you know the ending to and have stayed for the performance.

I took a deep breath, bracing myself for the worst.

“What happened to you?” Richard said.

“Oh, I just fell in a pool,” I said, already walking towards the stairs.

Vanessa’s laugh cut the air, and I was forced to stop. “Is that where you were meant to meet Axel Blackwood?” She asked.

“I waited under the tree for over an hour. He never came.”

She placed her cigarette on the table and approached me, wearing her silk robe. “So, you ignored the only instruction you were given.”

“The light went out. I thought-“

“Who gave you the jacket?” Richard interrupted; his eyes hadn’t left the jacket since I’d walked in.

I hesitated, and that was all Vanessa needed. She reached for the jacket and yanked it off my shoulders before I could stop her. I immediately covered the marked spot with my hand, but it was of no use.

I watched the delight cross her face, and my stomach dropped straight to the floor. She had been waiting for a moment like this for years.

“Oh. Isla,” she said my name like she was savoring it. “Even for you, this is impressive.”

“Who marked you?” Richard’s voice dropped into a low tone, the same one that used to make me flinch as a child, the one that meant no matter my explanation, he wouldn’t listen.

“My mate,” I said, but regretted it immediately after realizing how stupid I sounded.

“And what is his name?”

I swallowed; I hadn’t asked him for his name. “I… don’t know,” I stammered.

They both stared at me in disbelief, and the silence that followed added actual weight to it. Vanessa laughed again, softer this time, almost delighted. “You let a stranger mark you, and you didn’t even think to ask his name.”

I lowered my gaze to the floor. “It was Moonveil. Nobody exchanges names.” I said under my breath.

“The point of Moonveil was anonymity,” Vanessa said, slow enough to enjoy it. “Not you opening your legs to the first man that looked at you.”

“He told me he would find me,” I said.

Richard crossed the room, and before I could fully look up, his palm struck my cheek. My head snapped sideways, heat spreading across my skin.

“You were sent there to act like your sister because she is missing. Instead, you let a stranger mark you, believing he was claiming her. Who would ever want to claim a dirty loser like you.” Richard said; his voice was louder this time.

Vanessa laughed again. “No one, obviously; he must have mistaken her for Cassandra.”

Vanessa's words were worse than Richard's slap. Not because of the laugh, but because she was right.

“Disgrace finds every room you walk into.” He said it like it was a fact. “If this gets out of hand, people will believe Cassandra betrayed Axel Blackwood weeks before her own wedding. Are you trying to ruin this family?”

I didn’t say a word. I couldn’t. Guilt landed on top of everything else, heavier than I expected it to. They both weren’t wrong. I carried her identity into that room.

Suddenly, the front door opened before I could say a word. I saw a figure approaching the entryway. It was Cassandra.

She wore a cream turtleneck pulled unusually high around her throat. Her hair was tangled, her eyes were swollen, like she had been crying for hours.

“Where have you been?” Richard demanded.

“She locked me in the eastern dressing room.” Cassandra's voice cracked, pointing directly at me. And for a moment, I thought I didn’t hear her properly.  “Before the masquerade. Isla told me Mother needed me. The second I walked in, she shoved me inside and locked the door. Took my dress. My mask. My phone and everything.”

“That’s a lie!” I shouted. I looked at Vanessa, waiting, actually waiting, for her to say something. To tell Richard she forced me to wear the dress, that she’d pressed those lenses into my eyes. That she had threatened Mrs. Elwood’s care to make sure I obeyed.

Instead, Vanessa crossed the room to her daughter and pulled her into her arms, crying with her.

“I knew something felt wrong the moment Isla told me you’d asked her to go in her place.” Her hands smoothed over Cassandra's hair, and I watched Richard's expression change. “There was so little time. I was terrified Blackwoods would take your absence as an insult.”

Richard rounded on me again, and this time nothing was holding him back. “You’ve always been like this. Careless with everything that matters to this family. Just like your mother.”

“Father…”

“Don’t call me that.” He immediately. “Your mother disgraced this family; I will not stand here and watch her daughter do the same.” his voice had gone low and vicious. “You’re a disgrace. A whore.”

I didn’t wait for whatever came next. I turned and ran for the stairs, and nobody stopped me.