Chapter 143 - 142: A New Cover Story

The winter in Seraphine Kingdom had turned harsher since the shocking news of the grand duke’s wedding was circulated almost a full month ago. The rumours and the gossip hadn’t subsided yet. With no public appearance the new couple had worked as a salt on it.

Pat Pattison, the renowned author of Seraphine Story Times, had made sure to publish the news related to the two newly wedded couple on the front page. Adding fuel to this story and the conspiracy theories related to them. However, the winter season had turned harsher and would soon lose its coldness in the coming month. The story was also losing its relevance.

Thus, now he was in search of some new exciting news. He was on the streets of the capital with his usual pen and a small pocketbook. He adjusted his newsboy hat a few times, when he saw some known people pass by. Flashing away a smile, he escaped them all.

While he walked through the crowded streets, unknowingly he entered the slum alley that a person of his stature would usually avoid. But now that he was in, he took it as his luck and walked straight into the dark alleys.

He had hardly drugged any far, when he heard a woman yell at an old beggar.

"Do you have any idea who I am?" She asked, as she tried to snatch a loaf of bread from that poor, sick looking man.

"Miss, please that’s my loaf. If you want one you should work hard on begging too." He said in the gentlest tone. The kind that would be hard to hear even from a noble.

"Oh, shut up! I am the only daughter of the Mallory household. How dare you expect me to beg there on the streets?" Verbena had been stealing loafs from old beggars in the exact way she was attempting to steal right now.

Pat immediately came out of his hiding on hearing those words. It was not difficult to recognise Verbena even with her burned face. The brunette hair with a hint of orange in it. Brown common eyes, that looks like a jewel, when seen from up close and that filthy, rowdy tone of hers. Everything about her was screaming that she truly was Verbena Mallory.

He remembered covering the news of her disappearance and investigating the case further with the capital police force and finding utterly nothing about her. Even her parents, who had her missing report printed on the Seraphine Story times, on a full page. Reduced it to smaller once and then eventually forgetting her completely as they started looking for a male child to adopt.

Verbena, just like any other missing people, vanished from the pages of the newspaper forever. Her family seems to have been waiting for the moment when their troublesome daughter disappears. It would be fun and amazing to know the story of the missing person, losing their beauty and being demoted from being a noble to a beggar.

Pat Pattison felt thrilled even imagining the words he would use to frame those remorseful lines, as he walked to her.

He pulled the bread from her hand and returned it to the beggar.

"Hey!" Verbena snapped at him. "What the hell do you think you are doing, huh?!"

Pat reacted quickly and bowed for Verbena. "Greetings, Lady Verbena." He smiles.

After her face was ruined and her family rejected her, Pat was the first person to believe her rubbish. She had been going around telling everyone that she is in fact a noble but with the condition she was in, no one believed in her at all.

"My Lady, if you are hungry. I can treat you to food. If—" He pauses, and Verbena anxiously waits for what he has to say next. For her mouth had already filled up with savoury juice that could melt any substance in any second.

"—If you let me cover your story on how you ended up like this." Verbena gave a puzzled look.

"Ahh— Looks like I forgot to introduce myself. I am Pat Pattison, a renowned reporter of Seraphine Story Times." He holds out his hand and Verbena immediately holds it.

"Pleasure to meet you sir. I have quite a lot to say about the new, flash married couple." She says, succeeding in increasing Pat’s interest in her.

As promised Pat helps to eat enough to make up for the months’ worth of good food she had missed. He even helped her with dresses and a house to live in. For her information and her story was too priceless and if she had asked his entire fortune in return he would have given that up too.

His new story was going to help him earn every cent he would have spent on her if he knew it.

____

A suspicious invitation arrived at the Sinclair Mansion. Stella knew that it didn’t mean anything good, but this was the first event in months, and she cannot decline it.

"Adena Velrose’s birthday party." Hael reads, as he pulls the invitation from her hand.

"She has turned eighteen." Stella reveals as she gets out of her chair.

"She is a year younger than you." Hael marks.

"Yes, and Eleanore. Did you know we are both the same age?" Hael gives her a look saying, ’not again’. He was tired of reminding her that he does not want to hear her name. Somehow, she always forgets or pretends to forget.

"Honey." Hael tosses the invitation away on the table and pulls Stella close to him. "Are you going there tomorrow?" He asks.

"Yes, I must appear there." She smiles as he softly slides his palm down her face. She grabs his hand and tries to remind him of Eleanore again and Hael saw it coming. "Even Eleanore would be—"

Her words were swallowed by him, when their lips met and he played with her tongue as it deepened. Stella’s efforts of keeping Eleanore alive in their conversation was falling apart day by day.