A/N: Hello, readers. I have a few important questions that I am in dire need for you to answer at the end of this chapter, so please, please do so! Otherwise, enjoy! This is a chapter to make up for next Tuesday, as I will be unable to post then!

The men's guffaws carried out through the halls of the tavern and sounded like mice screeching to Colette's ears. Yet she paraded on, the smoke caressing her eyes and making molten tears of the Gamblers Hideout, where she had first met the men that swindled her soul into doing things preposterous.

Men showered her with lewd glances and leers as she walked past them. Even with a hood that enveloped her features in darkness, she was susceptible to the male gaze.

Spying her father, The Duke of Cambury and his son, Darius Kent, Colette strolled over to them. On the way, a man gave her behind a sharp tap, and when Colette turned around to glared daggers at him, he and his companions guffawed.

"Look at this lass," he cried to his mates, "she's getting all trussed up." A cacophony of spiteful laughter followed.

Colette clenched her teeth together. She would have liked nothing more than to spit fire at them, but that was not the purpose she was here for. The minute Sophia had whispered the words of doom, after seeing her sister safely back in their house, Colette had rushed to inform her conspirators of the recent development.

She marched over to her father booth and plopped herself on a chair, next to Darius.

The men's chortles and conversations came to an immediate halt when their newest member joined them.

Noticing it was Colette, Darius raised his eyebrows in surprise and a wicked gleam shone in his eyes. "If it isn't Colette again." He traced a finger across her chin and dipped lower to her neck. He went even lower and cupped her breast, causing Colette to squirm uncomfortably. She wanted to swat his arm away, but she was afraid of the retribution she would receive from Darius's father and her own if she went against him.

Instead, she focused on the purpose for her arrival, rather than the hand that encircled her bosom lewdly.

"Father, I have news to tell you."

Her father just raised his eyebrows in question, his bloodshot eyes probing into her own ocean depths.

Darius's father, the Duke continued to stare blankly at her, while Darius himself slightly squeezed her breast to gesture her to continue.

Colette flinched at his touch and slightly shuffled to remove the hard, disgusting nature of the man's hands that encircled her private parts.

His malicious grip just tightened. Colette shuddered in distaste.

Colette then sighed, preparing herself for the hurricane that was sure to follow her words. "Father, I wanted to inform you that Sophia is pregnant with Blake's child, and in light of this revelation, I think the plan has to be put to a halt. We cannot possibly get rid of Blake now, as Sophia's child needs a father, and her a man to rely upon."

For the briefest of moments, silence swept over their gathering.

Then it imploded in a brilliant red.

Fury inflamed in her father eyes, surprise in Darius while the Duke's jaw merely tightened.

The first one to outwardly react was her father.

"How did this happen? Holy hell and Jesus Almighty. I asked you to get them together, as in betrothed, in love. As an engaged couple blooming with happiness, not in bed! What have you understood, you stupid whore?" he screamed, spit flying across the table and landing on Colette's face.

Colette's chest heaved with surprise at the outburst and her heart imploded in her chest. What was her father saying?

"Wha...What? I didn't know that, Father. When you meant together, I thought in that way," Colette stuttered, her eyes blinking rapidly in fear.

The punch to her cheeks came out of nowhere.

Blood slowly trickled down her head, leaving a warm, sticky trail in its wake.

Her father, after all this while, had beaten her.

"You dumb whore! What have you done? I knew some kind of complication would come up. We should have just killed him and have faced legal retaliation than all this complicated, plan nonsense. I specifically said I wanted no trace of his existence, and now he has created a bastard in your sister's womb!"

"I... I am sorry. I misunderstood your words. I thought this was what you wanted. That is what you said."

"No!" he screeched, causing the al the men in the den to briefly look up at him. Mildly mellowing his anger, though his eyes still flashed with the same storm, he furiously whispered, "No. I just wanted them to be a couple with happiness draped upon them like a cloak. Make the end of their relationship painful to the heart, as one watched the other die. Not like this, not with complications."

The Earl pounded at the table in frustration, his face growing purple and red with fury.

Violence brewed like beer in Conway's heart.

Meanwhile, the duke, one of the men involved in the carnage of her life, merely stared at her. He seemed completely evil and murderous, but he wasn't a rapist like this son or an abuser like his associate.

No, he was a different kind of hell altogether.

Finally gathering his wits to what was going on around him, Darius had sprung up and was staring at her, red slowly creeping up on him as well.

"This is why, my Lord Conway, we do not give important things to women. Women are meant to stay at home and cook and be whores to their husbands, else for the world. Not be tasked with the demise of a foe."

