Chapter 357: Something wrong_Part 3
"We should all move to the drawing room to have morning tea before breakfast, please. And good morning, Lady Louisiana and Mr. Griffin," Belle greeted Evenly and Rav politely after whispering to her husband about why he had brought the very people he had said he didn’t want knowing he was in this room.
Evenly’s confusion grew at Belle’s words, and, unable to help it, she let her eyes fall on the duke, who was watching his wife with his arms crossed over his chest. She then glanced toward Rav, who looked just as confused as she was at what the lady had said.
Did she just mistake them for her parents? What was wrong with her friend? Did it have something to do with what happened yesterday that had caused her to lose control? But hadn’t she been fine last night before Evenly had left her?
Though she had not paid attention to much of what anyone had said yesterday when Belle had nearly killed the Baron, she had heard several people murmuring that Belle was mentally unstable, even going so far as to call her insane. Evenly had not believed them then, but standing here now, she could not deny something was terribly wrong in this moment.
Rohan, who had been silent the entire time, letting his wife speak, finally parted his lips. His eyes were hard, yet he forced his voice to remain deceptively light.
"We can’t go to breakfast yet, not until you at least feed Angel. He hasn’t eaten anything since last night, he must be starving." He turned to Evenly and took his son from her arms, inching closer to Belle.
But Angel clung to him and stared at her warily, shaking his head frantically as his red eyes darted between his father and mother, as if trying to say something. Rohan stopped in his tracks.
On a normal basis, when Angel had not seen his mother or been fed for long hours, the very moment he laid eyes on her again, his excitement was something even Rohan could barely calm, as the boy would try to leap from his arms into hers. But now, instead of joy, Angel’s reaction was the complete opposite. He even began to bare his little fangs at her, dark veins surfacing on his face as he glared. The sight made Belle recoil in horror, startled by the hostility in his eyes.
"Dear Lord, what’s wrong with him? Why is he like that?" Belle asked with a horrified expression, staring at the demon child she suddenly found hideous with those fangs and darkened features.
Rohan got the confirmation he needed. Without a second thought, he handed Angel back to Evenly and then turned toward the imposter. In a single swift motion, his hand shot out, wrapping around her throat and squeezing with a deadly grip.
Angry veins pulsed across Rohan’s forehead at the realization that he was being forced to hurt his wife’s body in order to deal with this imposter.
"I won’t say it twice or repeat myself. Who are you, and how did you get into that body?" His words came low and calm, but his dark eyes burned like the depths of hell itself.
Evenly, clutching Angel tightly, tried to soothe the baby as he suddenly began to struggle, squirming to get down. She didn’t know what was happening, but she knew the duke’s love for Belle was far too deep for him to ever strangle her without reason. Something had indeed possessed her friend’s body. Still, Evenly didn’t think it was right to let Angel to witness this, so she pressed his face against her shoulder, shielding his view of his father strangling his mother, and moved to stand behind Rav, using him as cover.
Hot tears welled in Belle’s hazel eyes as she tried to speak through his crushing grip.
"Ugh... l-let go..." She clawed weakly at his hand locked around her neck, her eyes turning bloodshot from lack of air.
Rohan, noticing it, those eyes that were his wife’s, though without her soul, released her suddenly.
"Answer me, damn it! Who are you?!" he demanded, his voice trembling with fury, torn by the need to protect Belle’s body without knowing who was hiding within it.
Belle, or rather, the woman inside her body, wrapped a hand around her aching throat, looking at him with wounded, tear-filled eyes.
"H-how could you ask that... my Lord? I am your beloved wife..." she gasped, fighting for breath as she staggered backward, away from him. Her expression twisted with both fear and pain as she realized he was advancing again, his looming frame filling her vision. Would he strangle her to death? Didn’t he love his wife?
Rohan backed her against the wall, towering over her. Tilting his head slightly, he leaned down, his face unreadable.
"Oh yes, you are my beloved wife," he said softly, almost mockingly, "but I seem to wake on the wrong side of the bed sometimes and forget who my wife is. Will you be a darling and remind me of your name, love?"
He asked the question carefully, straining to rein in his anger. He knew that if he let his temper loose, he might lose his wife forever and be left with this imposter, this stranger who had somehow slipped into Belle’s body while her true soul was trapped elsewhere.
He had gone to sleep with Belle... but he had not woken with her. His wife’s soul was somewhere else, and only this intruder knew where.
The moment he had woken from sleep and didn’t feel his wife’s presence, even when she was in the room, he had known immediately that something was not right. But he hadn’t thought it was because her soul was no longer in her body. He’d wanted to confirm it, which was why he had gone to bring Angel. Just like him, his son knew what his mother’s presence felt like.
Even Evenly and Rav, who had no ability to sense such things, had known something was wrong the moment they entered. But if he didn’t handle the situation with calmness, he might never truly uncover how this switch had happened overnight.
The imposter paled at Rohan’s question. Name? What was her name? Had he called his wife by name since waking up? No, he had addressed her only with endearments. She racked her brain desperately, horrified that she had made such a mistake for him to notice so quickly.
How could he have realized she wasn’t the real person when she had played her part so well?!