After running into each other at the ball, Benedict and Amelia feel an instant spark. But what happens when Benedict learns that Amelia suffers painfully in her family's estate? To what lengths will Benedict go to make sure Amelia will never be hurt...
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Benedict's POV.
It had been exactly a week since I last saw her. Her black curls, her brown skin, her soft hands, her dark eyes, her smile... I missed every single one of her features. I couldn't really understand it. I mean, we'd only just begun being friends, yet I had become so attached.
She really drew people in with her kind smile, soft voice and her sweet personality. I'd been pondering over my thoughts constantly over the week. Thinking back to the times I'd witnessed her father hurting her. Thinking if maybe that was the reason why she didn't want to see me anymore. If her father was perhaps manipulating her. But, again... he was out of town. And so I came up with multiple different possibilities for her absence, but none made sense.
It was a puzzle and I couldn't even get the first few pieces to fit together. I looked out my window and saw the window to her room. The curtains had been drawn closed the entirety of the week. And I had not seen her get out of the house even once.
I heard my door open, and I turned away from my window, seeing Anthony walk in with a horrid expression on his face. He held a letter in his hand. He was shaking his head almost in disbelief of whatever had frightened him so much.
"Brother? Are you well?" I asked him, glancing down at the letter in his hand a few times.
"Read this." He handed me the letter. I noticed the blue stamp upon it. And my hand began to shake when I read the engraving in the stamp.
Allbrook
"Is it Amelia?" I asked him, assuming he had read it based on his reaction. He shook his head.
"Just read it." He told me as he sat down on a chair in my room, his legs bouncing up and down in agitation. I unfolded the letter and began to read what it said. My heart picked up in pace as my eyes scanned every word.
"What..." I wasn't even halfway through the letter when I crumpled it in my palms, deciding that I couldn't read any more of it. "What in God's name is this?" I asked out, refraining from showing the anger rising in me.
"Brother. This is serious. This isn't just anyone we're talking about. This is Vincent Allbrook." My brother stood up, pacing back and forth in my room. "He wants you to marry his daughter." He sighed. "The Beatrice woman." He explained with bitterness. "Brother, what do we do?" When he asked the question, I began to think to myself. This letter, Amelia's behaviour. The puzzle suddenly made sense.
"Well, I'm not marrying that Beatrice woman." I told him without hesitation.
"Right. But you know of Vincent's reputation. If you don't accept his offer, who knows what will happen? What he'll do to ensure our family is doomed." He told me, almost shouting from the stress.
I sighed and put my hands on the table, leaning my body against it. "It all makes sense now." I breathed in as I ran a hand through my hair.
