(Edited)
Inside the study, an old man with fierce aura was sitting on the seat behind the desk.
He was looking at his two grandsons who were both bowing their heads.
The atmosphere was so serious and it was so suffocating.
Then suddenly, they heard a soft knock on the door and the knob twisted open.
Before they could even react, a pretty little girl full of energy got inside and rushed towards them.
"Gen. Pop!" Celeste squealed as she ran towards General Shaw in excitement.
Gen. Shaw's expression also softened upon seeing Celeste.
"Little Elie!" General Shaw gave here the nickname Elie since Celeste was pretty long to say and the child liked it.
"Gen. Pop! Look! I brought Pwetty Sistew with me today!" She excitedly said as she ran back towards Violet who wa standing by the door contemplating if she should come in or stay outside.
She could see that the two other people inside were shocked to see her, too.
"General Shaw!" Violet made a forty-five degree bow as she didn't dare to make a salute. She's afraid that she'd only embarrass herself or anger him for doing it wrong instead.
If this was in Aprivepan, it would be a big commotion to see the Queen bowing down to someone from the military. The only person who received a bow of respect from her after becoming Queen was her General Father.
General Shaw was quietly observing Violet and as he saw her ugly appearance, he was indeed displeased. He had already seen her in a photograph and he thought she's even uglier in person.
He himself had a thing for beauty. The fact that he had bastard sons from different women was a proof to that.
However, their family owed this girl so much and seems like Celeste was fond of her.
So he had no other choice but to treat her nicely as their guest for the last time. Yes, he had plans of cutting ties with her. This should end tonight!
"You're Miss Jane Sanchez, right?" He asked though he had already known who she was.
He had done a background check on her to make sure that what happened was indeed an accident and not some play set up by their enemies.
After he got hold of her files and found out that she was not involved to any of their enemies, that's when she allowed Mrs. Shaw to help her.
"Yes, General!" Violet answered firmly.
"Thank you for saving my granddaughter." He said. Then told Celeste to go to her brothers so he and Violet could talk.
"It's no big deal General. It's my pleasure to help others even if my life's at risk." Violet was speaking through the heart. She mean it and she knew that if Jane was there, she would say the same thing.
"However, the Shaw family didn't like to owe others. So Miss Sanchez, name your price." General calmly spoke.
Violet was taken aback by what she heard.
She could not believe that someone who made an oath to protect the citizens of this country even if it would make his life at risk, would do such thing to her. Judging her just like everybody else.
She scoffed and sneered deep inside. She had just realized that he had already judged her character as an opportunistic b*tch the moment she walked in.
And Violet felt hurt deep down.
Why were these people had strong and biased opinion against ugly looking and poor people like her?
Seeing that she was silent, General Shaw took the initiative to open his drawer and took a thick check book. He then affixed his signature and gave the blank check to Violet.
Though this was new for her. Violet could already understand what was going on. He wanted to give her monetary compensation in exchange for the favor she had done to them.
"If you're that shy to ask, just write it there and keep it," he added making her expression to turn sour even more.
"I'm sorry General but I won't take this."
Violet held the check and returned it back to him.
"Oh come on! Name your price." Though he said it with a calm voice, his aura had turned fierce which made Celeste to look towards their direction.
"Gen. Pops, are you bullying Pwetty Sistew?" She innocently asked and was about to go towards them but Gab held her.
"It's okay darling, we're only talking. The general was just excited that's why he raised his voice." She lied.
No matter how much the general had wronged her, she's not someone who would ruin their precious relationship as family.
Seeing that Celeste believed her, she then turned her attention back to General Shaw who was looking at her with a frown in the face.
"No. If you'd give me money as compensation just because I save Celeste then I think you should give those soldiers who are out risking their lives in areas of the country under disputes with the lefties these money, too. After all, they are risking their lives just to protect us. Their willing to bite the bullets for us. What I did is incomparable to what they have been doing." As a General's daughter, Violet had high respect towards soldiers or any warriors who defended any countries to protect their people.
After all, she once had fought with her father's warrior knights together with the King in the past and she saw them fighting their demon enemies to death.
"General, please don't make me lose my respect to this country's soldiers too." She said after she realized that the General was speechless with her words earlier.
"Very well! Then I won't be polite to you after this."
Since she refused his money, then he would not be polite to her.
"I have never expect you to treat me with respect anyways when you see me. I'm here as I am invited as a guest by Mrs. Shaw. I'll talk to her not to see me again as it's too troublesome." Violet said but a part of her ached when she thought of not seeing Celeste again.
She glanced at Celeste who was now playing with her big brothers. And she could not help but sigh.
She knew that General Shaw was only doing this to protect his family. Especially from her whose background they knew little.
She didn't have to touch him to know what he was thinking towards her as it was already displaying.
"Very well, then, I'll count you on that." General Shaw calmly said but it was more like a warning for her.
After they were done talking, Violet excused herself and went out of the study leaving Celeste behind her brothers.
It was still early for dinner so she decided to roam around the entire mansion.
She passed by a long hall with portraits of members of the family hanging on the wall.
It started from the first Patriarch Shaw, then to his wife and then to his sons. The first portrait had a date of 1800's carved on the frame. So this family had been a long history and was now in the hands of their eighth generation heirs.
Families like this would always be messy to get involved with and Violet personally didn't like it at all.
Politics in a huge household such as this would never be simple.
She knew very well because she herself could not escape politics in her past life.
'Geez! Stop remembering your past and comparing it in your present. You are in a good place now where they could not reach and hurt you.' She said as she comforted herself.
She had been walking around the house that she didn't know that she was lost.
The house was just so big and spacious that she didn't know she was lost. Until she saw an exit going to the back garden.
It was already dark outside and the lights had just started to lit up. The place was so quite and Jane looked at the man-made pond at the center of he garden while walking.
She was so caught up on her thoughts that she didn't realize that someone was already standing in front of her, studying her every move.
Violet snapped out of her thoughts when she felt like she hit a strong wall.
She reached out to move herself away from it but frowned when she's touching a soft yet hard surface.
That's when she realized that she had bumped into a man's chest and not a wall.
She looked up and saw a pair of amber eyes staring directly at her black ones (contact lense). Since she's wearing contacts, the man could not see that she had purplish colored eyes which was very rare among the human species in this world.
"Careful!" The man spoke with his magnetic baritone voice which made Violet to be lost in a trance.
"Are you hurt?" He asked her after she was silent but Violet had moved a few steps away from him.
"No, I am fine." She somehow managed to compose herself as she looked at the man standing a few feet away from her.
"Little girl, don't roam around next time while being lost in your deep thoughts. You almost bump on the wall and must have hurt your forehead." The man's warm voice somehow surprised Violet and made her felt this complicated feeling.
The man was standing on the dark and the hat he was wearing was blocking the lights coming from the lamp post so she could not clearly see what he looked like.
Overall, he had this well-built physique with broad shoulders. He had a tall height. He was indeed so tall like the knights in the first-order which his father supervised.
He even had the same height as her ex-husband.
He wore a suit with a matching hat. A silk scarf was also draped in both of his shoulder. He was holding a lit cigarette on his right hand, an indication that he had been smoking.
He then threw the cigarette on the ground and stomped it under his feet.
Then he walked towards the light as he approached Violet.
The moment she saw his face clearly, Jane's face tuned pale and she was frozen.
"No!"
"Impossible!"
Of all people she could meet in this world, why did she have to meet someone who had the same face as him!
The person who broke her heart and soul.
The person who killed her.