Never before had hate surged up through Colette in that very moment. Till that very instance, her hate brimmed on the surface of her being, refusing to come out but now her veins felt like hold liquid fire.

A whore. That was what Darius had taken Sophia to be when he tried to rape her. Sophia had been devastated when she had told Colette, but at that very moment, Colette couldn't fully realize the evil incarnate residing in Darius.

But now she did.

"We women are the sole reason men exist, Mr. Kent," Colette spat.

Colette was more of a woman that submitted to her superiors, mostly the men of her life as demonstrated but the various instances these men bullied her into doing this she did not wish to. But now, though it would be futile, she would take a stand.

She received a blow to the other side of her face as retaliation.

Her vision became dotted and started to appear black at the edges, a sure sign of her falling unconscious. Yet she struggled to maintain her state of alertness as looked up at the three men towering over her.

"What are we going to do now? We can't kill Sophia, but the child is a stain on this earth, a bastard of a being that is the devil's child," Darius hissed.

Despite the danger she was in, Colette couldn't suppress a laugh. Who was calling who the devil?

She was rewarded with a steamy glare that could melt ice and cause fires to come ablaze.

"Shall we kill the child through some means? I know a few people who would supply me with the appropriate liquids," Conway murmured.

Colette could not keep the outrage at bay. "No! You mustn't!" She turned towards her father, blinking back tears that swam to the surface. "Father, you mustn't. Your bad blood is with Blake and not his child, your grandchild."

"That child is no grandchild of mine. It can rot with Blake in his grave."

Colette gaped at him, but if she was being very honest with herself, this did not truly surprise her. This was a man who beat his own children and threatened to kill his others.

"I am afraid I will have to agree with your daughter, my Lord Conway. The child has done no harm." the Duke bellowed out, thinking pensively.

Both Darius and the Earl whipped towards him. "How do you when that child grows up that he or she will not seek revenge for our crimes?" Darius cried.

"We will make Sophia submit to whatever we wish for her to submit to. We will tell her what to say. She will be too heartbroken by grief not to listen," the duke replied.

"Very well, your grace," Conway responded and then whirled at Colette.

"In light of this abnormality, you will be extra careful not to let anything spill about our plan. Do not highlight your interest in the child, as I fear Sophia, from what you said in your letters, already suspect you have succumbed to foul play. We do not need to strengthen that suspicions," the Earl dictated and Colette bowed her head.

This caused a brief pain to slither up her face, and Colette winced, clutching her palm to her cheek and forehead. When she pulled it back, her fingertips were drenched with red.

Colette submerged the urge to puke and pass out.

"No run along, Lady Colette. I heard your sister is resting at home, with a physician tending to some pain of hers. Congratulate her on her excellent news and persuade her to use this as a way to return to Blake." The duke dictated,

"But will she not be wary that I urged her to leave him and now pushing her back to him?"

"It is your job to be coy and do what you're told. Woman are sly creatures," Darius interjected, gripping Colette's arm furiously. '

"Inform us at once when they elope, which you will make sure they do, as it is the vital part of the plan. Without it, any act we commit against Blake's person, including killing him, will be unjustifiable." Conway emphasized.

Colette nodded her acceptance as she felt like she could do nothing else.

She was going to lose her niece or nephew, her sister and her only male friend all at the same time.

Because of her betrayal.

All because of her.

"No, no, no! This can't be happening. Goddamn it!" Sophia cried the very next afternoon, throwing her hairbrush across the room. "No, no, no!" Her cries were loud enough to wake up a dead man.

Colette hurriedly sprinted up the stairs, rushed across the hallway and barged into Sophia's room, panting hard. "What?! What happened?!"

"Goddamn it. I'm bloody pregnant. Pregnant! For sure now! I went to the physician today morning and confirmed it. How did this happen?"

"I assume the normal way people get pregnant, Sophia," Colette admonished and smirked, unable to control the jest from spurting out of her lips. Sophia gave her a look that clearly indicated she wasn't in the mood for her snarky and witty humor.

She blathered on, more irate and ill-tempered than before, "I went to the physician in our family plot, hoping from answers. Yesterday afternoon in the target fields, I was just afraid I was overreacting about my frail condition, but the physician did some tests and then promptly declared I was pregnant. My vomiting and dizziness have now been officially accounted for." Her words all came out in a rush, tripping over one another.

Colette tried to comfort her by raising an arm to stroke Sophia's hair, but she swatted it way. Sophia glared at her pensively, her eyebrows furrowing together in concentration as a million thoughts ran across her mind.

The world stood still and eerily silent as a moment lapsed.

