The Thorn of the Rose

Remember This

In the evening after dinner and October's POV...

Damaris did not join us at dinner, and I had already talked to Madison about leaving earlier than scheduled. Since we got many of the shoots done that we had planned, we could cut our losses. I was already packing when there was a knock on my bedroom door. Answering, I was actually relieved to see it was Martha, not Damaris. Like she would come to my room to see me anyways.

"I know you all are planning to leave in the morning. Is it because of Damaris?" She asked, knowingly.

I let out a sighed. I had no reason to lie to Martha. "It is her. Me. I don't know what I think or feel about her anymore. I have seen through the cracks of her amour. She can be sweet, caring. Then, cold and so fucking distant." I ran my hand through my hair in frustrated.

"Yes. It is a defense, 15 years strong now. Until you walked through the door." Martha revealed. I looked up at her, confused. Damaris was feeling the same emotions that I was. There was no way that she had anything but displeasure for me. "Let me show you something." She held out her hand. Of course, I took it.

Using the elevator, we went to the fourth floor where the servants lived. Martha led me to her quarters. It was a simple space, full of pictures of her own family and the Clayborne's. She went to a table with picture frames. She picked one up. It was of a little girl with long dark hair. Smiling green eyes and a big grin on her face. She was wearing a pink Easter dress with black Mary Jane shoes and ruffle white socks.

"Damaris was a happy child. A smile always on her face. Even when she was troubled with something, she never allowed for it to get her down." She turned the picture for me to see it well. "When Damaris was ten, her father remarried to a woman who had a five-year-old daughter named Adilene. Cute but spoiled rotten." Martha picked up another picture to show me the blond child Adilene.

"Damaris was jealous?" I asked.

"Far from it. Damaris was thrilled to be a big sister. She adored Adilene for all her heart." Martha set the child's picture down. She picked up a family photo. Damaris was holding the hand of the younger girl, beaming with happiness. Adilene oddly had a sour expression on her face while everyone else was wearing smiles. "Adilene believed everything was hers, even when it wasn't."

Martha moved to a curio cabinet, opening it, she reached inside to a large photo album. "If Damaris knew I still had this, she may actually fire me." She gestured to the table and chairs. Sitting down, she opened the album. My breath was taken.

The first picture was of younger Damaris, mid-twenties, in an antique white lace ballgown with a corset top with set in lace sleeves. She was kneeling on the stone with the skirt bellowed about her. She was posed in the rose garden. She was wearing a small tiara on her head with her hair in ringlet curls. Her makeup was flawless with a red lip. To her nose, she was holding a red rose in her left hand. There was a diamond engagement ring on her finger.

"Damaris hardly dated in high school. In her freshman year in college, she met Henson Prescott. He was the nephew of one of her father's business partners. They clicked, became friends and soon were dating. All through college with barely any problems and the day after they graduation, he proposed." Martha turned the page. Damaris was smiling at a blond man with blue eyes and a square jaw. I had to admit, Henson was a handsome man. I felt a pang of jealous as she was looking at him in such a loving matter.

"One month before the engagement party, Adilene came home from traveling aboard to help with the wedding planning. Damaris had named her the maid of honor. As for Damaris, she was so busy with the wedding details and taking over the company from her father at the same time. The poor girl was running raggedy. That is why she did not see what was happening in front of her." Martha uttered sadly. A single tear fell from her eye.