Married To The Mad Vampire Lord - Chapter 525

Chapter 525: The past_Part 3
“Let see, where should I start from?” Rohan hummed, looking thoughtful.

“Start from how we first met,” Belle said, to which Rohan smiled.

“Our first meeting was… complicated, and might be better left untold for now,” Rohan said.

Belle frowned. “Why?” she asked.

Rohan smiled, a soft, almost teasing curve at the corner of his lips. “Because you weren’t even in a human form,” he told her, and he watched her frown deepen before he continued, his voice gentling as if coaxing her through a forgotten dream. “We became friends then, and I felt a special connection to you that I couldn’t explain. Your presence gave me peace without me even realizing it.”

His eyes warmed at the memory.

“Our second meeting was when you were no more than eight or nine years old. You wore a pretty pink dress with your hair tied up in a ribbon. Your hair…” His fingers drifted into her hair now, threading through it slowly as he caught a strand between his fingers. “It used to be so curly when you were small. You were the first little girl who didn’t try to run away from me at first sight. You showed me kindness and concern when no one else dared to come close…”

Rohan saw her eyes soften, as if she were trying to picture the words he spoke and the scene. He left out the part of him being rough for now, but didn’t hide the fact that, “I hurt you. This scar on your brow? It was because of me. But you still forgave me when you realized it was caused by me.”

Belle subconsciously lifted her hand to the small scar on her brow, right where his fingers were rubbing now. She had noticed the scar but never cared much about it; most times her side part covered it, and even when it didn’t, it never bothered her. What she didn’t realize until this moment was that the scar had been caused by Rohan in the past.

“It’s nothing,” she whispered when she saw the slight look of remorse in his expression. “Tell me more…” Her voice softened, her palm drifting to rest on his strong, vein-lined bicep, feeling it flex under her touch as his hand moved from her brow back into her hair.

“Back then,” he murmured, his voice deepening with memory, “you were the first good thing that ever happened in my life… and you still are.” His fingers combed slowly through the long strands of her hair until his palm cupped her warm cheek, his thumb brushing tenderly along the corner of her eye, as if memorizing the softness of her.

“How did we get married?” Belle asked, realizing that even though she didn’t remember, the pictures were forming in her mind, filling the empty space like missing puzzle pieces.

“Our marriage was arranged without our consent to sign a peace treaty between Nightbrook and Aragonia,” he told her, watching as understanding settled on her face as if she had already suspected their marriage was arranged.

“The vampire land and the human land,” Belle stated, already having read about it in the books she found. “It makes sense now,” she said. “Was I happy to marry you?”

Rohan chuckled softly as he shook his head. “Not at all. You looked terrified to even walk down the hall. The moment you stepped into the hall, the only sound I could hear was your heartbeat. I could smell your fear and terror. You were like a little bunny forced out of its hole to stand before a prey.”

Belle flushed at his description of her on their wedding day. And here she had almost thought he had courted her before their wedding, and that she must have been the happiest bride in the world. Who would have thought she had been the most terrified bride?

“What about you? Were you happy on the day?” she asked.

Rohan smirked. “I will be honest with you, love. Before I knew it was you I was going to marry, I was already plotting a burial for my wife with a hundred ways to kill her that would make it look like an accident. I didn’t want to marry and didn’t like being forced into doing what I didn’t want.”

Belle’s eyes widened at his words. “Then what made you change your mind about killing me?” she asked, staring at her insane husband who was grinning and stroking her face.

“Because I saw your eyes. You tripped over your dress and almost fell, and I reflexively caught you. Your bridal veil moved to show me your eyes, eyes I would never forget and would recognize wherever I saw them again. The eyes of the kind little girl who was brave enough to speak to me and show concern. It was then I knew immediately that no power on earth would take you from me. My plans to kill my wife flew out the window, and new plans to keep her and make her mine began to form, only my little bunny had another man in mind, Johnson, that bastard.” His eyes darkened at the mention of the man she had loved before him, and Belle blinked in curiosity.

Who was Johnson? Belle wondered, looking at her husband for an explanation. When he didn’t elaborate, clearly gritting his teeth as it was obvious the mention of Johnson had ruined his mood, she touched a hand to his ear, bringing his attention back to the story.

“Did I like someone else before you?”

“You thought you loved him, but Jackson was a selfish son of a bitch who almost got you in trouble,” Rohan said absentmindedly, cursing Marchant in his mind and hoping he had burned down in the asylum when Aragonia caught fire.

Belle frowned. “There were two men before you?” she asked, surprised as he had mentioned two names just now.

Rohan realized his mistake and his habit of not bothering to get Marchant’s name correct, as he hated the man with everything inside him. He corrected himself to reassure his wife. “No, just one. Jacob. Let’s not talk about him and fast-forward to after our marriage, okay?”

Belle, who had now realized he had mentioned three different names, grew even more confused about who exactly this past lover might have been. But she also didn’t want to remember any past lover at all, so she nodded quickly, relieved they would skip that part. “Yes… then what brought us here, since we were already married and living in Nightbrook?” she asked.

Rohan went on to explain to her how their marriage, which was supposed to be for peace, was not actually arranged for that reason. He told her how her family had forced her to come in place of her sister, instructing her to spy on the vampires. He also explained how the vampire king had been using him, controlling him with the threat of returning him to the asylum.

“The asylum? Why would he threaten you with that?” she asked, blinking at him, her curiosity mingled with disbelief.

“Well,” Rohan replied, “because they all believed I was a madman.”

“Why?” she asked again, leaning slightly forward, needing to understand this husband of hers better and to learn more of everything to fill the lost pieces in her memories.

Rohan became carried away, recounting everything that had once landed him in the asylum in the first place, and how, after the yearly hunting game in Nightbrook, they had been forced to flee to another kingdom. He didn’t even leave out the part of her having once been a reaper anymore; he found himself telling her everything as she began asking questions upon questions, her curiosity sparking each detail.

He even told her how Ereves had been largely responsible for many of their problems.

“Your father?” Belle’s eyes widened, as until now she had thought him a kind and honorable man, because he was the first person she met when she woke up.

“He’s not my father. I don’t consider him that, or anything,” Rohan said, his expression hardening. Belle immediately understood that the rift between him and Ereves was not something small that could easily be mended, and that it was better left alone for now.

“Don’t welcome him into our home again. He’s a manipulator and a liar,” Rohan said quietly, his voice firm but low, as if warning her not to let Ereves back into their lives after everything the bastard had caused them. “He has done many unforgivable things that I can never forgive, or forget, in this lifetime. He is no different from my mother.”