CHAPTER 104: PROTECT HER ALL YOU WANT... I WILL BREAK HER INTO PIECES!

Author’s POV

Alistair tried to keep himself from saying more... He had already said enough, but Melissa... she clearly wasn’t done.

"What? Why are you dragging Mother into this?" she snapped, her voice laced with fake fury. "Say what you want about me, call me a bad sister if that makes you feel better... But don’t you dare accuse Mother of—"

"Really?" Alistair interrupted her performance.

His eyes were dark with disbelief. "She might be a good mother to you, Melissa... but not to us, especially to Sera."

Melissa flinched, but recovered quickly. "Did she tell you that?" she asked, grasping for control of the situation, after all, that was what she wanted.

But Alistair didn’t budge. His next words were even colder and firmer.

"She didn’t need to."

He took a breath, his jaw tight as he forced the words out. "Anyone with a pair of eyes could see it. You know what she deserved, Melissa? Everything in the world, every ounce of love. But what did she get?"

He clenched his fists as the bitterness rose in his chest.

"She was ignored, humiliated... even the maids dared to bully her. And don’t you dare pretend none of you noticed. You knew, even your mother knew. But it’s just that you didn’t care."

Melissa’s lips parted, but no sound came out.

"And you want to know why they treated her like that?" Alistair stepped forward, his voice shaking with rage.

"Because of you. Because Mother treated her like a charity case, like an obligation. If the woman of the house treats her like she’s nothing, what do you expect from the staff and the kids at school? And then the world?"

He took a final breath as his eyes locked on Melissa’s pale face.

"If Sera was trampled on her whole life, it was because none of you ever taught the world how to treat her."

With those final words, Alistair turned and left without looking back, his footsteps echoing in the quiet corridor. He didn’t want to argue anymore. He had said what needed to be said.

Behind the wall, Mrs. Lancaster remained motionless, hiding like a ghost in her own house. She had frozen in place the moment Alistair walked past, not daring to breathe too loudly.

Her fingers curled into a tight fist as she gritted her teeth. She could barely digest Alistair’s words.

After making sure Alistair was completely gone, she stepped out silently... still, she was out of Melissa’s view.

On the other side of the wall, Melissa was still kneeling, her body curled into itself as she slid down to the floor in a perfect act of heartbreak.

"How could you do this, Sera?" Melissa whispered, loud enough for her to hear. Her voice trembled with the right amount of despair as she tilted her head toward the ceiling, letting her fake tears slide down her cheeks.

"I always saw you as a sister," she sobbed, pressing her fist to her mouth as though trying to muffle the sound. "But... but you... You went ahead and tried to ruin everything."

Even as her voice cracked, the clarity in her words was sharp for Mrs. Lancaster to understand.

The woman on the other side of the wall felt her heart pound with fury, seeing how broken Melissa looked.

And here I was... Sympathizing with that uncultured and unruly brat! She thought as she turned to leave.

Melissa’s voice trembled again, dragging out the moment.

"I loved you like blood... and you stabbed me."

Mrs. Lancaster could still hear the muffled sobs from afar. But instead of stepping in, she turned away.

Her face remained unreadable, eyes fixed forward as she walked back to her room. She didn’t want to be part of any confrontation right now.

The door to her room clicked shut behind her with a quiet finality.

And then... silence.

Melissa stayed curled on the floor a little longer, still sobbing in the same position.

And once she was certain that no one was watching or listening anymore...

She rose to her feet.

All the sadness on her face was gone. Her eyes gleamed with satisfaction as she brushed the imaginary tears from her cheeks, as a cruel and victorious smile curved on her lips.

"Dear brother," she whispered, looking up as if addressing the night sky, "Protect her all you want... Hold her with all your heart..."

She tilted her head as her voice was filled with venom. "But you can’t stop me or stop what’s coming."

Her voice dropped lower and sounded more dangerous.

"I’ll break her... again and again... until there’s nothing left in her... And you—" she chuckled bitterly, "—you’ll watch her crumble and won’t be able to do a damn thing... while her soul shatters right under your watch."

Her grin widened, and with that, she turned toward the stairs and left.

******

Seraphina was genuinely happy spending time with Alistair. His return had brought her a strange sense of peace.

While she had been spending time with Alistair... She had been keeping her distance from Asher, letting him have the space he needed to sort through his thoughts, to decide where he stood.

But amidst all of this, she hadn’t been able to meet Lucien again. She hadn’t even spoken to him much. A part of her was afraid that Alistair would find out and misunderstand.

Not that she was doing anything wrong, but Lucien was still a mystery to her, and she couldn’t even explain herself or her feelings for him.

Opening up to Alistair made Seraphina feel oddly at ease, like she had finally let someone into a part of her heart she had always kept hidden.

What surprised her most was Alistair’s acceptance. He didn’t say much, and she knew he hadn’t fully accepted Lucien, but he didn’t reject her feelings either.

And for someone like her, who had spent most of her life being told what to feel and what to do was more than enough.

Sera was still deeply in her thoughts when her cell phone rang.