CHAPTER 141: ISABELLA’S REIGN OF TERROR

No matter how strong we become, no matter how confident in our abilities we may become, and no matter how far we think we have come through in our journey to recovery, one slap by mother reality can negate years of heartfelt effort, making it all seem meaningless.

Edmond had spent his entire life trying to avoid Isabella De Clare, a woman he considered a monster and a constant reminder of a deep, unhealed wound. Their shared history was a scandal so profound that everyone involved kept it a closely guarded secret. The events that connected Edmond and Isabella were known only to the 172nd graduating class of the Royal Academy, who referred to that period as Isabella’s Reign of Terror.

The main culprit here was none other than the beautiful yet ruthless Isabella De Clare, the one whose actions almost disturbed the political scene that year. According to testimonies, Isabella and Edmond had such a bad relationship that Isabella completely pulverized any shred of dignity he was born with.

Isabella graduated the following year, and Edmond still had two years to go, but he disappeared for most of the time and would occasionally appear during the finals, as he was desperately dodging those who may have known the truth.

But it was completely impossible to avoid Isabella, since she was everywhere, from social gatherings to parties and galas. Even the auction house was practically her domain, and Edmond had to step carefully around that place, despite how often Prince Liam frequented that place with Matilda.

Then came the storm manifested in human form, Isabella following Edith, his sister, who was none the wiser about their relationship. One slap was enough to make Edmond relive one year of utter humiliation, especially with the nickname "Softy" that she stigmatized him with.

In conclusion, Edmond was bullied; that’s the truth. He was not completely blameless, but what he did by a foot, Isabella avenged by a mile.

"Oh, by the way, how is the Fashion Club?"

Then her voice pulled him back to reality; red-faced, shamed, and utterly humiliated, Edmond barely raised his gaze to meet hers, which had the same sickening smile he so much loathed.

But to ask about the Fashion Club of all things, Edmond realized that his bully was never the type to grow up or be refined. There was genuine hate between the two of them, and that Fashion Club was at the center of it all.

The things she made him do, the sickening feeling she made him feel—if there was anything in his stomach right now, his twisting guts would have barfed it all out.

There is nothing he hates more than the Fashion Club, and what he did to it...

"I burnt it to the ground," Edmond said.

"Figures!" Isabella shrugged with a mocking smile. "You Blacks aren’t much for refinement anyway."

"Hey!" Behind Isabella was Edith, who seemed upset with her words, who, despite the conflict she had with her brother, was not fond of seeing him or her family get humiliated.

"Oh, I’m sorry; I forgot that I’m friends with a Black now," Isabella said with a nonchalant smile.

She then leaned against Edmond and whispered:

"Better play this one nice. You don’t want them to find out about our exploits, do you?"

"..." Edmond remained silent, his throat moving to swallow the most bitter saliva he had in his entire life.

"Atta boy." Isabella’s mocking smile kept hanging on as she turned to the others in the room. "I said, which one of your plebs is Beatrix Morgan?"

The room remained silent, part of which was because of their fright from the huge slap Edmond just had, as he was by far the strongest of the group, and humbling him that way terrified them speechless.

As for Beatrix Morgan, Isabella could tell which one it was, but she needed to make a statement. Beatrix was the girl standing facing Ian in the middle of the room, slender, pale, beautiful, blonde, and with dark makeup smudges all around her eyes.

"I was done here anyway."

Beatrix moved by herself while ignoring everyone, including Isabella and Edith, moving her hand fast before Ian got to grab her, before storming out of the manor towards her personal carriage.

"Well, that was easy." Isabella could not help but frown.

Her goal was to throw her weight around and make Beatrix stop using the curse, but it seemed that the Prince’s cronies did not need an outsider to crash their torture party.

"Wait, Beatrix!"

The one who chased after Beatrix was Edith, who seemed like she wanted to stay and confront Isabella about what she just did to Edmond, but Vivian’s situation was a priority.

"Edith!"

Edmond tried to stop her, but Isabella stepped in his way with her cunning tongue:

"You better assimilate with the furniture for now, Softy. And don’t bother using Beatrix as your torture dummy again."

"You... of all people... why are you concerned with this?" Edmond said, trying to confront Isabella.

"Me of all people? What kind of monster do you take me for? I’ll let you know that I am a very compassionate person," she replied and joined her arms together. "When your sister came to Vivian, complaining about you torturing some girl for some lofty reason, Vivian did not want to intervene, but I could not sit idly by and watch an innocent girl suffer. Tell me, Softy, when did you become such a bad girl?"

"His Highness will not take light of your actions. There will be consequences for this," he said.

"Good he’s in the know. Last I heard, he was on thin ice with the King. It would be a shame if word were to spread he is torturing little girls now, wouldn’t it?"

"..."

"Well, since the deed was anyway done, I guess I have no business here," Isabella said as she looked across all the faces in the room, before retreating while sending a cheeky wink to Matilda.

The room became frigid cold once the fiery Isabella departed, and everyone realized that they had over-indulged in the situation more than they should have. The Prince will be furious once he hears of what happened, but there is also the situation between Ian and Beatrix, which has ruined the only lead they had on the Bloody Swan.

For now, they had to erase all the evidence tying them to this problem and figure out what to do next.