[1] 𝙎𝙋𝙀𝘼𝙆 𝙉𝙊𝙒 | Bridgerton ✓

13

"PAPA?" The little girl wandered through Kew's palace in search for her best friend. It waw a cold day, leaves flying through the sky by the fast window, and the world seemed awfully quiet. "Papa, where are you?" She continued to call as her tiny legs continued in search for him until reachimg his office.

She could hear sounds from inside, muffled voices that altered between pleas and arguements, the door wasn't closed, with a brief entrance that allowed her to take a peak at the room inside.

"George you must understand, this is important." A voice she knew too well asked frustrated.

"They are not aligned...they are not aligned..."A male voice mumbled with madness, repeating the sentence over and over. "They are not..."

"George!" Charlotte finally shouted, silencing her husband, who looked at her with widen scared eyes, and a trembling posture. "We need your signature. You are the king."

Bella observed as her father shaked his head, his hands sinking into his hair that already turned grey, attempting to escape from the reality that suffocated him. She couldn't understand, she has never seen him like that.

"No, no, no...."He whispered shaking. "I'm a farmer...I'm just a farmer...just farmer...farmer George..."

"Your kingdom needs you, George." Charlotte begged, her eyes watered with tears. "I need you."

He glanced at her, the gaze soft, but the semblant still sad, fragile and scared. "Venus?" He asked as his hand attempted to touch her face.

Charlotte nodded subtly. "Yes, Venus." She agreed. "And Venus needs your help...with your signature, we can create an orphanage and help so many children." She softly asked, sliding the paper on the desk next to him, putting a silver fountain pen on his hands, which barely could hold it properly. "All you need to do is sign, George."

For a moment, he stared blankly at the paper, hipnotized by the duty and the responsability above his shouders. No matter how noble the cause was, his soul trembled with his ilness, and any affair related to the kingdom served as a trigger to switch his mood.

In a matter of a minute, George's hands grabbed the edge of the desk and flipped the object that crashed on the floor. The paper flew and landed away from them. Bella startled herselfnat the door with the sudden movement, and by how her father quickly ran away to a corner of the office, hiding himself, curling up and hugging his legs.

"Papa!" The young girl screamed and opened the door to her mother's surprise. Bellatrix ran to her father's direction, but when she reached him, and looked into his eyes, he gave bo reaction. "Papa?"

George looked at the girl with a blank expression, his body still shivering, the head turning left, right and up and down, mumbling and whispering names "Adromeda, Canis, Orion...." he repeated the cycle.

"Papa? It's me!" She tried to shake him but he didn't react, her eyes filled with tears. "Papa!" She sobbed while her mother grabbed her and took her away from the room.

Bella could only see her father at the corner of the room as a wild animal, and the trees outside shaking by the feral wind, touching and scraching the windows.

Once outside the room, Charlotte set her daughter down, and with a fierce tone looked into her eyes and said fiercely. "You must not tell what happened here to anyone, do you understand?" She asked, and the girl tried not to cry. "From now on, you ask me before seeing your father, did you hear me, Bellatrix?" Bella held her tears. "Did you understand me? This is an order."