1 They Found Her

"Cassey, I don't think you will be able to manage. Why don't you take leave today too?" Cassey shook her head in resignation as she smiled wryly at the older woman who seemed to care a lot.

"I need that money for Penny, Jane. If I do not work today, we will have trouble ending the week." Jane shook her head in worry and pity for the sick woman but Cassey gave her a small smile as she picked up the laces and went to work again.

It had been less than two hours and Cassey knew that it had been a mistake to come for work. But if she had not, she would have lost the job and she would have earned nothing for a week.

She had been sick for a week, leaving her without any income and she did not have enough savings to continue this further.

Though her hands were still shaking, she had managed to hold the needle tightly because ruining the dress would mean slavery since she did not have money to pay for it.

But no sooner did she try to concentrate on the design she needed to embroider, her eyes started to shiver again. She works in the busiest and most popular boutique in the capital of the Nyfire empire, where work never ends. she could feel her head spinning and her legs staggering further.

She was muddling up the stones, messing up designs and her hands were full of small wounds from the needles.. She knew that her boss, who already felt that her personal circumstances were incompatible with her working environment—was just itching to fire her. Now she was basically handing her an excuse to get rid of her.

But she still hoped that somehow Mary would not see those mistakes because of the customers that were getting in and out all this time.

Just as Jane came to her rescue and helped her by guiding where she needed to place those pearls, her boss called her.

"Cassandra! I want you here now." The crude and cold voice made her sick to her stomach.

Jane gave her a worried glance but she shook her head assuring the old woman that she could handle it. But it took all her strength to take each step.. She was dragging her haggard body and knocked on the door of the office before entering.

"Good afternoon, lady Mary. Do you need anything?" she asked, hoping that was the case and she had only called her because she needed something.

But she heard a cold and loud voice of some cursing before the owner of the shop could even utter a word.

"So it is really you!" Cassey forced her eyes to pay attention to the man and gasped and covered her mouth with her shaking hands to muffle the shriek that was about to leave her lips.

Her vision was blurred with the tears leaving her eyes but she was sure that she was not mistaking the man. It was him…

The first thing that came to her mind was to run away and her body instantly reacted to that thought and she turned towards the door but her shaking body and weak stature was nothing in front of a trained knight who blocked the way instantly giving her no chance to hide.

"So this was where you have been hiding all this time?" The voice was full of contempt and viciousness that it looked foreign to her and she could not understand it.

"Why in the world would I hide? I am just living my life peacefully." she retorted as confusion was replaced by anger, hatred, anguish and fear towards the man she had thought was her brother at a moment. In the end, she sighed as she rubbed her forehead to get rid of the dizziness, "Dami.. why are you here?"

"Don't call me that." he growled in warning and she flinched, "after killing the whole empire and putting the world in danger, you were enjoying your peace. Just how cruel and brutal are you..?"

"What in the world are you talking about?" she asked confused as she felt her head felt like it was hammered. She could not get rid of that buzzing feeling and his loud and carcass voice only made it worse.

"Ha! Now you are acting like an innocent bitch who did not know what she had done. Don't tell me you want to tell me that you are the victim here and only suffered injustice." he sneered, making her frown.

"For christ sake, speak slowly. I am sick and I can not understand what you are talking about." she implored but he only scoffed at her.

"Of course, why would you be fine now that you are caught! Now that you know that you have to pay the price, you would act like a miserable damsel like always. But we are not fools like before who fall in your trap." The harsh tone was totally unfamiliar to her.

Even in her dreams, she remembered Damien as the kind and gentle knight who had helped her when she was new to the palace and made sure that she had never felt alone in the large place.

She had never imagined him to glare at her or worse call her names. What happened to the man whom she knew. Even his cold looked completely different. If not for the fact he was talking to her as if he knew her, she would have taken him as a different man.

She shook her head but the sound got worse and louder until it was as deafening as a chainsaw. She groaned weakly and lifted her hands to her ears. That didn't help, and she sobbed as her field of vision got narrower and narrower, until she could not see them at all, until there was only blackness.

"What in the world…"