Hello, hello, I'm grateful to everyone who checked up on me. My mental health has been on the decline and I'm glad I took sometime to sort my stuff out.

Never underestimate the importance of your mental health.

Please stay safe.

⇜⇜⇜

Anxiety pools within my skin so much that I feel the urge to throw up.

My wedding.

I never imagined getting married to my worst nightmare.

I never even imagined myself getting married to Finnegan. But at this point, I would rather it's him than Reik.

My father watches helplessly as Corinne leads me out to my fate.

Dressed in a simple white lace gown, my hair is styled elaborately with fancy pins and corals. I preferred my face bare so all I got was a light swipe of sone shiny stuff on my lips, every other part is in its natural state.

I lost most of the events to a haze; from the dressing room, to the chapel, and from the time the priest guided the process, my entire body was in disarray.

Is this how my story ends?

After the priest pronounced us husband and wife, Reik smirked.

"Ready to go to your new home?"

♞♞♞

In the carriage that shuttles down the road, I keep a safe distance from Reik who was interested in some documents that held his attention.

Despite how serene he looks, I know what the man is capable of. Nevertheless, I refuse to go down without a fight.

"What happened to my parents. "

A chilly set of eyes land on me. "Try to guess, Princess."

I want to reply that I'm not a princess but my brain deems it wiser to take another path.

"You?"

He shakes his head. "I'm offended you think of me as a monster."

"You killed my friend." I growl, forcing back the urge to throttle the man or better still, give his neck a nice squeeze until he chokes.

"I know you're plotting my death in your head, princess but trust me, Rhoda deserved to die, and your birth parents aren't the innocent people you think they are. "

I find him funny, so I laugh. "Yet you married their daughter. Very nice."

He still had to explain the part about Rhoda deserving to die.

Reik lowered his head, flipping a page on his document before he passed it across to me. "Read."

I

stare at the paper like it had suddenly sprouted wings. Reik snorts at my hesitation.

"Or are you illiterate? I could read it out to you."

Annoyed by his assumption, I snatch the paper and dive straight into the contents.

Five minutes later, my entire body trembles at my newest revelation.

The document is a letter from my birth father to the King, Finnegan's father, thanking him for the active role he played in the success of his recent scientific breakthrough.

A flip in the letter was a detailed explanation of the scientific experiment that turned out to be something dark and sinister; transforming living individuals into creatures with superhuman abilities.

My father was a monster.

My father was a monster.

And I am not prepared for this revelation.

By the time, I return to focus, Reik already has his gaze fixed on me.

"What does this mean? " I return the document to him.

"Exactly what it means. Your father was a bad man, Princess. "

"And so are you, hypocrite."

Reik's eyes burned with rage but instead of lashing at me, he kept quiet.

There are some times that sleeping is the best route to channel out your worries, and that's what I did, without bothering about what Reik could do in my sleep.

♞♞♞

I roll over to the other side of a wide bed, taking the sheets wrapped around me, until I'm lying in a tangled mess of white.

Glancing around me, I note how different and classier this room is than my former one.

The door opens, revealing Corinne. She wears a small smile.

"You're up already?" She questions.

I loosen myself from the sheets and walk to the dresser, cringing at my reflection in the mirror.

My hair looked like wreckage from a war-torn village.

"I could help with your hair after you've showered." Corinne offers, parting the curtains.

Mumbling my gratitude, I enter the bathroom.

Today, I would get answers by all means possible.

I eat breakfast alone at a table laege enough to sit fifteen persons. Toast, scrambled eggs and a hot chocolate drink.

After I had cleared up my plate, a young girl comes to take away the used items.

"What is your name?"

Startled by my question, she almost dropped the mug. "Imogen, my Lady."

I snort at her calling me that. "You may call me Alanna."

"Lord Reik would have my neck for that." She hastily shuffles out of the room, and I almost claw out my eyes in frustration.

Why did everyone fear him so?

♞♞♞

Seeing as I have a little spare time on my hands, I tour round the mansion, seeing the kitchen, pantry, bakery, wine cellar and the servant quarters.

It really is a lovely place and I would have enjoyed it if I were free.

Returning to the living room, I find Reik lounged in a sofa. I pause, turning around to make an escape.

"Are you avoiding me?" His voice is laced with bitterness.

I had to choose my next answer wisely while spinning to face him.

"You look angry. I better get out of your way."

I must have imagined it but his eyes soften. "Come here." He orders.

My legs obey and soon I'm in front of him. He looks me over, from my head to my toes and back up at my eyes again.

"I hope you understand that everything I do is for your safety."

I was still skeptical about his motives. He could keep me safe without forcefully marrying me.

He could have.

"All I want is the truth."

"Very well." He motions with his fingers and my parents are led in. They avoid meeting my eyes and fill in the vacant sofas across from Reik.

"She wants to know the truth and the truth you shall tell her, all of it."

⇜⇜⇜

My foster mother used to work for Lady Eunice Ruttherford, my birth mother until she fell sick and Lady Ruttherford had to let her go on a short leave. It happened while she worked in the manor, she was privy to some of the secrets Lord Ruttherford had, all as divulged by Lady Ruttherford.

Something happened, a week after getting delivered of me, Lord Ruttherford discovered that his wife had been leaking his secrets and so knowing her life was in grave danger, she smuggled me to her friend in Eaton who is the person I've known to be my mother all my life, until lately.

Few weeks later, Lady Ruttherford died in her sleep, at least that's what the physicians announced.

That was the entire story.