Valarie held her sister, Malorie's, hair in a shaky grip as she comforted the girl who was currently puking into the water closet. Her face looked even more horror-stricken than that of the girl facing down the toilet.
"Mal... Mal... Please tell me this is not true," Valerie managed to say after Malorie was done emptying the contents of her stomach, unshed tears brimming in her eyes.
"I was scared, Val. I was really scared," Malorie said in between sobs. "I was really scared, Valerie."
Before they could get even more emotional, the doors of the adjoining toilet burst open. A woman in her early forties ran inside, her expensive heels clicking on the tiled ground as she rushed toward them—only to stop dead in her tracks when she saw both her daughters holding each other's hands while they sat on the ground beside the toilet. Their step-mother's almond eyes flitted toward Valerie for a short time before landing on Malorie, and widening.
"Malorie..." She called out with a calm she didn't feel, "Tell me... Tell me that's not a baby inside you."
Her mother's words made Malorie sob harder while Valerie tried to console her younger sister.
"Tell me you're not pregnant with a child, Malorie!" The lady shouted and burst into tears of her own. "Your father is going to kill you. You were already... You were already—"
"Father isn't going to touch her!" Valerie said with a fierce look in her moonlike eyes, though fear flickered there too.
The bathroom door was banged open again. The three women feared it might be the father, but it was two guardsmen—which they feared even more. The two muscled men in black walked toward the younger woman, particularly Malorie. But before they could touch her, Valerie obstructed their view with her petite body.
"The Master has asked for Ms Malorie."
Valerie didn't need to turn to see how scared her younger sister was—the gasp behind her told it all.
"If you would please excuse me." One of the guardsmen looked down at her as though she were some annoying fly he couldn't wait to crush.
That was how everyone stared at the Valencia daughters. The maidservants in the big mansion got more respect than Duke Ethan Valencia's daughters.
Seeing as Valerie didn't make an attempt to move, the guardsman shoved her aside, in obvious disregard for the Master's wife, who was present in the same space. It wasn't safe to call her a Duchess. She wasn't one, as her husband hadn't coronated her as such.
Valerie hit the ground with a thud and a small gasp. But she was quickly on her feet again when she saw the brute guardsman violently pulling her sister up. Valerie launched at him and tried pulling his arm away, but he didn't budge. Bending her head, she bit his forearm—close to his wrist—painfully hard. He let Malorie go with a groan.
"We'll walk on our own. Get out."
The brute obviously didn't want to move but fight more, but his colleague pulled him out. Their mother left first. Valerie pulled Malorie up, and they left too.
"It's alright. I won't let Dad hit you, okay?"
"You can't stop him..." Malorie muttered. "You know how Father is. He wouldn't care if I'm a woman or if I am... pregnant."
Valerie gulped at the last word. Her heart hammered in her chest as they climbed down the stairs, the guardsmen behind them trying to show some form of respect—only because they were approaching their father.
The Grand Duke had left the dining table, where the whole thing began, and sat on one of the expensive settees in the sitting room. He was seated comfortably, his right fingers drumming on the couch's leather armrest. His moonlike eyes stared at the three women with heavy intensity, probing them as though he could dissect their heads and see what they were thinking.
"We wouldn't want to keep the pregnant lady standing now, would we?" The man said with a small, sickening smile.
A violent shudder passed through Malorie's body—something Valerie felt as she held her sister tightly.
The three women walked over. Their mother sat on the same couch as her husband, keeping some distance, obviously scared. The girls took the seat adjacent to where their parents sat, so the duke's eyes could be on them well. Two female maidservants stood on each side of the Grand Duke, while two guardsmen stood inside and outside the sitting room, guarding the space.
"This is going to be really quick and less violent, Malorie darling. Only if you cooperate, of course."
Goosebumps erupted on both girls' skin at the sight of their father's calm smile. He was anything but calm at the moment. Other fathers called their children sweet names because they loved to do so. Ethan Valencia used endearments on his daughters when he was at his most enraged.
The girls knew. Everyone knew.
"Who's the father?"