Chapter 24 #2
What reason could he have had for killing her mother?
Why had he not cared enough for his brother to settle whatever problems he had with her mother amicably?
Did he not care that his brother would suffer and be lost without his wife, or had he wanted that to happen?
Knowing what she knew now about her uncle and how he had been treating her since she became an orphan, it did not seem difficult to believe he wanted this to happen.
He wanted her father to lose himself so that he could take everything from him.
Every time her uncle had talked to his brother, consoled him and told him to take care of himself and be strong, he had meant none of it.
He had been silently rejoicing to himself that he would soon get what he wanted and none of them would be the wiser.
She watched as her uncle's eyes glazed over, as though he, too, were lost in past memories.
"I had always loved your mother. Even before she met your father.
I had seen her first. It is a memory that is forever lodged here," he tapped the corner of his head and smiled bitterly.
"I saw her for the first time in a field.
She was laying surrounded by flowers. Her hands fingered the petals of each flower gently, almost as if she was afraid to bruise them and ruin their beauty.
She was so gentle, even with something as senseless as flowers.
I knew from that moment that I had fallen in love with her. "
What?
"I fell in love with her gentle ways and her sweet disposition.
It did not hurt that she was so beautiful and that her long hair glistened with every move.
" He cleared his throat, almost as if he was ashamed to admit his love.
Charlotte did not want to hear him talk about her mother like this, not from his evil mouth, but she also craved any remembrance of her mother that she could get.
Her lips morphed into a shaky smile as she imagined her mother in a field.
She was gentle. She had been gentle with everything and had taught Charlotte to be the same.
"Before I could make any move to claim the woman I had fallen in love with, your father became involved with her, and I was forced to watch from the sidelines as their relationship blossomed.
They eventually married." His hands turned into fists, and the smile on his lips transformed into a scowl.
In another world where he had not killed her mother and been the terrible monster that he was, Charlotte would have cared about the pain he had gone through, watching his brother and the woman that he loved.
"It was not long before they had you, their precious daughter.
" He looked at her with scorn. "Their perfect little family was now complete, with you.
I remember how much hatred I felt in my heart when I saw you for the first time.
You looked very much like the woman I had just lost. She had continued her torture of me by creating a small version of herself, constantly reminding me she had chosen someone else when she was supposed to be mine.
I wanted so badly to get rid of you. I wished for it so much, but I knew I couldn't do anything.
Your parents always felt the need to watch you.
They never left you alone and, before long, you had grown, looking more like her with every year. "
Charlotte felt a chill as he stared at her with such hatred. Despite how he had treated her for years, she had never seen this level of hate in his eyes until this very moment.
"It had been a long time that I had harbored these feelings for her and no matter what I did or how many times I told myself that she was not worthy of my love, I could never get rid of my feelings.
One day, I decided to tell her. I went in to talk to her that day, to ask her why she never took me seriously and why she allowed our relationship to crumble, but it turned out to be a terrible mistake.
She looked at me like I had gone mad." Charlotte struggled to keep her face neutral.
From what he had just told her, he had never had a relationship with her mother.
He had never even had a chance to tell her how he felt about her before her parents had met, so she was right to think that he had gone mad.
However, Charlotte kept her feelings to herself.
She did not want to anger him. But she knew now that her uncle was delusional as well as evil.
"She made me feel stupid, explaining that we had never been in a relationship and that she had met your father first. When I told her I used to watch her in the fields, she looked shocked and horrified.
Seeing the disgust in her eyes was too much for me to bear.
That was the breaking point. I became enraged and. .. pushed her."
Charlotte shut her eyes. So this was the cause of her mother's death.
Even after her death, an obsessed man who couldn't get over her and had ended her life continued to punish the last memory of her.
She ran her fingers through her short hair.
That was the real reason he'd cut her hair and, with it, her relationship with her mother.
"I did not mean to push her. It was not my intention to go this far.
I knew if my brother found out what I did, I'd be in big trouble, so I tried to flee, but then you came in and I had to hide.
When I saw you about to fall out of the window, I knew I had to come out of my hiding place to save you, but I'm not sure why.
I wish I had let you follow her, but keeping you alive ensured my safety.
Your father would be too preoccupied with ensuring that you were not overly affected by your mother's death, which means he would be so distracted by you that he would never question how your mother died.
That was an obsession he couldn't afford because it would have ruined whatever relationship you two had, which he didn't want. "
It all made sense to Charlotte now. She had often wondered how this man who clearly never cared for her had stopped her from plummeting to her death.
"I had been biding my time, thinking of when I would have the opportunity to kill your father, but lucky for me, I did not have to do anything at all.
Fate handled that for me." Charlotte bunched the sheets in her hands when he laughed.
She knew it would be silly of her to attack him.
So no matter how much it hurt to hear him speak of her family like this and confess to ruining her life, she knew she had to stay put for now and bide her time.
"Now I was left with you." He pointed dramatically at Charlotte.
"You were a bit more complicated. I could have killed you the night of the fire and claimed you died as a result of the burn injuries you suffered, but I let you live.
The feelings I had for your mother were not the same as the feelings I had for you.
It is true that I saw her in you, but she was not the only one I saw in you.
No. I saw a piece of my brother and a bit of myself. "
"This was the perfect punishment for your happy little family, to be completely destroyed. Your father, destroyed by his enemies, your mother, by my own hands and you, by the very man your father had come to save you from."
Charlotte remained silent, but she could not help thinking that her father had not come to save her from those men.
In fact, he had never known what had happened to her.
He had been trying to save her from the fire that she surrounded her.
It was her fault that her father had died.
By the time he arrived to save her, the men were no longer near her, although they had still ended up caught by the flames.
And William Dodd had run away. With no one except her, Owen, and her uncle, whom she had told what had happened, knowing that he was there.
Charlotte was numb. She had been blaming Owen for what he had done, but all Owen did was try to save her.
Owen was much better than her own kin. Her uncle was proving, as he had been doing for years, that sometimes it was better to have no family than to have any at all.
She had almost forgotten what it was like to have a real family until she watched the Elliotts.
They have love for each other. They have companionship.
She did not need anyone to tell her for Charlotte to know that they cared for each other and would do anything for each other, no questions asked.
She had witnessed them go into battle to protect Owen and her, a total stranger and yet, what was her uncle doing?
Hurting and killing his own flesh and blood.
Charlotte watched him as he paced the room, telling her his evil plans for her and how he would enjoy it.
At the end of the day, it had not really been Owen's fault.
Tears welled up in Charlotte's eyes as she thought of him.
It was her fault. If she had never left the house that day, she never would have been cornered by those men who sought to assault her, and she would never have been trapped in the fire.
Her father would not have needed to save her, and she would still have him in her life.
That is, if her uncle had not found some other way to end his life and get what he wanted, anyway.
Charlotte had experienced sorrow from an early age and became used to it.
If this was what her life would become, married to the man who had tried to rape her on one of the worst days of her life, then she bided her time until she found a way to escape.
She would not give her uncle the satisfaction of seeing her weak and beaten down until she lost her resolve.
She had never let her uncle win, no matter what he had done to her, and she would not let him win now.
Charlotte was broken like he had expected her to be when he told her all this, but amid her pain and rage, she had finally found comfort in the memories of her family. But that comfort was short-lived when her uncle's words followed next.
"Now, enough memories, and get up, dear niece. It's time for your wedding."