Chapter 3: Prologue (3)
The McMillan’s loved his sturdy shoulders and revered his family name, but Realiana didn’t think so. She even hated his crow’s feet that always adorned his young face. Those wrinkles were because of the flirting glances that he keeps throwing all day as if singing a-wooing sonata.
That accursed man, he was the bane of her life; he… was the cause of her premature death.
The murderer-to-be of Raeliana McMillan!
“I’ll be up in my room.” Realiana put down the cup feebly and trudged to her room.
Concerned voices asked if she felt ill or if she was alright echoed behind her, but she waved her hand, insisting that nothing was amiss. The McMillan’s seemed to think that she was nervous become of her upcoming wedding.
You could call it the nerves all right, since I’ll die even before the ink on the marriage certificate dries.
For the past moth, she did merely spend her days shedding tears on her pillow and mourning reality. No, she did more than that. First, she wrote down the details of the novel that she could barely remember, clarified the protagonist’s relationships, the plot, then delved into Raeliana’s timely death.
Raeliana would die from arsenic poisoning long before the ink on the marriage certificate dries. Francis Brooks, the man whom she would marry, would mix poison in the tea he brews for her every night. Having won the trust of the McMillan’s, Francis Brooks would speak to the bereaved family into taking a trip away to calm their aching soul while he proceeds to get the company under his control.
In the novel, the protagonist would be the one to bring this to light.
As Raeliana McMillan’s friend, the protagonist would return home upon hearing the news of her passing as she begins investing the truth behind her death, but should the story progress in that direction, Raeliana would long be dead!
Regardless of the plot, she needed to break off the engagement and stay as far away from Francis Brooks. But that was the issue. Raeliana’as family loved her so, but she simply could not break the engagement like she would cancel a reservation at a restaurant because she felt like it or that she did not like him anymore.
The marriage between the nobles was an agreement between two families, and one side could not break off the engagement on a whim. Especially for the McMillans, such customs were even more binding.
Although the glories of the past were gone, the House of Brooks still held their prestige. They had connections to many high-ranking nobles and could retaliate in an unpredictable manner. And also, it wasn’t like she could go around screaming “That’s the bastard, the bastard who will kill me!” and such like some fortune-teller with god-like powers.
Since, even in a world where magic had developed superior to science, mental illnesses still exist and so do asylums. It was normal to shoot flames from her hand, but to be treated with mental illness should she reveal that her fiance will kill her because she knows the plot of a novel… no, she couldn’t do that. It was a sad reality and she needed a good reason to break up with Francis Brooks.
No matter what Raeliana does, Francis Brooks will go forward with the wedding. She’ll have to anger him as much as possible and act violently. She could probably use this as an excuse to break the engagement on the grounds of not being able to live with such a coercive husband.
Thus, Raeliana had four meetings with Francis Brooks.