Lilith took a deep breath, three maids took two hours to get her ready in that stuffy dress. She admitted it was lovely, the black went together so well with the lilac mesh, though once again it revealed too much cleavage and the back of the dress was practically non-existent, so she had to wear a pretty shawl with embroidered roses on it to keep herself from looking naked. The count made it very clear to her that she was to reveal as much skin as possible to be liked by Vincent Allard, but she knew that wasn't how to get his attention and that it wasn't going to be happening anytime soon. "Oh i can not wait to see the Allards mansion, i heard they even have a pond in their garden, with a beautiful fountain and a wisteria garden." The countess said excitedly. Graciela, the younger sister squealed in excitement, "I remember meeting Vincent last month at the Millards banquet, he was so handsome, and his brother also, oh father please try to get me an engagement to Cyrus.." Graciela said to the count as she held onto his arm trying to act cute. Lilith, who was behind them just pointed a finger at her mouth and gagged at the display in front of her. "Here my ladies, enter the carriage carefully.." the count said offering his hand to his wife and daughter to get on the carriage. Lilith knew he didn't mean her, and she saw a smaller mistreated carriage behind them and knew that one was for her. She started walking that way and the count and his son entered the carriage with the countess and Graciela. She got on by herself and a servant slammed the door closed, she looked at the man through the window and made eye contact with him, he simply bowed his head a little and walked away. "Hmm, I suppose he's a little nicer than the others." She thought to herself. As the carriage started moving she remembered the day she was on the bus with her friends on the way to the beach. They had all kinds of pool floaties they blew up too early and ended up having to sit uncomfortably at the back of the bus. She smiled to herself, that was day Miyano had sat next to her and they listened to music during the 45 minute ride. "Have you heard of this song?" He asked as he handed her an earphone, he moved her hair out of the way gently to put in the earbud, she felt goosebumps all over skin. '~Not even they can stop me now~ ~Boy, I be flyin' overhead~ ~Their heavy words can't bring me down~ She smiled as she listened to the familiar soothing voice. "Lana del rey...I didn't know you were educated..." she teased as she bumped his shoulder with hers. ~Boy, i've been raised from the dead~ ~No one knows how hard life was~ "My little sister introduced me to this music a few days ago, her music taste doesn't disappoint, of course i'd never tell her.."Miyano said. She giggled and he smiled at her so tenderly she felt herself get all warm and soft inside. ~Now my life is sweet like cinnamon~ The bus came to a harsh stop and she caught him as he almost flew forward. "Thank you, my hero~" he said as he acted like a princess fawning over her knight in shining armor. They started laughing and Yuki popped up between them. "We're here!! Let's go! I heard they're selling fried squid at one the stalls!" Yuki exclaimed as she grabbed Estellas hand and rushed out, when she looked back at Miyano he was just smiling at her softly as he helped the rest of the group with their things. Lilith snapped back to the reality she was now facing, she was damn pissed at the fact that she was enjoying her life so happily before ending up in this hell hole, she didn't even notice she had been grinding her teeth in frustration. They finally arrived, she got down and looked at the luxurious mansion in front of her, when the carriage door opened she was shocked not expecting anyone to open it for her. She looked up and caught sight of bright green eyes looking directly into hers, a hand extended to help her get off. "Thank you.." she said as she softly smiled at the young man. "Welcome to the Allards home, my lord the duke, and the duchess are waiting for you inside." He said in professional tone as he bowed his head. The count and countess smiled and started walking towards the entrance, Samuel, their son gave Lilith a snarky look as he walked ahead of her with Graciela. She just sighed since she didn't care about any of it. The young man that had offered his hand to help her get off looked at her curiously, she was indeed a very beautiful woman, and he didn't expect her to say thank you when he helped her down due to rumors he heard of her being rude to staff. "I'm glad that's not true." He thought. Lilith looked at him and smiled. "What is your name?" She asked. He was caught off guard "Oh..Sebastian my lady." He said respectfully. "Sebastian..." she whispered with a smile, "i'll try to get along with him in case he comes in handy later on..." she thought. The duchess was nervous, Vincent was looking so gloomy she