Page 19 of TAINTED by TWINS

"Mina..." Lei wraps her arms around the Lady's waist. "Let's go to bed?"

"You smell of chocolates. He gave you sweets again, didn't he?" Her tone was stern and disapproving.

Lei didn't think any of it and just smiled warmly at her. "Well, he wanted me to taste this weird green stuff inside chocolates—"

"You're not supposed to eat too much sweets!" Velomina scolds her, grabbing her arm to throw it off herself. "That man doesn't even think about your health and the health of your baby, he just allows you to shove nasty stuff down your throat."

Lei looked hurt, "B-but..."

"You just don't think at all, do you Lei Ann? You're pregnant now, eat like you're feeding a baby, not a pig." Velomina walked away from her and out of the door.

Lei's eyes remained on the door sadly, trying to swallow the hurtful words. It seems like Velomina isnt just angry about the sweets.

"Everything will get better once she sees the baby, my love..." he says while kissing her warmly.

"I hope so... she's always upset. I want to make her feel better but she doesn't even want to look at me," she sobbed. "Sh-she called my baby a parasite..."

"Dolcezza, no... I will talk to her. That baby will be the best thing that will happen to us."

But the Lady could only look at them so bitterly. She could no longer show how much she loves Lei; everytime she sees her, she just wants to cage the girl away from her husband, away from that—parasite. Yet Lei doesn't deserve to be in the same prison Velomina was trapped in... does she?

"I just want to bring her to the gala..." Master Khalid tells his wife.

"And make a fool out of me by showing everyone your pregnant whore instead of your barren wife?!"

The Master lightly hit her in the cheeks, a firm taps "Don't you dare call her a whore!"

"You made her one of yours!" She yelled at him.

"Excuse me," she sobbed, running away from the table.

"Now look at what you've done! She hasn't eaten a thing and yet you claim to take care of the baby so much!" Velomina yells at Master Khalid.

"Don't act innocent Velomina, your voice is just as loud!" Master Khalid stood up to go after Lei, but the Mistress grabbed him by the arm and held a steak knife against his neck.

"Don't act all sweet on her when you're just using her to make your heir!" She spat out, "Acting all loving when you've only seen her as an incubator that can function!"

"I love Lei Ann the same as you—"

"You only love her because I do, you wouldnt even notice her if she wasn't my lover!" Velomina pressed the knife against his neck, "If it weren't for the child, I would've taken her away from this place, never to be taken advantage of by men like you!"

To defend himself, Khalid had to slap the knife away and grab her arm to throw her to the ground, away from him. "You cannot deny me a child and threaten to take Lei Ann away, Velomina. Don't forget I'm the Master here and you don't have power!"

"I have the power to shove this knife in your throat!"

Lei, who had stayed by the door when she pretended to leave, knew things were just gonna get worse. Velomina was gonna get angrier and angrier, and she'll hate Lei and the baby even more. With Lei between them, they'll have no peace.

Lei Ann went to the kitchen to hug the oldest maid, her mentor. "Madam Selda, I can't stay here! I'm scared, I feel like the mistress is going insane! I'm scared for my child!"

"Hija..." the woman held her seven months old belly. "You cannot run away with the master's baby. He'll go after you until the ends of the earth."

"But I don't feel safe here..." she sobbed, "I want to live a normal life... I want to use the degree I studied for. I want to eat as if I needed to survive again. Madam Selda, I want to feel alive. Here, I feel like I'll die."

Maybe now she knows how Velomina has felt all these years; trapped in diamonds and cashmere, never to see the outside world. Maybe the love and happiness had faded; now it's all bitterness and regret.

Madam Selda whispers to her, "I will pack your stuff. Bring only yourself tomorrow night."

When she was about to descend the entrance stairs, a voice halted her. "Lei?"

She froze. The mistress, who decided to visit the rose garden one hour after midnight, caught Lei as she was about to take one step into freedom. There was no reason for her to be in the main stairway unless...

"You're... leaving?" Velomina says.

"M-mistress..."

"Since when have you stopped calling me by my name?" Velomina stepped closer, a tear escaping her eyes. "Do you just want to get away from me?"

Lei was about to cry. "Mina..."

"You planned to leave... leave me in this prison alone?" Velomina sobbed while slowly walking towards her. "After I told you, you were my happiness—you'll just leave me as if you were nothing to me? Was I just that, Lei? WAS I NOTHING TO YOU?!"

Lei wrapped her arms around her, "Mina, I love you. I love you so much, but I can't stay here. Please forgive me—"

"I forgave you for sleeping with my husband. Maybe our relationship wasn't established enough even when I said that you are MINE ALONE. I forgave you for that, Lei Ann! I love you so much I allowed you to carry the child of a man that kept me prisoner!" She yelled in pure heartbreak and pain. "I forgave you for looking at him with the same eyes you looked at me EVEN WHEN I WANTED TO HAVE YOU ALONE."

"Mina—!"

