Chapter 214 The Heart’s Place

The voice of Charles freaked her out. It was hard to face him after he had psychically raped her for so long. Being in the same room with him made her suffocate. That’s why she decided to ignore him. She gave him a weird look when he tried to sit across her on the table. He suddenly changed in mind and went to the other end to eat breakfast.

This turned out to be a wise move. Within a minute or so, Katherine had shown up, still wearing her semi-transparent nightgown and high heels. She ignored the presence of Bella and walked up to Charles.

“Is it okay if we have breakfast together?” she asked.

“Be my guest,” said Charles.

“Thanks, honey,” she said and took a seat next to him.

Charles frowned upon hearing those words. He knew it wouldn’t be so easy getting rid of Katherine. She acted as if she had no memory of what he had told her last night. Maybe she was counting on his kindness to achieve what she was after. She knew that Charles would never throw her out of the mansion. By taking advantage of this, she could slowly undermine Bella’s position while increasing her own. All that was required was to act in a civilized manner and hide her real intentions.

Bella tried to ignore the devious couple while she ate breakfast. She had her phone on the table next to her and watched Ramon’s online videos while munching on her croissant. She began pondering whether it would be a good idea to send him a message. Was there a chance he would ever respond to one of his thousands of followers?

A necessary part of Katherine’s act was to establish a seemingly normal relationship with Bella. This would fool Charles into believing she had changed and would come conveniently the next time she would attempt to lure Bella into a trap.

“What are you busy with, Bella?” she asked. “Why don’t you start your day with a pleasant conversation?”

“I’m just checking Ramon’s latest uploads. Are you aware of him?”

“Ramon? Who is this person?”

She went all the way to the other end of the table just to look at the screen of Bella’s phone. Of course, she asked for permission first.

“May I take a look?”

“Sure, go ahead.” Katherine shot a quick glance at the screen before she put the phone down. Bella could easily tell that Katherine was just putting an act in front of Charles just to show how well she behaved.

“This Ramon guy is not as good looking as Charles.”

“Whatever,” uttered Bella.

What Katherine said was to an extent, true. All royal family members of the Sea Kingdom had extraordinarily handsome features. None of the land creatures could ever compare to one of them. But this didn’t stop Bella from admiring the earthly characteristics of someone like Ramon. She was pretty much fed up with Charles and his kind.

“It seems you and I have different taste in men. I think Ramon is handsome enough.”

Katherine squinted her eyes. “Don’t you think Charles is handsome?”

Bella looked up to Katherine and found that despite her pleasant manners her real intent was to sow the seeds of discord. She decided that she was not going to play along.

“I must say that we can’t compare the ruler of the sea to a mere mortal being.”

“If that were the case, why do you value earthly qualities so much? You don’t even have Charles’s photo as your mobile phone wallpaper!”

“I would if I truly loved him,” said Bella.

Katherine almost spat out the food she was chewing upon hearing those words. Without any more words, she returned to her seat and took a sip of tea from her cup.

“How about that?” said Katherine. “Did you hear that, my Lord?”

“She is indeed a wild spirit!” commented Charles. He turned his head and gave Bella a smile but she did not even glance at him. She took a final sip of her coffee and stood up. It was not wise staying in here with these two.

“I’m going out,” she said.

Charles gave her a strange look.

“What? You promised that I would go out today.”

“I think you have forgotten your obligations,” he reminded her.

“Right. The blood! I’ll go get it for you.”

She wanted to go to the bathroom and get the tools for the transfusion but Charles stopped her. It seemed that he wanted to do it the more intimate way. Bella felt the contents of her stomach coming up her throat. This was something she wanted to avoid at every cost.

“Let me do it myself,” she said.

“We don’t need to do it the usual way,” he said.

They moved to the next room where Charles laid his hand on her shoulder and unbuttoned the top of her blouse. He pulled it down around the shoulder exposing the snow-white skin.

Bella gulped and waited for his sharp teeth to sink into her neck. She closed her eyes and held her breathe but she didn’t feel anything.

She opened her eyes again.

He was looking at her. Today he wanted something more than her blood.

“What are you looking at? Aren’t you going to drink my blood?”

“I want to see where your heart is,” he said.

He put his hand under the blouse and searched under her bra. His cold fingers went around her breast and rested upon. She shuddered when he began to squeeze it.

“Charles, please don’t do that.”

“I just want to see if I still have a place in your heart.”

“That’s my tit you’re touching, not my heart!”

“Why do you want to replace me?” he asked sternly. The tone of his voice gave Bella the creeps. How stupid of her to become a surrogate for Count Dracula!

“I can feel there is someone else in your heart.”

His nails dug into her soft skin, causing her discomfort.

“What do you want to do now? Dig out my heart and eat it raw?”

“You think I’m a monster, don’t you? I will prove you wrong.”