could have sworn she saw grey clouds above his head. "Family Grimrose is here." A butler announced as they entered. "Duke Allard, greetings from me and my family." The count said in a proud tone. The duke sighed, "Good evening, please sit, join us for dinner." He said as the servants pulled back the chairs for them. "Oh god...why are they so hot...even their dad is so handsome..." Lilith thought as she felt her face get hot. She took a deep breath. "I need to calm down." She looked at Cyrus, tall build and very muscular, light hazel green eyes, fair skin, black hair like his father and a defined jawline. "Drop dead gorgeous.." she thought as she smiled at the duchess. The duchess smiled back but Lilith could tell she was feeling uncomfortable. "I was thinking, since my darling daughter is going to be moving here on her own, we wanted her to have the maid that raised her come with her, so she won't be lonely." The count said. The duke cleared his throat. "We have very suitable maids here, she won't be lonely and they will take excellent care of her." The duke said in a tone that was practically telling the count to drop the issue. Lilith smiled. "If i may speak father, Duke, I don't need a maid from home, i'm sure there is excellent staff here and i feel we could get along well." She said as she sipped some of the sweet wine they poured into their glasses. The counts nose flared in anger, "we'll send her Vanessa whenever we get a chance." He thought. Vincent turned to look at Lilith and she finally got a good glimpse of him, he had misty grey eyes, really long dark eyelashes, a face sculpted beautifully with full lips. He had a muscular build like Cyrus but softer on the edges, maybe since he was younger. "Nice." She thought happily, she was going to be able to see these beauties every day. "Lady Thalia is here." A servant called and both Cyrus and Vincent perked up as they watched her walk in. "Sorry i'm so late, my meeting with Lady Beatrice was so fun we lost track of time, it's a pleasure to meet the Grimrose family."Thalia said bowing her head. She was certainly beautiful, strawberry blonde hair almost looking pink, pouty lips and large blue eyes. She looked like a doll. She was a petite girl, and her face was glowing with innocence and purity. Thalia sat between Cyrus and Vincent. "From the novel i knew she wasn't family to them, however they found out her father Count Gordon was trying to sell her into slavery, them loving their children so much couldn't let it happen and they took her in, she was so sweet they ended loving her as much as their own children." Lilith thought. Thalia looked at Lilith and smiled. "I'm so happy to have someone else my age be here! I really hope we can be friends..." Thalia said shyly. The duchess seemed happy to hear that, but Cyrus and Vincent looked at each other as if they knew it wasn't gonna happen due to the rumors of Lilith being an attention whore and jealous of other women. Lilith caught on but she just ignored it, "The wedding ceremony will be in one week from now, so it would be good to start moving some of Liliths things over to her new room here."The duke said. "Yes...what a good idea, hopefully soon Lilith you can reunite with Vanessa, I know she'll miss you dearly..." the count said to Lilith, she just smiled since she knew she had no intention of helping him. The rest of the evening went smoothly, except for Lilith dealing with the fear of having a nip slip from the cleavage of the dress. When she first arrived she saw the horror in the dukes eyes from what she was wearing, so she kept herself in check using polite speech and only speaking when spoken to trying to gain his favor. Finally in a comfortable nightgown in her temporary room she was able to relax, or so she thought, a tall strong maid walked in with rage written on her face. She grabbed Lilith by the hair and dragged her to pin her to the wall. "What were you thinking! How could you say you don't need me there! You are going to destroy everything we worked so hard to get!" She shouted in her face. Lilith was chocking from the pressure of the maids arm on her throat. She felt her brain snap again and she got the memories of Lilith as a child getting whipped, chained, tortured, and just abused by this maid, Vanessa. "So this is Vanessa, the one that 'educated' Lilith."she thought as she tried to push her away. That enraged Vanessa more and she threw Lilith to the floor. She pulled out a whip and was about to hit her when the count barged in. "Stop it! She is getting married in a week and i need her to look flawless! If that boy sees those marks on her he'll annul the marriage and we won't have any chances!" He yelled. "Thats what he cares about?" She thought as she massaged her throat. He looked at her with disgust. "Come Vanessa, we need to make plans." He said and they left her alone. She felt so weak, so disrespected. "I need to get stronger...when