Back to the present day in the palace, where the ball was still going on. In one of the rooms of the palace, Belle was still pinned to the door by Jamie, but she didn’t fight him again as she had beco immobilized from every single mory that played out in her head just now. She had seen and experienced everything that happened to Isabelle and how she had died in the past.
She now knew the truth, Isabelle hadn’t taken her own life. Deven had ended it for her and made it look like a suicide by setting the house on fire. Belle was so shaken by this revelation that, for a mont, she forgot where she was and who stood before her. It wasn’t until she felt Jamie’s hand, which had been pressing her mouth shut, move that she beca aware of his body pressing her back into the wooden door, his warm breath grazing her face, followed by the low sound of his voice close to her ear, that she snapped back to reality and looked into his eyes, the very sa eyes as Deven’s.
"Since the day I t you, I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind. It’s like I know you from sowhere, like I loved you, Lady Isabelle. I even heard from my sister that we were once sweethearts. Then how co I don’t rember you? Why can’t I get you off my mind, even after the fact that you broke my arm?" he whispered softly into her ear, keeping her pinned to the door with his body, his palm still firm over her lips.
Belle’s eyes darkened at his words that fell against her ear and made her shiver in disgust. She already knew he had been compelled to forget her, Rohan had once ntioned it to her, but she had never thought him stupid enough to drag her into a room to ask her this, not when her heart and very soul felt like her purpose was to end his life before she would ever know peace.
Wasn’t he supposed to have the sense to avoid her after what happened the last ti she almost killed him by breaking his arm?
She could still feel the unmistakable rage of Isabelle in her heart, and looking at him this close, she couldn’t hold it back even though Belle tried to suppress it by telling herself that this wasn’t Deven but his descendent.
She tried to shake off his hand but his palm only pressed harder against her mouth.
"Promise you will listen to and I will let you go?" Jamie whispered softly, "We need to talk."
Belle parted her lips and clamped his palm between her teeth, biting down hard. He released her with a painful hiss, and she fisted her hand and slamd it against his face, sending him falling back, away from her.
Belle’s face was red with fury as she suddenly looked around the dim room for anything to start a fire and burn him like he had burned Isabelle. Sowhere in her mind she cried for help, soone should stop her before she killed him. Her body was moving against her will, and she couldn’t control it.
Rohan... help , she called for him, wishing the mark on her would share her desperation to be stopped with him.
Jamie saw the lady looking around the room for sothing while he held his jaw where she had punched him with his good hand, a look of displeasure crossing his face at the fact that she had now injured him twice.
He had seen her in the hall earlier, holding the vampire baby, who had seed to notice him. Jamie had been unable to get her off his mind for days after he learned she had once been the woman he loved, but he didn’t have the mory. He had looked for many opportunities to confront her and ask what went wrong, since he’d heard that she loved him and had seen the proof of it in so old letters his sister had shown him.
He had noticed her leaving the hall and decided to corner her here and get answers, to know if she had attacked him the last ti because she was jealous that he was getting married. He had not expected her to bite and hit him when all he wanted was a talk with her.
"Lady Isabelle, you—" he began, pushing himself up from the ground with his good hand while being careful with the one in a cast. But Belle turned furious eyes on him, grabbed a round marble ball ant for decoration from the desk, and hurled it toward his head. Jamie narrowly escaped it, and the ball flew past him, shattering the glass window behind him with a loud crash.
"Don’t you dare call my na, Deven. You will die today. I will burn you just the way you burned . You destroyed and took my life," she gritted as she reached out for the unlit lamp hanging on a hook at the side wall, yanking it down and turning to him where he stood frowning and looking at her in confusion.
"What are you talking about, my lady? If you are jealous that I am marrying Lady Althea, I want you to know that I do not love her. I am only marrying her to secure a better future for and my family. We can talk this out, and maybe we can work towards our relationship since your husband—"
Before Jamie could complete his words, the door opened and Lady Althea burst into the room, looking at him in disbelief and then at Belle, who wasn’t listening and was now searching for sothing to start a fire. Her entire body was trembling as she looked through the desk drawers.
"Jamie, is that what you left the hall to do? To et with your past lover and reconcile with her while leaving ? You are an ungrateful bastard! I should have known you are too good to be true!" Lady Althea said as she moved forward and landed a slap on his face. She had been keeping her eyes on him since he ca back from taking fresh air on the balcony, and his gaze had kept drifting to Belle in the hall.
She had followed him and hid behind a pillar when he entered one of the study rooms in the palace, only to witness how he had dragged Belle into the room. Lady Althea had stood outside listening to every word until she couldn’t anymore, when he said what he said.
"It’s not what you think, lady Althea. Lady Isabelle lured in here with her, she told she wanted to talk to about—" Jamie began to quickly speak, as he couldn’t imagine losing everything he now had: a title, wealth, and a would-be wife who thought he loved her and would do anything he asked of her. But Lady Althea cut him off with a humorless, husky laugh.
"What a bastard you are. I was standing outside, listening to everything you said to her! You don’t love and want to work towards your relationship with her! Weren’t you the sa man who said I was like a moon in your life and that you loved ?" she said, a disbelieving look in her brown eyes. What a liar and a cheater she had almost married!
"My lady, listen—"
"My father and everyone will hear of this! I will make sure you beco the tailor man you once were, because n like you don’t deserve anything good in life!" she gritted out as she turned to leave, but then stopped in her tracks upon noticing the other woman in the room.
Belle was clutching a lamp, spilling its kerosene on a piece of cloth she had balled up, and holding a tinderbox used to start fires in her hand, causing Lady Althea to frown.
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