4: SMUG INTENTIONS

I SHIVERED under the piercing gaze of the man—his presence so eerie and cold, who just stared at me in disbelief.

Then I saw him raise his eyebrows and scan me and my entire body once again. “You’re sexy underneath those already-drenched clothes. I could understand if you wanted to get fucked. But you’re crazy enough to tell me you’re marrying me.” Then he laughed in disbelief. His actions were timid and so were his expressions.

But his words… hit a mark inside me that I have to collect my thoughts. Swallow my guilt and shame.

Maybe I was indeed irrational to be right here. In the middle of the night, standing in front of a car, with guns pointing at me. But I had reasons… I had my last words and my mother’s command.

The man, in a well-tailored suit, smirked at me as he motioned to his bodyguard to drag me away from their car.

“Get her away. We won’t splash blood in front of our gates for tonight,” he said with a low voice. If I was not in a position of pain and panic, I would have found his voice hot and his entire aura would be impressive for a man his age—still young and

The next thing I felt was getting slumped onto the rough and cold asphalt road by one of his goons. He turned his back to me and went inside the car’s backseat.

I felt pity for myself. Tears left my eyes as I felt my palm sting with pain. The car’s engine turned on and it sped off leaving me crying in front of the large metal gates unable to pass through. I was helpless crying onto the ground with my disappointed heart weighing so heavily.

Time passed by and yet I didn’t leave my spot. The cold already numbed my skin. The two small light posts on either side of the gates were the only light that illuminates the surroundings.

I was hurting beyond repair to still get scared of what would happen to me as I was alone on this side of town. It was eerie, cold, and secluded. I wonder why my parents thought I could get help right here… with those kinds of people like the man earlier? How could I get help? How could I turn towards them for my safety?

Betrothed to a man I don’t even know. He doesn’t even know. For pete’s sake, I was just told by my father about it because he passed away. How could I ever understand that? I wasn’t even given the chance to find out why…

My entire body was aching, my heart dropped to my stomach, my eyes felt stinging from wiping my tears… and no sleep. At all. It's gonna be sunrise in no time.

Just as I was about to just close my eyes and fully lay my body on the road, I heard several scratches of tires on the road… next, it was engine after engine of cars. The sound gets nearer and nearer.

While I was slowly lifting my face to find out what was happening, three cars had just arrived, slowing their pace right in front of the gates.

One of the cars stopped right beside me on the road. The window from the backseat slowly rolled down, revealing a man and a woman quite elderly. The woman exclaimed at the sight of me. As if she was horrified to see a human being this miserable.

“She’s the daughter…” she mumbled then looked at the man beside him. “She’s not supposed to be just right there! They should have opened our gates!”

The man looked at me once, then looked in front. Thinking… maybe. I suppose he was her husband by the looks of it. They both had a sliver of white hair on their hair. I couldn’t help but notice that these two had a resemblance to the young lad that I had just met earlier.

The eyes… nose, shape of the face, and that serious glare and dominance from the older man, I felt that atmosphere earlier… by a young man who just laughed at me in disbelief.

Refused to listen to what I had said. His smug reaction is already embedded inside my head that recalling his face irks and boils the blood in my veins. I didn’t know that at first sight, you already can hate someone.

I didn’t speak at all, but the elderly woman spoke for me. I was shocked to hear suck grimace and pain in her face when she screamed. Her eyes looked at me with sadness.

The elderly man spoke in monotone his words cold and deep. “Why are you here?”

Before I could even mumble an answer, his wife immediately reacted. “You know the freaking reason, Thoron! We just heard that their beauforte family has been ambushed!” The woman once again spoke.

“That was true. I am the only daughter of Seena Beauforte and Zachary Beauforte.” I muttered under my breath, fighting the urge to succumb to shame upon presenting my name to strangers just so I could remain

“My family was shot at our home,” I kept going… “I’ve come here upon my father’s last words. To keep me alive.”

I didn’t know but hearing my family’s names from my lips made my hands shake in grief and helplessness. Like it was an automatic reaction after losing both your parents in just one single night.

A single unfortunate night alters everything!

“Fetch the girl,” said the elderly man.

The next thing was I felt hands on my shoulders helping me to get up. I was disoriented by how they told me to get inside the first car, the one in front of the car where the elderly man and woman sat inside.

Those two… how they could just assume the reason why I was here and immediately knew who I was?

When in fact, I was straight-ass refused help by the young man who just came from the same residence. And now a different set of bodyguards’ eyes bore on me as I sat inside the car, sitting beside a group of men who were wearing all black clothes and shades. No one spoke to me.

But the one beside me moved in his spot to give me more space to sit on.

“You’ve come a long way to meet the rave,” he spoke, the only one who ever did. “I hope you won’t regret that.”

The large metal gates opened and all of the cars got inside. We were heading now to the large mansion that I was just gazing at from a very far distance earlier. With more and more minutes that pass, the image gets larger and larger.

Right now, I was surrounded by a new set of strangers.

My parents sent me here. At 22 years old, I was clueless about what kind of life they had outside our homes. But after noticing the guns my father usually hides inside our house, I knew they were hiding something.

I just don’t know what particularly it is.

Tonight, I was shivering from what just happened to my family. With dried-up tears on the corners of my eyes and a heart so hollow that I could only fill it with anger.

Anger for the robbers that ambushed my family.

And anger to that man who laughed at me with prejudice and didn’t believe my words…

I will make sure to be your wife. And it’ll be the start of hell in your life.

The Beauforte family doesn’t settle for a truce.

I am a Beauforte.