"I'm pregnant," she suddenly wailed piercingly again, slapping a hand to her face. "My life's doomed. Imagine what society will think when they hear! They already have the worst interpretation of me, but this makes it all worse! And imagine father! He'll know it's Blake's and he'll make me remove it. You know how dangerous that is?" Sophia's voice grew unnaturally high pitched and hysterical, as she thought about what this could mean.

She paled. She could die from the process of removing a child from her womb, but if she kept it her father would have her head. And her child's. Literally have their heads.

She didn't think her father would hesitate for a moment before removing anything Blake-related in their lives. He hated him with such vehemence and passion. Sophia curled up on the floor and rocked back and forth weeping, "What on earth am I going to do? I already lost Blake. I can't also lose the only part of him I have left! I am so, so doomed, Colette. When did my life get so messed up? First losing Blake and now... now, this?"

And Sophia didn't even know half of what was happening, yet this was the reaction it warranted. If she knew everything Colette was urging on, Colette didn't know what her sister would do.

If her conspirators succeeded in killing Blake, Sophia would be lost.

Colette sighed and crouched down next to Sophia, placing a reassuring hand on her sister's back, though every touch of comfort felt like a betrayal.

"We'll make sure father doesn't hear about this," Colette whispered though the words no longer held any value.
Sophia looked up at her pitifully. "'How? My belly is going to grow to the size of a large ball. That cannot be kept away from his eyes, even if Father rarely comes home. Someone is bound to tell him! A whale-sized woman is not easily ignored."

Colette had to choose her next words carefully, as there were a crucial turning point and had to be phrased in a docile manner. With much thinking and deliberation, she replied, "Maybe you should elope with Blake to protect and raise your child. It would not be a bastard and you can raise it away from father's cruel hands."

"Elope? After what father threatened to do. Are you mad? You indeed are the one who urged me that my choice to let him go was correct, as father was unpredictable. Yet again, as you have done these past few weeks, you contradict yourself and urge me to chase after him. What two-face natured are you showing, what games are you playing with my heart?"

Colette laughed nervously. Sophia was very keen and perceptive when she wanted to be. Colette tried to stealthily scape but Sophia pulled her back towards her.

"Colette. I have no idea what had gotten into you, but I demand an explanation. You are constantly telling me to take Blake back and let him go and don't want it any longer, I have no idea what you're playing at, but I demand an explanation." Sophia mother-hen side emerged out of the shadows once again.

"I just... I just don't know. I just want to see you together, but sometimes...jealousy," Colette suddenly brightened as the reason came to her. "Ah, jealousy sometimes takes control over my body and this woman inside me, evil and horrid in nature wants to see love not exist, as I have a lack of it thereof."

Sophia stated sullenly at her, her mouth hanging open comically. "But that doesn't seem like you. Jealousy is not you, sweet sister. It's something else. I am sure of it."

Throwing her head back and pressing a hand to her head dramatically, Colette replied, "I assure you, fair maiden. My dark side has emerged. That is all. All humans are susceptible to jealousy, and it seems like my time to do so." Colette accompanied this statement with bizarre expression which earned her a chuckle from Sophia.

"Such a drama child," Sophia smiled, her purpose for the moment merely forgotten.

"I always have been, dear sweet sister."

"But Colette, aside from all drama that you have stirred up aside, what should I do? I cannot raise this child on my own. Both of us would be social outcasts and our family name has been tarnished enough already."

Colette knew that these words would haunt her for the rest of her life, but it came out anyway, "You're not raising this child alone because you are going to elope with Blake."

"And you're going to marry him at last."

Sophia could only stare, as for once, she was struck speechless. After all, how could one respond to that, the finality of that statement?

But if only it was that easy. If only it didn't come with a thousand disasters. If only it didn't lead to broken hearts and blood.

Marriage. It seemed Sophia had finally gotten the wish of her youth granted.

Except for it being utterly and completely marred.

A/N: What did you think about this chapter? Who's the worst and best character in this story, to you?

*Important questions I would be so glad if you could spare a moment to answer:

1. Do you all see a clear distinction between Sophia's and Colette's characters? At the beginning of this book, I felt their characteristics were distinct, but now I feel they are merging into one! Please comment what you think and why!

2. Similarly, do you see a clear distinction in the levels of evil and hatred of Darius, the Earl and Duke are? In terms of their characteristics, do their actions set them apart?

3. Does this plot, despite being slightly historically inaccurate, have depth and a structured storyline, as I often feel I am writing a children's fairy tale book, and my plot is really dumb.

Please comment on the above questions! It would help so, so much!

Readers! Thank you for taking your time to read this chapter! Be sure to vote, comment and share it with others! Every single thing means the world to me! I love you all!