"I cannot forgive you for trying to leave me. If you cant stand me enough to leave, you might as well just KILL ME—"

"Mina please, I—!" Lei wanted to comfort her a as she had always done. Hug her, kiss her cheek and tell her everything's gonna be okay. But when she embraced Velomina, the woman felt so cold she rejected the warmth and pushed her away.

Down.

Velomina pushed her down.

.

.

down where she can't catch Lei no matter how far she reached out. Hand outstretched over Lei's shocked face as she fell down.

Down the stairs where her head hit it first before her feet did.

Her body rolled against its will, only stopping when she reached the bottom.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!" Lei looked down at her bloody legs, screaming at searing pain. Her screams were so loud, it woke up everyone in the mansion. Screams so loud, Jonah Deveroux heard it while his mother told him the story.

"Do you know what they told me?" She said to her son before she takes a drag off her cigarette. "That she died in the hospital along with the child."

A memory of Velomina breaking down the moment she was told of the news; Lei was no more.

She died of bloodloss.

There was nothing they could do.

Velomina cried, yelled until she had no voice, until she had no blood on her skin.

She weakly crawled to the vase of withered red roses where she begged them, "I'd... rather be a prisoner... Id rather be chained to the wall feeding of rats, alone—as long as she lived. Please... as long as she lived... my Lei Ann..."

"My first love..." she said in the present, "... my only love... killed by my hands. I felt like a monster. Maybe I was... Jade already thinks I am."

There was a lot more she wanted to say, but held her tongue. She must not look vulnerable in front of her son. Jonah spoke up, "But she's alive, isn't she?"

With her purple manicured hands, Velomina crushed one rose in her special vase. "She escaped... fooled me, made me suffer all those years thinking she's dead! And for what?! For her to deny me of the child I was promised—the child with her eyes!"

She slammed her hand against the table. "I want to kill him in front of her... I will bring her here and shoot that parasite while she watches!"

Jonah's eyes flashed. "Mother, you can't—"

"Why not?! He's already here, is he not? You boys think you can sneak a boy in my house and think I won't recognize who those eyes belong to?" She tilts her head at her blonde son.

"You have done a very good job hunting him for me. But not a very good job hiding him from me. He will not go home. Not until I've brought Lei Ann here to watch him die—"

"I WILL NOT LET YOU KILL HIM!" For the first time, Jonah Deveroux raised his voice against his mother.

No longer bending his knee to her plans of revenge, he yells at her, "I've become your slave, mother. I've testified in court about Father mistreating you when it has been you that raised your hand against him. I've done everything you told me, I'm going to become the Master against my will—but you're asking me for too much."

Jonah paced around the room. "I can't let you kill him! Killing him or his mother will not heal the heartbreak in your heart! Kill him, and you lose me. You'll lose me and Jade—and this entire estate once I denounce Father. You will lose everything."

Velomina stares at her son with unbridled rage. She expected this from Jade. But Jonah? Her perfect prince, a child that kissed her feet since birth—actively goes against her? He is willing to abandon his entire life if Lian Miller loses his? Where has Velomina seen this before?

"Are you..." she swallowed her anger, "... in love with him?"

Jonah wouldn't look at her. He would just look at the roses—so beautiful, it looked plastic and fake. But no, it was just Velomina's obsession with matching the beauty of her previous lover that selected only the best looking roses.

"Bring him to me," Velomina softly demanded.

"Mother, no—".

"brING HIM TO ME," she firmly demanded. "Bring him to me... and I may spare his life only for today. I want to see him."

Two decades of waiting for the door to open and him to walk inside. Finally... revenge.

"Teacher..." she called out from her chair overlooking the giant window.

She finally turned around, thinking she can look into his eyes and shoot him dead.

But upon meeting Lei Ann's eyes, her lips parted. The boy looked at her with the innocence of the girl who gets caught stealing food all the time. He looked scared, concerned, and confused. Everything she was when they met.

"Come... closer," she breathed out as if she ran out of air.

Nervously, he moved towards her desk. He was too shy to look into her eyes, so he turned her attention towards the roses.

She almost felt proud he admired them. "Do you like them?"

"Uhh... sorry, I was uhh... wondering if they were real." Lian awkwardly smiled, "They're beautiful."

"Of course, I shall only have the freshest blood red roses in my office at all times. I am impressed you have eyes peeled enough to notice the most beautiful object in the room." She gently reached out for one of the roses.

He was as beautiful as a flower, but not these roses.

He had his own beauty, but surprisingly, the same heart.

Velomina find it hard to get angry at such an innocent young man.

"I'd like to lie and say you're here to discuss about my son's school behavior..." She stood up, desperate to get nearer. "But you are here because I want to take a closer look."

She walked around the table, her legs getting weak with each step. She stopped in front of him, scanning his face closer and feeling her heart warm up at the soft doe eyes, looking up at her.

Such a scared deer, he stepped back. "L-look at what?"

"You are young," she observed, "What do you know of the world, silly boy?"

"I'm not a boy," Lian spoke up, amusing her. "Not anymore... I'm a man now."

