Married To The Mad Vampire Lord

Belle walked down the familiar halls of the house she had grown up in and had lived in for years. Nothing much had changed, except for the new upgrading of the furniture and decorations, but the house itself was still the same. The marble flooring still sparkled, clean and smooth, as though no one ever walked on it, because the servants were constantly cleaning it every hour of the day. Her mother had a thing for cleanliness, and even the smallest speck of dust could make her turn mad and angry.

Belle recalled all those times after that incident that had changed her parents' attitude toward her. Whenever she accidentally made a mess on the floor or forgot to change her shoes after stepping into the muddy garden, a mistake she had made many times before that incident without anyone saying a word, she would now be punished by being handed a broom and a mop to clean it all up by herself.

Being only a little girl then, her palms would often blister from all that labor. But because she desperately wanted to make her mother happy and proud, she would clean even beyond the space she had been told to clean, sometimes causing more mess than tidying, because she wasn't used to the work. Instead of cleaning while walking backward as she should, she would clean while stepping right on the spot she had just mopped, leaving footprints all over the floor.

"You stupid girl! What have you done to the floor?!" Her mother's angry voice had startled her, and because she had not expected it, she tripped and stumbled over the mop water and ended up spilling it all over the floor, causing even more of a mess than before.

Knowing how much her mother hated dirt and anything messy, the young girl had paled, her hazel eyes widening in horror as she turned to see the fury blazing on her mother's face.

"I…I did not mean to do that, Mama," little Belle muttered fearfully as she pushed herself up from the floor where she had fallen into the mop water, soaking her dress that now dripped with water. "I was just trying to clean the halls like you said. I was cleaning the dust and—"

Before she could finish her explanation, her mother had crossed the space between them in angry strides. Almost slipping on the spilled water herself, but she caught her balance and immediately seized her daughter's ear between her thumb and forefinger, twisting it harshly as she gritted, "You little fool. I told you to clean the dust you left behind in the front hall with that stupid one-eyed doll of yours you dragged in from the garden. I did not tell you to mess up my house! I am having guests over in a minute, and look what you've done to the place!"

The little girl cried out in pain as her ear was being twisted. "Mama, I am sorry, I did not mean to mess the house. I was cleaning it…" She sobbed, her face flushed with pain as her mother dragged her by the ear toward the store room.

The sound of carriage wheels reached them from outside, along with the voices of high-society ladies who had come for tea at the Duchess's house. Lady Louisiana gasped as though she had not expected her guests to arrive at that very moment. Looking down at her daughter, who was soaked from waist to hem with smudges of dirt on her face and dress, she grimaced.

"I won't let you embarrass me again in front of my guests with your dirty behavior, Belle. You will be punished for this mess and kept away. Jane, send the maids to clean the hall before my guests come in here," she ordered the head maid sharply, before pulling her elder daughter into the store room beneath the stairs. Fixing Belle with a stern, warning look, she said coldly, "Don't you dare come out of there until I say so. Do you understand?"

The little girl pressed her trembling palm against her lips and nodded. She then watched as her mother slammed the door shut. The door had no lock; she could have opened it and left. But the fear instilled inside her, and the desperate need to make her family proud, had kept the little girl trapped in the dark store room filled with cleaning tools. She sat trembling in the corner, listening to the voices outside and forcing herself not to cry out despite the pain throbbing in her ear.

She needed to make Mama proud. She shouldn't cry out and risk the guests hearing her, that would only bring more shame. If she stayed quiet, Mama would be pleased and come back to let her out, the little girl told herself as she shook in the corner.

She heard her mother's cheerful voice introducing Eve to the guests, and when one of them asked,

"Where is your other daughter?"

Little Belle had been hopeful that her mother would open the door and bring her out to meet the guests. But then her mother's words had cut into her heart like a sharp blade.

"Isabelle doesn't like being around people. She keeps to herself lately."

"Oh, we heard about that dreadful incident, her being lost in the forest all alone for days. And they say she came back scarred on the face. Such a shame, truly, because the sight is said to be… not pleasant at all. A lady's face is her greatest treasure, and once it's marred, well, there is hardly any recovering from that. What a pity."

One of them sighed before her tone shifted, honeyed and sly.

"But look at our dear little Eve. Isn't she blooming? More beautiful each time I see her. She will make your family proud with a fine match into a good house, no doubt about that…"

Their voices had eventually faded, but the little girl in the store room had been left there, not only for the hours the guests stayed in the house but until the very next day. And even then, it was a servant who finally found her, curled up asleep on the cold floor with damp dress.

Belle recalled bitterly how, when the servant awoke her from her sleep, she had refused to leave the small room at first because she was still waiting for her mother's permission. She had always lived trying to earn Louisiana Dawson's approval. And even now, many years later, nothing she ever did seemed to be approved by her dear mother. Belle realized belatedly, with a heavy ache in her chest, that nothing she would ever do would be enough for her parents, and nothing would ever make them love her again.

Belle came to a stop in the great hall where the family portraits hung, and what she saw there made her heart twist and sink with wrenching despair. For years, despite her family's lack of approval, she had never been excluded from the family portraits. A large painting of the four of them had always hung there. Every year, a new one was added in the great hall to show their growth.

Now, as she stared up at the wall of portraits, she saw that every single one that had included her had been taken down. In their place hung new portraits of only the three of them, all smiling brightly, their faces radiant with happiness.

Where the portraits of her own baby paintings had once been displayed, now hung Eve's, lined neatly from the year of her birth up until the present.

Belle suddenly felt like a complete outsider, standing before the portraits of what had once been her family. They had erased her. They had removed her completely.

She couldn't believe she could feel any more pained at the realization after what had gone on in the study, but she did. She felt it deep, so deep it cut through her heart and tightened her throat until breathing became a struggle.