Curse of Rose de Winter

Chapter 41

I looked at Dylan and I saw Auguste in him.

The fact he had lied for all of the time we were together made me realize he wasn't the Dylan I knew at all. He was a complete stranger.

His eyes were wide as he saw me and he couldn't move. He was stunned to the core that he couldn't trample on more lives for our "happily ever after".

I wouldn't have been happy with you.

"Since when did you come?" he whispered.

"Since the very beginning. It's final, Dylan. You can't trick me anymore."

He shook his head as though crazed. "I wasn't—I didn't do this! I didn't want to do this!"

"You're a criminal," I croaked out. "You've locked Blanche up this whole time! It's been half an year since Auguste's death! Imagine the time she's lost!"

"I know, I'm wrong. I know better than anyone!" he screamed. "But I got myself in deeper and deeper, I couldn't stop anymore!"

"You're Auguste. You're the same as him." I backed away. "Giving me presents, investing in me, the jealousy you had when you knew I was an escort—it makes perfect sense. I'm an item like Blanche to use, to further your fortune and family name.

"No," he denied, but I saw from his face he was lying.

But what face should I put on? I couldn't choose between the disappointment, the sadness, and most of all the denial that I latched on. No, I thought, he wasn't a monster.

"I had loved you," I cried, and Dylan ran forward but me only hovered his hands around mine.

"I still love you. That rainy day I thought you were a ghost, sent to me as a blessing. But you were so warm, you were real. You made me unable to do what I planned to, to cut ties with you and send you away. To marry you off, no, I couldn't accept that!"

"So you destroyed her life? For me?" His figure blurred through my tears but whenever I saw his pained face it pained me too.

"I didn't plan for this! No, it was only to have a substitute until the will was heard—Vaughn followed my plan perfectly and I thought you would leave once it was read, but then there was all the relatives and the—"

He cried, and he wiped his face desperately, "I didn't plan for you to stay so long, to fall in love, and then you chose to marry Leroy. I knew it, I was being punished, but I couldn't clean up my own mess."

"Why did you do this, Dylan?" I looked at the Blanche that now stood up to watch us. "She's innocent!"

"I—I hated my father. Hated everything he liked, and it only made sense. That's why I lost my temper when you said you knew my father—"

"You're twisted. You see woman as commodities, we are nothing other than girls labeled as tainted or untainted by your father. You made this curse, you chose to live in it!"

He looked up at me. 

It was such a haunting face. I saw not Auguste in it, but the boy who always came to lay bouquets.

Would he eventually follow Rosemarie into the lake? I wondered all the time. Now his life was hopeless, wouldn't he choose to die? This loneliness we shared were understood by one another, as disgusting as it sounds.

Even now, I saw his next step and choice. I wavered.

"I'll let Blanche free, as well as admit my crimes." Dylan stood upright and the immediate change scared me.

"You know you'll have nothing left, right?" Vaughn called out. "Where would you live? With what money?"

"I'll be jailed."

"The de Winter family influence cane keep you out, maybe Austen will adopt you," Vaughn said with a shrug. "I take what I said back, you never really lose anything."

"I've lost it all." Dylan looked at me. "You won't understand, Vaughn."

I walked over to Blanche, and I knelt down next to her. Her hair was greasy, eyes unfocused.

"Blanche, I'm so sorry. We are all sorry. I wish you could hear us. I stole your place as heiress—but I'll give it back. I promise." I held her hand, and although it was warm, it felt bony and callused, unlike Ruby's soft ones.

What life did Blanche live? Did she have a family, or had her life been even lonelier than mine?

I stroked her cheeks, and she blinked before closing them.

"I'll tell Calvin to fetch us a doctor."

I stood up and walked away from the secret the two men and one girl had lived with. Dylan, locking a girl up of his own accord. He hadn't been tricked by Hughes, it was the other way around.

Outside the night seemed colder than before.

"Calvin?"

"Did you see?" Calvin asked. "It's revolting. It's such nice furniture but it's a jail."

"It is. Can you get us a doctor? I want Blanche cared for properly and I—I'll leave."

"Now?"

"Yes. Or tomorrow. I'm tired. I'm so tired." I cried into my hands, knowing I can't tell Calvin most of all his brother was the perpetrator.

Instead he left for the doctor as I returned to the house.

I asked Julie for Irene and a moment later she was there, only I stood outside my room.

"Irene." I smiled. "You're right, love is cruel. Can you get me a plain dress, and you, Julie, and Gwendoline can keep the rest. Accessories too, I don't want any. My last request as Blanche is to have a bag of necessities packed. I guess I don't really need much."

"But where are you going?" Irene asked.

I hugged myself, still trembling.

"Away." From this house. And from Dylan.

"Now?"

"Yes."

Irene nodded and walked into the room, and I saw Ruby sitting straight.

"Blanche." She looked at me with innocent eyes, but I knew she had heard.

"I'm sorry I have to go. You'll understand me, I know. Maybe one day I will see you again."

"I don't stutter anymore," she whispered. "When I talk wi-with you, I don't stutter." I heard the faint stutter but nodded.

"You've came a long way. You've always been there for me, thank you, Ruby."

"You've always been here for me, too. And I will find you, too. This won't be the last time."

"Of course." I pulled away.

No. I wanted to leave this house forever, and anything or anyone who is connected. It hurts. It scared me. I wanted to leave.

Irene packed my bag by the edge of the room, gathering things as I stroked Ruby's hair as she snuggled besides me. She had such warm brown eyes, such pretty hair and curls.

Then the unexpected happened.

"Blanche has been found! The real Blanche has been found!"

I knew that voice.

"Dylan?" I rose slowly, but I heard the scurry of steps in the house. No doubt Scarlett was lured but—no. This was strange. Why was he confessing.

"Blanche is found!" Ruby jumped up and hid behind me. "You can't leave because of this!" she told me.

"I have to leave, I'm the imposter!"

"All of us but Calvin and Scarlett knew! It's fine, even Irene knew!"

Irene made a face but also went to the door before she looked at me. I nodded.