I was in army I was the strongest, i was quickly fitting into the infantry...nobody was able to lay a finger on me...I got up to the special operations force..and I even taught combat, now look at me. I'm as weak as a dry leaf." She thought as the tears welled up in her eyes. Throughout the week they started giving her less food to make her diet making her idea of trying to get stronger pointless, the count wanted her to fit into the dress he got for her wedding which was once again revealing, this one even had a slit open up to mid thigh. "I hate this." She thought as the maids were fitting the dress, they purposely kept poking her with the needles and acted as if it was an accident. "This is fine. Tomorrow is the wedding and I can finally get out of this hell hole." She thought, struggling to breath from how tight the waist line was. She knew she couldn't pick any fights with anybody, she had to be patient. " As soon as I can I'll sell half the jewelry i'm taking with me, that will give me a good amount to survive at least a week if i have to escape early. I can sell some shoes too..." she thought. The shoes she was currently wearing were about six inches and were pinching uncomfortably, she was lucky Liliths body had gotten mostly accustomed to the pain, otherwise if she was in Estallas body she would be crying. The night before the wedding the maids did a 4 hour long routine on her, using wax all over her body, and all kinds of oils and moisturizers, filing all her nails, and trimming her hair to make it soft and adding pin curls to give her curly hair in the morning. They finally finished and they wrapped her pinned hair in a silk bonet so it wouldn't get frizzy over night, and leaving a soothing cream thickly on her face so she could wake up with supple skin. Lilith was finally in bed, and she was so nervous she took longer to fall asleep but when she did she dreamt of being back with her friends and family...it was bittersweet. She was harshly woken up by the sheets being ripped off her and the maids hurriedly rinsing her face with cold water and applying make up. When she saw what her breakfast was she almost cried, the worst torture of all, a single orange and anti-inflammatory tea. Her heart shattered since she was starving and knew they wouldn't feed her until maybe the reception. She ate it sadly as they did her hair in a half up, half down style with curtain bangs, adding flower pins with a pearl, gold jewelry adorning her head and body. During the carriage ride the count gave her a list of things he needed her to spy on, documents and information from mines and suppliers. She pretended to listen but she was thinking of the ceremony, Lilith was known for loving attention, but Estella never liked being the center of attention. She could feel the knots in her stomach, plus getting lightheaded from the tight corset and empty stomach. When they arrived she saw someone setting down some snacks and while nobody was looking she snagged a few and hurriedly walked to the room they prepared for her to wait in. She looked back at the tray and the waiter was scratching his head and he counted them repeatedly, she could hear their conversation lightly. "I think someone ate the dogs treats..."the waiter said to a butler. "Well....I mean they are safe for consumption of people but..that's strange..." the butler said rubbing his forehead. Lilith wanted to gag, hearing they were safe for human consumption was a relief, and she wasn't as hungry anymore so she won the battle...but lost the war. "Oh my god..." She thought, somewhere deep in her mind she put that memory in a box and locked it. She knew the novel was inspired by the middle ages, and dogs were highly viewed in those times...so at least she knew it wasn't something nasty she was digesting...or so she hoped. "I mean...it didn't taste nasty...it was bland but it wasn't bad..." she thought trying to comfort herself in this embarrassment. Vincent was standing with his family and Thalia in the room next to their ceremonial hall a total wreck. "I wish it was Thalia..."he thought as he saw how beautiful Thalia looked in the pearl white dress with some pink ribbons they picked out for her to wear. She looked beautiful in her simple make up and loose hair, he could have run away with her in this exact moment had she just mentioned it. The duchess was tense, she was afraid of what her hot headed son would do if he got any more irritated. She just held his hand, knowing how he felt since she also got married out of family convenience not love. So she hoped that like her, with time he could learn to at least care and appreciate Lilith, after all she wanted him to be happy. "The altar and audience is ready sir." Sebastian said as he bowed. "Thank you, we'll head out now." The duchess said sweetly. She held Vincents hand and they walked out of the room, "what a day to get married..." Vincent thought bitterly.