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“We would have lost everything. The little land we own, our home, the livestock…” He looked at me. “We would have been penniless and out in the streets.”

“It would have been better than marrying that… thatBeast.” I turned from my father, unable to look at him anymore.

It was no secret in the village that my father had a gambling addiction. He owed too many people money. He had far too many debts to ever be repaid in our lifetime.

And it finally caught up with him.

“Gaston wouldn’t wait for me to pay him back this time, Belle,” my father pleaded, trying to pull on my heartstrings.

Not this time. There had been too many instances where I’d had to bend over backward to fix his mistakes, where I had to use the little savings I had to pay off the debtors who’d come by.

I’d had to work extra at the village seamstress to make a few additional coins for food because he’d spent all our money gambling. My fingers had bled because I’d worked and tried so hard.

“We would have lost everything,” he whispered pitifully again.

I was done with it all.Because I don’t have a choice anymore.

“Instead, I’m losing my freedom.”

I turned from him and told myself a proper lady didn’t act this way. But I’d never been so hurt and angry in my life.

“They were going to take everything, and then they were going to kill me, Belle. Kill me right in the tavern last night with a handful of villagers as witnesses if I didn’t pay up.”

I looked at him with what I knew was a horrified expression. The silence stretched out, neither one of us able to speak after those heavy words were spoken and hung in the air between us.

“You dug yourself too deep this time.” I pinched the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger and exhaled. I was tired. So tired.

“I’m sorry.”

I knew he was, but then again, he was always sorry when the journey was too hard to take.

“I don’t even understand how you were propositioned for something like this.”

“One of his men was at the tavern. He overheard what was happening and said he’d pay the debt, wipe the slate clean if I agreed to what he wanted in return.” My father had the nerve to glance away, his shame surrounding him. “I agreed wholeheartedly before I knew what he wanted.”

I wasn’t embarrassed to admit I thought about running, slipping out in the night and escaping. But as I looked at my father, knowing they’d kill him slowly because I wasn’t here to once again clean up his mess, any thoughts of leaving him to the proverbial wolves flew out the door.

“How long do I have?” The words were pushed out through gritted teeth. When he didn’t respond, I looked at him. The discomfort on his face was tangible. “How long?”

He swallowed and looked at the flames burning in the hearth. “A fortnight.”

The air wheezed out of me and I braced a hand on the table.

A fortnight before I was given to a Beast who would no doubt use me in every deplorable, animalistic and primal way he saw fit.

2

Belle

His home was a castle, sitting atop a massive mountain, the weather making it seem frightening and otherworldly.

My new home.

The rain and wind whipped by me so fiercely it stung any bared part of my skin.

I wrapped my cloak around my body and tilted my head back to look up at the mansion that stood ominously before me.

A crack of lightning arched across the sky, momentarily flashing in the background and showcasing the gargoyles sitting devilishly on corbels at each corner of the castle.