Feel My Love

Chapter Two: Family Secret

Waking up the morning of her sister’s wedding, Aoife sighed and stared up at the ceiling for a moment; she didn’t want to get out of bed since she knew that her mother would just find a way to nag her.

Aoife could only imagine how hectic everything was going to be and she didn’t want to deal with her mother’s craziness this early in the morning; she wanted to relax before she spent the entire day with her family.

Aoife loved her family but she was away from them for most of the year now that she lived in Paris; she was going to have to get used to being around her family again.

Aoife doubted that her sister and Marco would want to wait long to have children, she loved the idea of having nieces and nephews to spoil and play with.

Moving to climb out of bed, Aoife peeked at the clock and smiled to herself sure that Belle would already be awake despite the fact that she had spent the night before getting very drunk.

Aoife ran her fingers through her hair, she could only hope that today went without a hitch; she wrapped her dressing gown around her before she quietly left her bedroom and headed downstairs for breakfast.

Aoife paused on the stairs silently as she heard her parents’ voices, they seemed to be arguing about something and it seemed urgent; she listened for a moment trying to figure out what was being said.

“I don’t know about this Frank,” Irene whispered softly, she felt incredibly guilty for what they were forcing Belle to do; she didn’t want her daughter to hate her for forcing her to marry Marco.

Frank sighed and moved to kiss his wife, he knew it wasn’t ideal but Thomas and Manuela Reus had made it clear that this was the only way to make the debt disappear.

Belle was their eldest daughter and Frank was sure that she could handle marrying Marco, she seemed to really love him and he hoped it would make everything okay.

“It’ll be fine Irene… Belle is a big girl now, she knows what is going on,” Frank tried to reassure his wife, he doubted that the Reus’s would ever accept Belle not marrying Marco and there was no way around it now.

Irene sniffled and wrapped her arms around her husband, she wished that it had never come to this but there was no way for them to repay the debt and Thomas wanted repayment.

“It’ll be okay,” Frank murmured again, his wife needed to pull herself together before anyone saw her; no one could know what was going to happen today, it was a secret that would go to the grave.

Aoife frowned wondering what on earth her parents were talking about, she stood silently trying to figure it out for a moment; she could see that it was really upsetting her mother.

Moving down the stairs, Aoife made sure to make enough noise to alert her parents to the fact that she had appeared; she didn’t want them to know that she had heard part of their conversation.

“Guten Morgen,” Frank greeted looking at Aoife, he didn’t want his youngest daughter to know what was going on around her; she was safe in Paris and he hoped it would stay that way.

Aoife smiled at her father and moved to press a kiss to his cheek before she headed to the toaster; she put some bread in the toaster then turned to face her parents.

“How did you sleep?” Irene asked looking to Aoife, she couldn’t imagine what her daughter would think of her if she knew what she was forcing Belle to do; she could only think that Aoife would hate her.

Aoife chewed on her lip, she didn’t know why her parents looked so tense and she had a feeling that there was something that they weren’t telling her.

***

“Have you seen your sister?” Irene asked watching Aoife slowly get ready for the wedding, she was beginning to worry since she hadn’t seen Belle and she hoped her daughter hadn’t done anything stupid.

Aoife stopped what she was doing and looked to her mother, she hadn’t seen her sister since yesterday when she had gone home with Lindsey; she was sure that Belle would turn up soon.

“Not since last night,” Aoife replied simply, there was still a few hours until the wedding and she was sure that Belle would show up before then.

Her wedding dress was hanging up along with Aoife’s champagne A-line knee-length V-neck ruffles sash bowknot bridesmaid dress; it was going to be a good day and Aoife doubted that her sister would miss her own wedding.

“It will be fine mama,” Aoife said moving to give Irene a hug, she didn’t know why her parents were so stressed out; everything seemed to be working out so wonderfully and she doubted that anyone would ruin it.

Irene chewed on her lip and tried to calm herself, she wrapped her arms around Aoife hoping that her youngest daughter was right; Belle knew what was at stake and she wouldn’t risk her family.

“Now… come on, you need to start getting ready,” Aoife insisted sure that her sister would show up soon, she couldn’t put off getting ready forever and her beautiful dress was just waiting for her.

Aoife ushered her mother out of the room and looked back at Belle’s ivory wedding dress, she had no idea where her sister was right now but she hoped that Belle would show up soon before she started to worry their parents.

Closing the door behind her, Aoife took a deep breath trying to ease the butterflies in her stomach; she couldn’t shake the bad feeling that had started to form and she hoped it wasn’t the twin telepathy kicking in.

***

Belle took a deep breath as she followed after Lindsey quickly, she couldn’t believe that she was actually doing this when she was meant to marry Marco in a matter of hours; she only hoped that her actions wouldn’t make things worse.

“Are you sure about this?” Lindsey asked peeking back at Belle, she was happy that her friend wasn’t going through with her wedding but she could only imagine what was going to happen now.

It was pretty quiet at the train station, they were the only two around and Belle was glad that there was no one around to recognise her; she didn’t want to think about what would happen with her gone.

“Don’t talk me out of this now Lindsey… you’re the one who talked me out of marrying Marco,” Belle hissed knowing that her friend was only worried, she had spent all night thinking about this and it was the only way she could think of breaking free.

Marco’s parents were never going to accept that she wasn’t going to marry their son, they would force her down the aisle and she couldn’t do that to herself; she loved David and he was the one that she wanted.

“Okay,” Lindsey whispered she wanted her best friend to be happy and she was sure that this was the only way that Belle would ever have her happy ending.

Belle was better than all of this and only for the fact that Frank owed a lot of money to Thomas, she would have never have been with Marco; something that displeased Lindsey even more.

“I’ll call you when I arrive in Hamburg,” Belle murmured moving to hug her best friend, she was going to live with David who was waiting for her at the next train station; she doubted that she would ever be coming back to Dortmund again.