Saving The Villainous Monster From The Male Lead-Chapter 98 - 97: Verbena’s Disappearance
Eleanore was glaring at the newspaper Stella had brought along to read. It was an ordinary newspaper, but what it held on the very first page, was what intrigued her. It contained the face of the very woman, who kidnapped her, tortured her and then died.
Verbena.
The sad part was that her family was looking for her and had no idea where she had gone. Thus, leading into this missing report.
Eleanore assumed that she might have died along with the other two in the fire that she had lit by herself. She had deliberately closed the door for them and tied her up to give herself time to escape. That decision, she never regretted it. But the fact that she had wished her death before climbing down the tower, made her stomach twist in various directions. It was just so unsettling, that the cold sweat that didn’t leave her body yesterday on seeing the notification, appeared on her forehead today.
"What are you reading?" Stella asked as she sipped on Eleanore’s favorite tea. It wasn’t to her liking but learning that this is also Hael’s favourite, she wanted to taste it.
"A news. A horrifying one." She says, passing the paper to Stella.
Her eyes widened as she slowly read through it. "It says, Verbena Mallory disappeared after being invited to the Lancaster mansion." She turned her gaze from the newspaper, back to Eleanore.
"She was the one who kidnapped me. I haven’t said this to anyone yet. But I think she died." She laced her fingers on the table.
"What? How do you know?" Stella slapped the newspaper on the table in surprise.
"I lit the fire in the tower, I was confined in and before leaving I tied her hands and legs, she had no way to escape from there." She reveals.
"You did that?" Her eyes widened in horror.
Eleanore felt like a monster talking about how she killed her first victim, but she had to tell someone. She couldn’t keep it to herself anymore.
"Elle!" Stella caught her laced hands, across the table. "You were only defending yourself. If she died, it’s not your fault. She started it."
Stella felt weird saying that. She had just learned that her friend killed a woman and yet she was assuring her that she was not wrong. It was all so strange, confusing her as to how to feel about this matter.
Marina comes to the room again. She sees Stella and shuts her mouth. Without a word, Eleanore realised what she had come for.
She sighed in disbelief. "Ask him to leave me alone." She says to which Marina nods and leaves again.
"Looks like the grand duke is here to see you again." Stella leans back.
"Yeah." She took a sip of her tea and as if it were a pain reliever, she felt calm.
"Tell me, Elle. Do you still like him?"
It was a very difficult question. She thought about it for long and felt nothing. No feeling from the original owner as well. It concludes that he is not her love anymore.
"No. I hate him." She says, feeling disgusted even thinking about him.
"That’s better." She leans back, crossing her arms around her chest.
Stella left the room after putting Eleanore to sleep. The medicines prescribed to her are just too heavy for her. She immediately falls asleep after eating them.
Once Eleanore is asleep, Stella finds herself alone in this unknown mansion, where not many likes her. Unlike, Lancaster mansion, where Caelestis had probably given orders to treat her best, this place openly ignores her. It isn’t a very good feeling, was this how Eleanore was treated, in the last three months in that cursed place.
Stella had heard a few of them openly gossiping about Eleanore when they were in that mansion, yet no one here has ever done that to her, at least. They don’t like her, but they don’t show it on her face either.
If she stays here for a bit longer, people here will surely realise that she is actually a very kind woman, but Stella wouldn’t want that. If they start showing her respect and treating her kindly, there would be no place left for Eleanore to feel special.
She started plucking out flowers from the garden. There were a variety of flowers unlike the only flower, rose bushes of the Lancaster Mansion. To be honest, Stella hated them, the hue of red it forms around it is always unbearable. As if blood running down that path.
Thud! 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚
Stella, who was squatting to pluck out some nice fresh flowers from below, quickly straightened her back on hearing that.
In front of her stood, Hael. Wearing a thin cotton shirt clung to his torso, damp with his sweat. He was holding a sword in one hand, whose scabbard had slipped out of his other hand and now stayed there forgotten.
When Stella turned to him, her gaze instinctively searched for his. But it couldn’t stay there for long. They travelled down to the thing that shook her, with its sudden fall.
But before she could see what had made that sound, her eyes paused halfway at his wide chest. His bare skin was clearly visible, for the thin fabric could hide little to nothing below it. A small tear of sweat flowed down his neck, tracing the lines of his muscles and all of this made her gulp.
Her heart racing, her cheeks burning and her lips pressing in. She was unable to utter a word at that sight, but she had to. She had to offer a greeting, or it might sound rude.
"Grand duke. Good afternoon." She bowed, looking away.
"Did Elle fall asleep?" He asked as he stood there, seeing her face turn red, her eyes moving around looking for an escape and her body almost shivering, not from fear but something else, indescribable.
"Y—Yes." Stella answered, keeping her gaze to the flowers in her hand.
"Those flowers?" He asked out of curiosity.
"I plucked them for Elle." She raised her gaze back to his face. "Am I not allowed to pluck the flower?" She asked, tilting her head a little.
Hael makes the mistake of looking into her ocean eyes again. "No! You can, if it’s for Elle."
Saying this he walks past her.
It ended too quickly. This was their first conversation in the last four days, since she started staying here.
She turned back to the flower, when she noticed the scabbard still lying there, abandoned by its master.
