Chapter 31SEBASTIAN’S POVIt was obvious she was lying to me about that mark on her face. I could tell from her stuttering, excessive fidgeting, the way her beautiful, glacial eyes kept dribbling around the building to avoid my gaze. Moreover, no maid had ever engaged in a fight or any kind of squabble in the castle for as long as I have known. Even if they did, the news would have reached me faster than the speed of light.How could she be lying to me? I want to care for her. Protect her like a guard dog protected a building. But she wasn’t giving me the slightest chance. She wasn’t letting me and it was beginning to make me feel like a fool. Feel like she didn’t need me. She even had to call off our reading lesson. Something she so desperately wanted without a solid excuse. There was no way the works in the castle will hinder her. The tons of maids in the castle could do all that. I even offered to grant her spare time. But she refused without a second thought. I never even wante

Chapter 33BRIANNA’S POV*****Outside, the downpour was descending heavily. I stood by the window, my breath creating a small mist on the glass as I peered outside. The rhythmic tap-tap of raindrops against the windowpane created a soothing melody that evoked nostalgic memories in me.When I was little, I liked to go out in the rain and play. I loved the sensation of the wet grasses beneath my feet as I danced around in the open space. I loved the fresh scent of the purified air in my nostrils. I loved the way the cool droplets landed on my skin, sending shivers all over me but at the same time washing away my worries and troubles. I loved the joy and freedom. I loved it all.But after all that, I always came down with a cold. My mom will scream at me, ground little me for weeks and threaten not to make pancakes which were my favourite then ever again. Father just laughed it out saying, “Leave her. She’s just a kid.”Anyways, I still went out to play in the rain when Mom wasn’t aroun

Chapter 35BRIANNA’S POV(CONT’D FROM PREVIOUS CHAPTER)“Wake up sleeping beauty,” a hoarse whisper echoed in my head and I felt moist lips stamp tight against my forehead. “Your prince charming needs you awake.”My eyelids slowly unfurled to see the blurry image of Hermes’s devilish features so close to me, his warm breath tinged with a faint scent of alcohol brushing against my face.The moment my vision cleared and his image appeared in full view right in front of me, I recoiled in shock. As I swung slightly, metals clinked and that was when I realized that I was suspended, my body weighed down by heavy chains that bound my wrists and ankles.I freaked out even more when I realized I had no clothes on. That realization alone was enough to shake off the remaining drowsiness in me, making me instantly wide awake.“Where am I?” I muttered with a weak whisper as my head suddenly grew heavy from the struggles and back-and-forth swings I did. “Where are my clothes?...please let me down. U

Chapter 37SEBASTIAN’S POVI was still brooding over what Catherine did to Brianna and how she had walked out on me when Amelia and some of the other maids barged into my room to inform me that Brianna had collapsed.Seeing her like that, unconscious, almost breathless with her skin as pale as freshly fallen snow made fear and panic riot inside me. I had never been afraid like that for a long time. The only time that happened was when my parents died.First, it was my dad. He died of a chronic cardiovascular disease. It happened a few months after my marriage to Catherine. I was there, holding his hand tight, hot tears steaming my vision as he said his last words on his deathbed before giving up the ghost. I broke down to the extent that I found it hard to eat amd think clearly for days, the scenario replaying like a horror movie in my head. Catherine had to invite my mum to come over and intervene. If not I would have died of sorrow and starvation.A few weeks later, while I was havi

Chapter 39BRIANNA’S POVThe night was drawing close. Clad in my nightgown, I paced my room in swift, troubled strides, biting hard on my lower lip till it throbbed like my pulse, trying but all to no avail to steady the erratic thumping of my heart against my chest.Who knew what Catherine might think seeing me in bed with her husband?She might think we were making out. Think we have been sleeping together whenever she wasn’t around. But that wasn’t the case.I had just broken her last and most important rule which stated that I was to never talk, go close to or engage in any form of activity with Sebastian.Fuck! Fuck!! Fuck!!! Fuck!!!! Fuck!!!!!I stamped my foot against the base of my bed. Falling on the bed, I cradled it as the painful sensation stung me like an electric shock. I had seen how she reacted like an enraged bull the other night she saw Sebastian checking out the lip bruise I had sustained from that bastard Alpha king at that cocktail party. Now, she'll surely bite m