Prologue

Past

Six years ago

Cole

I blinked my eyes open, noticing the sunrays filtering through the curtains on the window. For a moment I was lost in a sleepy haze and then I became aware of the soft sleeping form beside me. And it was difficult to ignore her when her slender arm came around my torso and she came over me. Her beautiful body draped across mine like a blanket.

"Happy Birthday.….." She whispered, her sleep roughened voice making me hard under the blankets. "Welcome to adulthood, baby." She giggled, teasing me with the endearment like always as she was two years older than me. It still felt like a dream that this beautiful woman was mine. That I would get to spend my whole life with her.

When I had met her, my fifteen years old self had fallen head over heels for the girl of seventeen she had been. For all those twenty years now, she was still the innocent girl who I had found in my father's library looking at all the books with awe in her gaze. She was like a beauty entering a castle for the first time in a castle with wonder written all over her face.

I turned us over and her soft laugh made my heart clench. God, I love her so much. I didn't think I'd ever love anyone this much. Settling between her legs that she opened for me without any prompt like it was meant to be only for me, I said, "Let me show you how much of an adult I am.

Her sparkling grey gaze smiled up at me and then her lips fell apart on a breathy exhale as I slid into her. I looked at her face, with her eyes closed and pleasure etching her features, I reflected at how innocently beautiful she was. She was so small, looking at her all I wanted was to take care of her and protect her from the outside world. One look at her and no one would guess that she was twenty. But she was and yet she was my delicate beauty.

I caressed her cheek, my fingers revelling at the feel of her soft skin. She smiled softly and her eyes fluttered open. Her small hand came to cup my face as she said, "I love you, Cole."

I kissed her petal like lips, making sure to love her the way she liked as I moved over her. "I love you too, Lily." Her legs entwined across my back as she pulled me down into her. Her cheeks flushed bright pink as she wrapped her arms around my neck. She said in a moan, "I have a gift for you, big guy.."

I thrust into her faster, making sure to give her the pleasure that she brought me. "Fück." I growled as I buried my face into her neck and felt her walls clenching around me. "Come for me, sweetheart." I said to her, kissing her neck where her pulse throbbed.

When we were both spent, I slumped down on her for a second. But concerned for her that I'd break her, I moved beside her and pulled her to me. Her naked brèasts pressed to my chest. I asked then, "You have a gift for me, do you?" I kissed her.

"Yup." She caressed my hair back from my forehead, her favourite thing to do. "Tonight, after your dinner with your parents.

I sighed. "So you are still not coming?"

"I just did." She laughed.

I shook my head but I was smiling, it was difficult not to smile when I was with her. She makes everything perfect. I kissed her head and said, "You know What I meant." From the very beginning since she came to live here with her father and little brother, she had always been wary of my parents even when they made it clear that they liked having her here. My mother was even ready for me to propose to her. My father and Uncle on the other hand were totally different stories.

"I know that you want me to be there with you, but I told you, Cole... We already had this conversation, I don't feel comfortable with your parents." She paused and looked up at me with those beautiful eyes. "They intimidate me. I just feel like..." she shrugged her shoulders, "That they would think I was taking advantage of their son."

And my heart softened even more for this girl that I will soon marry, that is how she showed her vulnerability to me. I rubbed her arm as I said, "You have nothing to fear about my parents. And I for one, am ready for you to take advantage of me anytime you want.

"I told you what happened the other day with your uncle, didn't 1?" She asked in a small voice.

I swallowed hard, the irritation and a spark of anger making me want to go and find my uncle so I could smash his face in. The only thing that had stopped me was the fact that my father had already shouted at my uncle and forbidden him from ever talking to my Lily. My Lillian.

I returned from the restaurant late at night, my father called a few of his friends to boast about his only son becoming eighteen. But not even halfway through the dinner I was already missing my Lily. And the moment dinner was over, and I had done my part by cutting the cake I had left my own birthday party to leave my parents so they could celebrate it with their friends.

I jumped out of the car, made my way straight to the main house as I knew she would be waiting there in my bedroom for me. But before I could enter the house, a small cry that I was too familiar with came from the servants' wings that were on the left side of the main house. I would have ignored it if it wasn't familiar.

"Leave her!" Her brother cried, her boyish voice a loud shriek. "Please, Lily!!"

My heart thudding in my chest, I flew down the stairs I had just ascended, and ran toward the servants' wings. Even though I had tried to come back as soon as I could, it was still after one in the morning and the silence around the property told me that everyone had already gone to sleep.

I made my way where I knew her father, our cook, lived with both his children. My fingers shook as another cry tore in the silent night, this one piercing my chest. Running the short distance, I barged through one of the small suites that were allotted to the servants so they could live there with their families or alone.

My eyes met red rimmed grey ones, puffy from crying his small face was red. And one side of it was bruised too. I went on my knees in front of him. "What happened, little guy?" I asked him as I wiped his tears but he was hiccupping and crying, his nine year old body shaking with his sobs.

"Lily… He is in there with her..." A loud crash came from inside and then a grunt and another scream.

I didn't wait to hear all of it as I stood up and slammed my shoulder in the door. My stomach in knots, cold sweat covered my body as I heard more stifled screams and the small hand curling in my jeans didn't help.

The door gave out and I stumbled inside. My whole world upended in that single moment as I watched the love of my life bleeding on the floor, her little brother crying and running to his sister's side. And all I could do was just stand there and watch her bleed.

"It was a mistake..." My uncle stammered, bringing me out of the daze I was in. "I - I didn't mean to." He said, holding his hand together as if praying for me to forgive him.

I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know how I crossed the room, picked up the knife from the floor that was covered in her blood and plunged it deep into my uncle's heart. I did it again and again and again

Until I heard her soft whisper of my name as she called out to me, "Cole... Baby..

Pulled out of my daze, I went to her side and picked her up in my arms. I promised her everything would be fine. I promised her that nothing would happen to her. I promised her that I will be there for her.

But it was all a lie because I wasn't there for her when she had needed me. And then by the time I came back I couldn't do anything.

@Gupta