"Indeed you are," she slowly reached towards him, making Lian close his eyes and flinch. Silly boy.

She only ran her delicate hands over Lian's exposed collarbone, feeling the silk of youth which was... wholesomely familiar to her. Her eyes softened. Her voice, not above a soft whisper but perfectly heard. She sounds careful, as if to avoid scaring the boy. But maybe he is already scared.

"You fear me?"

"I... uhm... forgive me, Madam."

She ran her hand down his arm, stopping by his hand.

She froze, staring at his limp hand.

Her breath seemed to slow down, her eyes stuck lingering on it, desperate to touch.

She is scared—what if she falls in love with his mother all over again, just by touching her son's hands? What if she remembers all the pain and goes insane right in this very room?

I will never know unless I try.

Then, ever so slowly, she picked up Lian's hands with her wrinkled ones. Memories of taking Lei Ann's hands—dancing with her, taking her away from reality, kissing and holding her body—everything came back, and Velomina's tears from decades before crawled up to her eyes.

She lifts Lian's hand closer to her face, feeling the warmth of the past.

"Your name." She lifted her eyes towards him, "What did you say your name was, Teacher?"

"L-Lian..."

"Lee-ann?" She whispers.

"Lian," he politely corrected.

"Hmm..." she says with a soft breath, "You... have her hands. And you even carry her name."

Lian looks up at her with wide eyes, taking his hand away. "Y-you're talking about my mother? Madam, I—"

"Mother?" Velomina exhaled humorously. "Indeed. You are her... son."

Those eyes, his hand... it's not her. She's not here. Velomina must stop deluding herself.

"Do not look at me with fear in your eyes, it is disrespectful. You are no prey to me, Lian Miller."

"Th-then why am I here?"

Velomina turned away from him and slowly walked towards the vase of roses, smiling at the beauty that represented them. "I simply wanted to look closer. Last time, you were hiding behind my sons. With Jade disrespectfully barking me away, I couldn't have a moment with you."

And now that I have... I couldn't ask for anything else.

Finally... I have the child promised to me. The child I wanted... one with her eyes.

"Tell me," she says while pulling out a rose, "What did your mother say about me?" Does she even remember me? Does she remember the promises?

Lian answered, "She said you were good friends. And that she ruined your marriage."

"Nothing else?" She didn't tell you about our love story?

"Is there anything else I should know?" Lian asked.

Silly boy. You don't know anything. She walks towards him with that single rose and grabbed his shoulder to show him how beautiful he is, just like his mother.

"The most beautiful roses will always have everyone desire to pluck it, and display it until it rots. Then it will be thrown away." Velomina puts her arm around his waist, as if protecting him from those savages. "Plastic doesn't rot. But it also doesn't shine, doesn't smell as sweet."

"Ow!"

Poor boy, pricked by the rose. "Yes, it pricks. It is the only defense it has against everyone wants to take it." She leaves his side and puts the rose on her table, "You know what would look good on you? A nice golden chain necklace..." The twins stole one of my diamond sets...

"What?" Lian was shocked at the sudden gift.

Velomina was opening one of the boxes with the same excitement she had in the past. Jewelry was useless to her, held no value for a woman who already had everything. But today, they have a purpose... to sit upon a beautiful neck like Lian's.

"I detest a bare neck. If there's one thing I'm proud about Jade, is that his neck is never bare..." she presents a velvet box to Lian and open it to reveal a dainty gold chain.

She forced Lian to face the mirror so she can put it on. She was careful, making sure nothing will scratch his skin. As she expected, it shined on him instead of looking dull in the box. She looked at him with a proud smile, using her cheekbones to push the tears back into her eyes.

My gorgeous boy, Her eyes seemed to glaze over his face.

"I've got a bracelet!" She softly exclaims as she went back to the boxes. She took his delicate hand, and ties a matching golden bracelet around it. As I expected... it looks... "Perfect. For such lovely hands..."

"Thank you. But I don't understand the gifts, madam?"

"Well... I..." she can't just say she wants to give presents to the child promised to her. After two decades of being away from him, I finally have him.

"I like pearls. Everything else is... disposable." She went to her table. "Consider them gifts for tutoring my son. I couldn't care less about what you do with them..."

With the possibility of him selling those jewelries, Velomina feels a bit of sadness thinking he won't accept them.

"I think they're beautiful," Lian smiles at her, bringing Velomina back to the past. "Thank you, madam. Maybe... I was wrong to fear you. A woman with power like you... could easily stomp on people like me. But... you nicer than what they led me to believe."

Power... no. I cannot let flowers bloom, I cannot keep them alive. "You may leave. Do your job with my sons."

I don't want him to leave. When he left, Velomina's heart became as empty as it was before he came in. She picked up the rose lying on her table, resting her forehead of the bloody red petals.

"If I were to have kids... I would want a boy. He'd have the darkest hair, the pinkest lips, and a nose I can slide a drop of water on... he'd be so handsome and kind that everyone he meets will instantly love him."—Lei Ann.