Sacrificial Bride to the Feared Lord Hastings-Chapter 185: Threat (2)

"I faced separate battles," Giselle said, thinking of her challenges. "It was not easy for a woman with two children from a failed marriage to enter a castle. I wasn’t treated fairly. The children didn’t give me a warm welcome since they were mourning the loss of their mother."

"Then, you should have left," Dante said, not accepting the excuse "You should have placed your children over him."

"It was not an easy choice. Did she tell you how horrible we had it before I married Joel? The little food we had? The leaks when it rained, or how cold we were during the winter? There were days when the cupboards were empty, and I considered making myself a prostitute," Giselle revealed.

"I was going to ruin myself for their sake. If I hadn’t taken them with me to Joel’s castle, we would have starved to death the very next winter. A little bit of beating is better than dying. Ophelia would have been well if she hadn’t upset my husband," Giselle said, shifting the blame to Ophelia.

Ophelia forced Joel’s hand.

"No matter how she defied him, there was no excuse for him to raise his hand to her. You make foolish excuses for your husband. What about Nigel? I have noticed his interest in her. You know that it is wrong," Dante said, waiting for the excuse.

"I don’t know what you speak-"

"You do," Dante interjected before Giselle could finish her lie. "I noticed it after their interactions. You have lived with them, so you would have noticed it. I am willing to bet that you would throw her to him so you could keep your place in the castle. You’re an insult to mothers."

"I never agreed with his interest in her. I wanted them to see each other as siblings, but his children never accepted Ophelia and Theo. What was I to do then? Was I to find an issue with it and lose the only home we had? You don’t know what it is like to suffer," Giselle said, not caring for Dante’s thoughts since he grew up spoiled.

Dante didn’t have to suffer, so he didn’t know what it was like to make tough decisions.

"Lose all that you have now, and then be so desperate that you want to end your life, then come to me. You’ll understand why I had to make the decisions that I did," said Giselle.

"But, it wasn’t that you wanted to end your life. You tried to drown your children to get rid of them," Dante said, not falling for Giselle’s attempt to be pitied.

Giselle clenched her fist, angry that Ophelia was sharing the story.

"I wanted to save them from this cruel world. A gentle death would have been better than starving to death, but I loved them too much to kill them. Despite what you think of me, I love my children. Had my late husband’s family not taken all that he left from us, I wouldn’t be left to suffer," Giselle said.

"They have more relatives alive?"

Giselle bit her lip. "I don’t want to speak of my old family. I want to speak of my daughter and what I have witnessed thus far. It is not good for you to play with her emotions."

"Is it that you think I am not in love with her? Is it too much for you to fathom that someone could love the daughter you abandoned? Or, is it that you don’t believe a man of my status could love her? Go on," Dante urged Giselle. "Answer me."

Giselle thought it should be obvious. "She’ll love easily if you give her the faintest bit of attention. I know what was said about your courtship with Victoria before you married my daughter. You should be honest."

Dante tried to be patient with Giselle, but she was insufferable. Her present behaviour left him thinking of what Ophelia and Theo put up with.

"I love your daughter," Dante said, his confession ore heartfelt the more he repeated it.

"I believe it after what I witnessed, but I know a man can love two women. You want to have your wife, but enjoy another on the side. Victoria is a beautiful woman," Giselle said, revealing she knew the truth.

"If I were up to me, I would kill you right now and be done with it. I see now how far you have sold yourself to be at his side, and how disgraceful you are to think so low of your daughter that a man cannot love her. Understand it clearly," Dante said, taking small steps toward Giselle.

"I love only your daughter. I will go to any lengths needed to protect her, and at this very moment, I am quite close to putting a rope around your neck while you wear that pretty necklace to hang you before my gates. That is how much I love her." Dante confessed, leaving no room for doubt.

"I am not Ophelia’s enemy," Giselle said, wanting to avoid a fight. "I care for them. It is not in the ways you care for her, but I do care for her. No one thinks of what it is like to be in my position. To have an ill son and a daughter who could not keep her mouth shut."

Giselle envied that Ophelia found love in a plot which was set up to kill her. She envied that Ophelia was spoiled by a wealthy man who didn’t care about her background.

Giselle hated that the life she wanted came easily for Ophelia, yet she had to work hard and was only seen as a nanny.

However, the plan wasn’t over yet, and Ophelia wasn’t going to get her happy ending.

Giselle grew tired of holding onto the children who were always ungrateful.

"Very well. I will stop pretending I care for them. I don’t want to be their mother. I do not mind if you judge me. I have thought of my children enough, and all I got in return was their ungratefulness. I will think only of myself," said Giselle.

"It is what you have been doing, so I suggest you continue it. You have been well informed of my love for your daughter. I advise you to be wise. Good day, Lady Valthorn," Dante said, taking small steps back from Giselle. "I must go back to your son."

Dante walked away from Giselle before she could speak. The small interaction gave him the idea of how he was going to punish Giselle to make her regret turning her back on her children.

It angered Dante that Theo yearned to die, and Ophelia was tortured by others meant to be her family, yet Giselle only thought of herself.