The candles snapped one by one in sequence until they reached the fireplace, which was right beside the chair where Arabella had sat down. Behind her was the tall, handso man with bright crimson eyes and black hair that draped over his face, framing his chiseled jaw. He stood like the devil, poised and with a grim grin on his lips that glimred as though his brightest idea was to kill for fun.
Mrs Rath, Arabella’s grandmother, imdiately jumped backward upon seeing Cassius but then her focus shifted toward Arabella who was dressed in an immaculate gown that was only a dream to the old woman.
"Arabell..."
"Bella?" Her father, Charles was as surprised as his mother upon seeing her. He blinked as if wondering if his eyes had seen it wrong and an awkward smile appeared on his mouth as he reasoned to himself, "No, there’s no way. They told you were sent to the castle and most people would die there."
Callously, her father remark about knowing that she would be dead if she was sent to the castle and how he knew about this yet he was still fine as always, no, he even looked better as he could easily use all his money without having to hear her nag about the money.
"Haha," she chuckled dryly, the air in the room felt dry as Cassius’s red eyes seed to deepened upon hearing Arabella’s tone. "I gave you the benefit of the doubt. I thought that maybe sowhere you were trying to get us back, to bring us, to pay for your debt. Maybe sowhere you have woken up from your obsession of gambling your life away and co to regret what you have done. Or maybe, you didn’t know where we are and how we are about to end up... but no. You knew. You knew where I was sent to so you must have known where Ariel went to as well. Yet despite this you look so happy don’t you?"
Charles furrowed his eyebrows and snapped at her, "What are you on about? I’m your father. What I do with your life, it’s up to as I was the one who brought you to this world!"
"That’s the only thing you did," Arabella gritted her teeth, "You sold us," she said quietly. Her voice didn’t shake, but the stillness in it was far worse than fury.
"How dare you speak to your fath-" Charles felt a chilling glare coming from Cassius and his anger slowly sizzled into an awkward laugh. He then rubbed the back of his neck as if trying to dismiss the weight of her words. "It’s not like that, Bella. You don’t understand how hard things were—"
"Yes. I don’t understand. I won’t understand and I will never want to try and understand soone like you who would sell your own daughters just so you could gamble more. We all lived through the hardship- , Ariel- We were just children and never did we try to take the shortcut or even thought about selling you but you-"
Mrs. Rath rolled her eyes. "Oh, don’t start with the dramatics. You girls were always too soft. Always whining and acting like victims. Look at you now in silk. I’d say it worked out, didn’t it?"
Arabella ignored her, eyes locked on her father but her grandmother couldn’t read the room, continuing with her words with the wide smile, "You’re amazing yourself Bella. I suppose the only good thing your mother ever given you was that beauty. Thanks to your father selling you to the castle you manage to bring back this vampire lord so instead of maybe yelling, you should thank us?"
Arabella stared at her grandmother, speechless. From when she was young her grandmother would always berate her and her mother, putting whatever her father did, whether good or bad, on the pedestal as if he was a genius when he’s nothing more than a deadbeat.
Ignoring what her grandmother had said, she snapped at her father, "You could’ve sold the furniture. The house. Your stupid cards. You could’ve done anything else but you sold us. Hell, even when you saw and Ariel being dragged away you just watch. What kind of a father are you?"
Charles scowled, snapping as he always believe in won and daughters not being able to speak back but Arabella always manage to struck his nerve with his words. "What use was the house if I was starving? And it’s not like anyone else would’ve taken you in. No dowry, no prospects, no charm."
"You didn’t even try," Arabella whispered. "You didn’t even think of us as people. Just things to trade."
"Enough," Mrs. Rath huffed. "What’s done is done. You should be thanking your father for giving you the chance to end up sowhere better than this dump."
Arabella turned slowly to her. Sothing snapped in her as she realized that her grandmother wasn’t surprised at all even after hearing she was sold as if... "You knew?"
"Not entirely but so what?" she snapped, folding her arms. "I had told him the idea of selling you and Ariel first though he instead made a bad choice and used you to guarantee this house. If it was up to I would have chosen soone better. n are hopeless with those things. If it was I would have made sure you’d go sowhere more valuable so you’d fetch more coin than this house, but what can you do—"
Cassius moved then.
It was slight, just a step forward, slow and deliberate, but the air in the room changed. He was no longer a man. He was a loaded weapon.
Mrs. Rath noticed too late. She looked up, frowning, "What? Don’t look at like I’m the villain here. Those girls were spoiled goods anyway—"
The word snapped through the air like a whip. Cassius’s eyes flared crimson, bright and sharp like a cut of glass in sunlight.
Arabella barely had ti to turn her head before his voice rang out, low and deadly,
"Say that again."
Mrs. Rath froze, fear catching up to her far too late, "I— I didn’t an—"
"No," Cassius said, his voice soft and terrifying. "You did. And now I’d like you to repeat it."
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